AN ULTRASONIC METHOD AND DEVICE FOR INDIRECTLY MEASURING CAVITY PRESSURE OF INJECTION MOLDING MACHINE

Abstract

The present invention discloses a ultrasonic method for indirectly measuring a pressure of a cavity of an injection molding machine, comprising: emitting ultrasonic wave to each pull rod along an axial direction of the pull rod respectively at the same time, detecting an ultrasonic wave echo time difference of each pull rod, and obtaining an average pressure inside a cavity of the injection molding machine. By the detection method and detection device of the present invention, the pressure inside the cavity may be detected in a certain state, the pressure inside the cavity in the injection molding process may be detected in real time, and the detection process is simple and the accuracy is high.

Claims

1. A ultrasonic method for indirectly measuring a pressure of a cavity of an injection molding machine, comprising: emitting ultrasonic wave to each pull rod along an axial direction of the pull rod respectively at the same time, detecting a time difference between an ultrasonic wave echo on each pull rod in an injection molding process and an ultrasonic wave echo when the pull rod is free, and obtaining an average pressure P inside the cavity of the injection molding machine according to the following formula:
P=πR.sup.2.Math.W.Math.Δt.sub.total/A wherein R is the section radius of the pull rod; Δt.sub.total is the sum of echo time differences of all the pull rods; W is a constant related to the material of the pull rod; and A is the projection area of the cavity on a plane perpendicular to the axial direction of the pull rod; wherein there are four pull rods; wherein an ultrasonic probe is arranged at the tail end of each pull rod; wherein the W may be acquired by the following method: before detection, for the pull rod with the same material, conducting detection by a mold locking force sensor under different mold locking forces to acquire multiple groups of σ-Δtdata, and fitting a straight line passing through the origin of σ-Δtdata, and evaluating the slope of the straight line to acquire the W, where the σ is a stress on the pull rod as a y-coordinate and the Δt is a time difference of ultrasonic wave echoes, as an x-coordinate.

2. The ultrasonic method for indirectly measuring a pressure of a cavity of an injection molding machine according to claim 1, wherein the ultrasonic wave is emitted to each pull rod continuously in the injection molding process, and the average pressure in the cavity of the injection molding machine in the injection molding process is displayed in real time.

3-5. (canceled)

6. The ultrasonic method for indirectly measuring a pressure of a cavity of an injection molding machine according to claim 1, wherein a curve of time and average pressure inside the cavity of the injection molding machine is output in real time.

7. The ultrasonic method for indirectly measuring a pressure of a cavity of an injection molding machine according to claim 1, wherein a recording frequency of an ultrasonic wave echo signal is higher than or equal to 20 Hz.

8. A device for indirectly measuring a pressure of a cavity of an injection molding machine ultrasonically, comprising: an ultrasonic probe mounted at one end of the pull rod, the ultrasonic probe being axially mounted for the pull rod; an ultrasonic acquisition unit for controlling ultrasonic signals and receiving ultrasonic echoes; and a calculation and output unit for processing the acquired ultrasonic echo signals and outputting an average pressure of the cavity of the injection molding machine, the calculation and output unit detecting a time difference between an ultrasonic wave echo on each pull rod in the injection molding process and an ultrasonic wave echo when the pull rod is free, obtaining the average pressure P in the cavity of the injection molding machine by the following formula:
P=πR.sup.2.Math.W.Math.Δt.sub.total/A wherein R is the section radius of the pull rod; Δt.sub.total is the sum of echo time differences of all the pull rods; W is a constant related to the material of the pull rod; and A is the projection area of the cavity on a plane perpendicular to the axial direction of the pull rod; wherein there are four pull rods; wherein an ultrasonic probe is arranged at the tail end of each pull rod; wherein the W may be acquired by the following method: before detection, for the pull rod with the same material, conducting detection by a mold locking force sensor under different mold locking forces to acquire multiple groups of σ-Δt data, and fitting a straight line passing through the origin of σ-Δt data, and evaluating the slope of the straight line to acquire the W, where the σ is a stress on the pull rod as a y-coordinate and the Δt is a time difference of ultrasonic wave echoes, as an x-coordinate.

