METHOD AND MOLD FOR PRODUCING SEALING PLATES BY INJECTION MOLDING AND SEALING PLATES PRODUCED ACCORDINGLY

Abstract

To produce sealing plates (1) consisting of a plurality of sealing rings (3) connected by radial webs (2) by injection molding, wall-type guide elements (5) are arranged obliquely to the direction of flow in the mold channel (6) which is therefore initially largely constricted in the region of weld lines (15) formed by the convergence of the fronts of the divided plastic melt streams, said guide elements being moved out of the mold channel (6) during the further filling of same so that the strength is significantly improved in the region of the weld lines (15).

Claims

1-4. (canceled)

5. The mold for production of sealing plates which consist of a plurality of sealing rings connected by radial webs, made of fiber-reinforced plastic by injection molding, wherein the wall-type guide elements are arranged obliquely to the direction of flow of the melt streams in the mold channel, which is thereby largely constricted in the region of weld lines formed by the convergence of the fronts of the divided plastic melt streams, these guide elements being movable between an initial position, in which 1-10%, preferably 4-6%, especially 5% of the mold channel is cleared on both sides and on the bottom 0-20%, preferably 5-15%, especially 10% of the mold channel is cleared at the bottom, and a retraction position in which the end face of the guide element facing the bottom of the mold channel forms a seal with the surrounding mold channel wall or is elevated slightly above it, preferably amounting to 1-10% of the thickness of the sealing plate.

6. The mold according to claim 5, wherein the injection ports are arranged in the region of the center of the mold, preferably separately for the mold channel of each radial web, and the wall-type guide elements are arranged exclusively in the mold channels of the sealing rings.

7. The mold according to claim 6, wherein the wall-type guide elements are designed in one piece.

8. The mold according to claim 6, wherein the wall-type guide elements consist of a plurality of individual elements that are arranged side by side with a slight distance between them, preferably being jointly movable.

9. The mold according to claim 7, wherein the wall-type guide elements are curved in the circumferential direction of the sealing rings.

10. The mold according to claim 5, wherein the wall-type guide elements are rounded on the outer side edges and are rounded on the end face facing the bottom of the mold channel or they are designed with a point like a rooftop.

11. The mold according to claim 5, wherein the end face of the wall-type guide elements, said faces turned toward the bottom of the mold channel, has individual flow-through regions that are set back with respect to the end face sitting on the bottom of the mold channel in the initial position.

12. The mold according to claim 5, wherein the wall-type guide elements are arranged at an angle of 10-35, preferably 15, in deviation from the respective circumferential tangent to the mold channel, so as to form a preferably continuous constriction in the direction of flow of the plastic melt.

13. The mold according to claim 5, wherein the wall-type guide elements are put under a load by means of springs and/or with hydraulic, pneumatic or electric actuators (8, A), or a combination thereof, preferably with a load force that can be varied in the curve of the variable over time.

14. The mold according to claim 5, wherein the wall-type guide elements form a V-shaped angle.

15. (canceled)

16. A method of producing a fiber-reinforced plastic sealing plate which includes a plurality of sealing rings connected by radial webs, the method comprising the sequential steps of: (a) providing a mold having channels for forming the sealing plate, (b) positioning a guide element obliquely in a channel of the mold in which a sealing ring of the sealing plate is formed, (c) injecting a plastic melt of fiber-reinforced plastic into the mold so as to flow into the channels therein with plastic melt, including the channel in which the guide element is positioned, the guide element restricting flows of plastic melt converging from opposite directions in the channel in which the guide element is positioned and deflecting fronts of the converging flows towards respective opposite sides of the channel, the converging flows meeting along an oblique weld line, and (d) moving the guide element