9. The device for indirectly measuring a pressure of a cavity of an injection molding machine ultrasonically according to claim 8, wherein there are four pull rods; the ultrasonic acquisition unit has four ultrasonic acquisition channels; and the calculation and output unit is a computer.

10. The device for indirectly measuring a pressure of a cavity of an injection molding machine ultrasonically according to claim 8, wherein the ultrasonic acquisition unit is an ultrasonic acquisition card; and the computer is connected to a display for displaying the internal average pressure result of the cavity of the injection molding machine in real time.

11-13. (canceled)

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

[0028] FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a measuring device;

[0029] FIG. 2a and FIG. 2b are respectively a pressure curve of a melt at a measuring point in a cavity in a certain injection molding process and a pull rod force change curve measured by an ultrasonic probe on a certain pull rod;

[0030] FIG. 3 is a structural schematic diagram of a cavity in a mold used in a specific embodiment; and

[0031] FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram of different curve shapes corresponding to different V/P switching points in the injection process.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS

[0032] The measuring method according to the present invention may be applied to detection on a cavity pressure of an injection molding machine for producing plastic products. The injection molding machine mainly includes an injection unit and a mold unit, wherein the injection unit is mainly an injection charging barrel 7, and a polymer is melted and plasticized by a screw rod in the injection charging barrel and is injected into a cavity 5 in a mold. The mold unit includes a fixed mold plate 6, a movable mold plate 3, a mold 4 and other key parts. Before injection starts, the injection molding machine provides a certain power to push the movable mold plate to close front and rear parts of the mold, the cavity is formed between the movable mold plate and the fixed mold plate, and then the injection process of the molten polymer is conducted.

[0033] In the injection process, since the movable mold plate of the injection molding machine is subjected to a thrust, which means that another part, namely a rear mold plate 8, of the injection molding machine will be subjected to an opposite reaction thrust which finally acts on a pull rod 2 of the injection molding machine (the rear mold plate 8 is fixed to one end of the pull rod and is placed on a guide rail of a machine frame; and the other end of the pull rod and the fixed mold plate 6 are mutually fixed and the fixed mold plate 6 is fixed to the machine frame simultaneously).

[0034] To measure the force change of the pull rod in the measuring molding process, the device is provided with an ultrasonic probe 1 at the tail end of the pull rod and ensures that the ultrasonic probe 1 is arranged over against an axial direction of the pull rod and can emit ultrasonic wave along the axial direction of the pull rod. Generally, one injection molding machine has four pull rods which are distributed at four symmetrical corners of the machine. For the accuracy of measurement, preferably, four ultrasonic probes are mounted at the tail ends, away from the fixed mold plate, of the four pull rods respectively during specific measurement.

[0035] The specific installation and coupling mode of the ultrasonic probe may adopt a common ultrasonic coupling agent, such as glycerinum and the like, which serves as a coupling medium and is smeared between a surface of the probe and a measured object. Moreover, the ultrasonic probe is fixed and pressed by a certain mechanical method. In addition, the probe may be directly stuck on the surface of the measured object with glue which may realize fixation and may also serve as a coupling agent.

[0036] The other side of the ultrasonic probe is connected to a multi-channel ultrasonic acquisition equipment (namely an ultrasonic acquisition unit). The equipment should have multi-channel adjusting, controlling, displaying and continuously recording functions on the ultrasonic signals and can continuously acquire the ultrasonic signals in a certain period of time. Preferably, the continuous acquisition frequency should be higher than 20 Hz. Preferably, the equipment should have four ultrasonic acquisition channels so as to meet real-time and synchronous signal acquisition at the positions of the four pull rods. The ultrasonic acquisition equipment may select the existing four-channel ultrasonic acquisition card.

[0037] The principle of the measuring method is that through analysis on the ultrasonic wave echo (or ultrasonic echo) echoes received at different time have different time shift, and the force situation of the material may be calculated according to the acoustic elasticity theory of the material and according to the displacement of the echo (or the time difference to receive ultrasonic wave echos).

[0038] When t=0s, the ultrasonic wave emitted from the ultrasonic probe is propagated in the pull rod of the injection molding machine along the axial direction and at a certain speed and is reflected at the other end of the pull rod, and finally the ultrasonic wave echo is received by the same probe at t=t.sub.1. When the pull rod is subjected to the mold locking force of the injection molding machine, the pull rod extends due to the force. Based on the acoustic elasticity theory, the propagation speed C.sub.σ of the ultrasonic wave in a connecting rod changes, as shown in the formula 1. In this case, the echo is received by the probe at t=t.sub.σ, meeting:

[00001]${\rho }_0.Math.C_{\sigma }^2=\lambda +2\mu +\frac{\sigma }{3\lambda +2\mu }\left[2l+\lambda +\frac{\left(\lambda +\mu \right)\left(4m+4\lambda +10\mu \right)}{\mu }\right];$

[0039] obtaining after conversion:

[00002]$\begin{array}{cc}{C}_{\sigma }=\sqrt{\frac{\lambda +2\mu +\frac{\sigma }{3\lambda +2\mu }\left[2l+\lambda +\frac{\left(\lambda +\mu \right)\left(4m+4\lambda +10\mu \right)}{\mu }\right]}{{\rho }_0}}& \left(1\right)\end{array}$

[0040] wherein p.sub.0, σ and C.sub.σ are respectively the density of the pull rod, the stress of the pull rod and the propagation speed of the ultrasonic wave under the stress. 1, m and n are Murnaghan constants, and λ and μ are Lame constants of the material. Obviously, assuming σ=0, the formula (1) is changed into:

ρ.sub.0.Math.C.sub.0.sup.2=λ+2μ;

[0041] obtaining after conversion:

[00003]$\begin{array}{cc}{C}_0=\sqrt{\frac{\lambda +2\mu }{{\rho }_0}}& \left(2\right)\end{array}$

[0042] Therefore, the initial speed of the ultrasonic wave may be obtained through an equation (2). It may be known by substituting the constant and calculating

[00004]$\frac{d{C}_{\sigma }}{d\sigma }$

that σ is within an experimental range (that is, a range of the stress applied to the pull rod during the experiment), the numerical value of

[00005]$\frac{d{C}_{\sigma }}{d\sigma }$

is approximately unchanged, and the formula (1) may be simplified into a linear function

[00006]$\begin{array}{cc}{C}_{\sigma }=\frac{1}{\sqrt{{\rho }_0}}\left(C_0-\frac{d{C}_{\sigma }}{d\sigma }{.Math.}_{\sigma =0}.Math.\sigma \right)& \left(3\right)\end{array}$

[0043] wherein

[00007]$\frac{d{C}_{\sigma }}{d\sigma }{.Math.}_{\sigma =0}=\frac{2l+\lambda +\left(\lambda +\mu \right)\left(4m+4\lambda +10\mu \right)/\mu }{2\left(3\lambda +2\mu \right)\sqrt{\lambda +2\mu }},$

further, through combination of the formula (2) and the formula (3), there is:

(C.sub.0−C.sub.σ)/C.sub.0=K.Math.σ  (4)

[0044] wherein

[0045] K=[2lμ+λμ+(λ+μ)(4m+4λ+10μ)]/[2μ(3λ+2μ)(λ+2μ)] Is an acoustic elastic coefficient of the material and is an intrinsic material parameter, representing the acoustic elasticity of the pull rod.

[0046] On the other hand, C.sub.0 and C.sub.σ in the formula (4) have the following relationship:

C.sub.0=2l.sub.0/t.sub.0  (5)

C.sub.σ=2l.sub.0(1+σ/E)/t.sub.σ  (6)

[0047] wherein t.sub.0 is the propagation time of the ultrasonic wave when the pull rod is not subjected to a stress. Similar to t.sub.0, t.sub.σ represents the propagation time then the pull rod is under a stress. E is the elasticity modulus of the pull rod. When there is no pressure, the natural length of the pull rod is I.sub.0, the relative time change (t.sub.σ−t.sub.0)/t.sub.0 is set, and the following formula may be obtained through the formulas (4)-(6):

[00008]$\begin{array}{cc}\left(t_{\sigma }-t_0\right)/t_0=\frac{\sigma /E+K\sigma }{1-K\sigma }& \left(7\right)\end{array}$

[0048] Since K.sub.σ<<1, the formula may be simplified as:

[00009]$\begin{array}{cc}\sigma =\frac{1}{K_1.Math.t_n}.Math.\left(t_{\sigma }-t_0\right)& \left(8\right)\end{array}$

[0049] Wherein

[00010]$K_1=\left(\frac{1}{E}+K\right)$

is the attribute constant of the material.

[0050] The stress on the pull rod may be calculated through the formula (8), but the coefficient K is very complex and the five material constants l, m, n, λ and μ are difficult to obtain. Therefore, preferably, we try to avoid direct calculation of the coefficient K and define:

[00011]$\begin{array}{cc}ks=\frac{1}{t_0\left(\frac{1}{E}+K\right)}& \left(9\right)\end{array}$

[0051] The formula (9) may be simplified as:

σ=ks.Math.Δt  (10)

[0052] Then, with the help of a mold locking force tester, the coefficient ks (namely constant W=ks) may be obtained according to data measured under different mold locking forces. If Δt between the stress σ on the pull rod and the ultrasonic wave echo is measured by the mold locking force sensor under a series of mold locking forces, a scatter diagram is drawn by the data to fit a zero cross point straight line, and the slope of the straight line is the coefficient ks. After the ks is obtained, a mold locking force and cavity pressure curve may be measured by an ultrasonic method.

[0053] After the force on the pull rod is obtained, it is necessary to convert the force on the pull rod into a pressure in the mold cavity through a certain physical model. As shown in FIG. 1, firstly, before the injection stage starts, the injection molding machine provides a mold locking force to the mold. The mold locking force is applied to the pull rods of the injection molding machine and the injection molding mold, so strain is generated on the pull rods. Δt the beginning of the injection stage, a plastic melt will apply a force F to a cavity of the mold at a certain moment. When the F increases, the force F will gradually counteract the initial mold locking force, and then will increase along with the mold locking force on the pull rod and reach to a peak value. Δt this time, on one hand, the formula (12) may be obtained by calculating the force F.sub.rod on the pull rod:

F.sub.rod=πR.sup.2.Math.σ.sub.total  (11)

[0054] and according to the formula (10),

σ.sub.total=ks.Math.Δt.sub.total  (12)

[0055] Wherein σ.sub.total is a total strain of the four pull rods and is measured and calculated jointly by four ultrasonic probes mounted at the tail ends of the pull rods, and R is a section radius of the pull rod; Δt.sub.total is the sum of time differences between the ultrasonic wave echo when all the pull rods and the ultrasonic echo when the pull rods are free, that is, the sum of the time differences of the echoes on the four pull rods for one group of ultrasonic waves which are emitted simultaneously at a certain time; and ks is a coefficient obtained in the previous step. On the other hand, an average pressure inside the mold cavity is represented by P. Due to a relationship between an acting force and a counter-acting force, F.sub.rod is equal to the acting force F.sub.cavity on the mold by the melt in the cavity, and a calculation formula of the average pressure P inside the cavity is shown in the formula (13):

P=F.sub.cavity/A  (13)

[0056] wherein A is the projection area of the cavity on a plane perpendicular to the axial direction of the pull rod.

[0057] During actual detection, the four ultrasonic probes are mounted at the tail ends of the four pull rods of the injection molding machine respectively. According to the mounting method, the ultrasonic probes may be pressed at the tail ends of the pull rods of the injection molding machine through adhesion with glue or a coupling agent for ultrasonic detection and by virtue of a certain external force (such as a magnetometer base). One end of a signal line is connected to the ultrasonic probe and the other end of the signal line is connected to the ultrasonic acquisition card. A power supply is turned on and the displayed waveform is adjusted until the echo signal can be observed and continuously recorded.

[0058] A mold is mounted on the injection molding machine, an injection molding raw material which is dried in advance is added into an injection molding hopper, a plasticizing temperature of an injection molding screw rod is set, a motor of the injection molding machine is turned on after the temperature reaches to a set value, proper parameters of processes such as injection pressure-retaining cooling and the like are set, and the injection molding process is prepared to start after injection molding circulation for several times and after the system is stabilized. An acquisition and recording command of the ultrasonic wave is started firstly, then mold closing of the injection molding machine, injection, pressure retaining, cooling, storage, mold opening and ejection are conducted, ultrasonic wave acquisition is stopped, the recorded echo signals within a period of time are stored locally for the convenience of further analysis and processing subsequently, and the next production and measurement circulation is conducted. Finally, the acquired echo signal data is processed to obtain a time difference (or an ultrasonic time shift Δt) between each ultrasonic echo and a reference echo (the first echo), the force on the corresponding pull rod at each time measuring point is calculated by combining with the acoustic elasticity theory, and further integration and calculation are conducted to finally obtain an average pressure-time curve of the melt in the mold cavity.

[0059] In the whole process, process parameters, such as injection pressure, pressure-retaining pressure, mold locking force and the like, in the production process may be adjusted. This will affect the performance quality of the final product and will also be reflected in the process pressure curve obtained through ultrasonic measurement.

Specific Example

[0060] In this example, a direct glue feeding method is adopted, and a mold core with a cavity structure being a 1 mm-thick sheet is mounted.

[0061] To intuitively reflect the rationality of the measuring method, FIG. 2a shows a pressure curve of a melt at a measuring point in a cavity in a certain injection molding process detected by an existing sensor, and FIG. 2b shows a pull rod force change curve measured by an ultrasonic probe on a certain pull rod according to the present invention. It can be seen that the force change on the pull rod coincides with the mold cavity pressure change measured by the mold cavity pressure sensor well, which also indicates that the method for measuring the force of the pull rod ultrasonically may be used for measuring the pressure change of the mold cavity in the injection process.

[0062] A sampling frequency of the ultrasonic acquisition card in the experiment is 100 MHz, the minimum time interval Δt is 10 ns, that is, a time resolution is 10 ns, the resolution is about 1.25 MPa when being converted to the force on the pull rod. When the force on the pull rod is small, a jagged contour will occur in the curve, and the measurement precision may be improved by increasing the sampling frequency of the equipment. Preferably, it is suggested that the sampling frequency of the equipment should not be less than 500 MHz.

[0063] Obviously, if the force on the pull rod is converted into the force in the mold cavity, F.sub.cavity and F.sub.rod should be the same. To verify the accuracy of the measuring method and the theoretical model, a sheet-like cavity model with a length of 200 mm, a width of 30 mm and a thickness of 1 mm is selected as an experiment mold for verifying the model. The mounting position of the mold cavity pressure sensor used in the experiment and the shape of the mold cavity are shown in FIG. 3.

[0064] According to the knowledge of fluid mechanics, the average pressure inside the mold cavity may be simplified as:

[00012]$P=\frac{P_1-P_2}{70}*40+P_2$

[0065] two group of data under different injection molding parameters are selected to verify the model. The two groups of data are acquired respectively through the injection molding processes of different materials LDPE and PP. The calculation result is shown in table 1.

TABLE-US-00001 TABLE 1 Mold cavity pressure sensor Pull rod end ultrasonic sensor Cavity Cavity Force on Ultrasonic Pull pressure pressure Average mold time shift rod Force on P1 P2 pressure cavity Δt force pull rod Material (bar) (bar) (bar) (N) (10 ns) (MPa) (N) LDPE 549.52 274.13 431.49 246779.77 32.00 60.00 108.56 257782.51 PP 558.81 276.92 438.00 250502.54 28.00 64.00 108.17 256866.58

[0066] The experiment result in Table 1 shows that the relative error of the measured force on the mold cavity and the measured force on the pull rod is less than 5%. Therefore, through comparison between the numerical values of the mold cavity pressure and the force on the pull rod in the two groups of data of the measurement results of the LDPE and the PP, it is proved that the average pressure in the mold cavity may be measured by measuring the force of the pull rod.

[0067] Further, the proposed method may present the change of the mold cavity pressure in the injection molding process under a proper mold locking force, so that on-line measurement of the injection molding process is implemented; the performance of the injection product can be predicted at a certain degree with similar methods used by the mold cavity pressure sensor; meanwhile, the cost of the method is relatively low. FIG. 4 shows different curve shapes corresponding to different V/P switching points (pressure-retaining switching points) in the injection process.

[0068] Obviously, the curve change caused by the V/P switching time may be applied into detection of too early V/P switching in the on-line process. In the same way, the method may also be applied to on-line detection and diagnosis of various parameters, such as pressure-retaining time, pressure-retaining pressure, injection speed and the like which affects the quality of the final product.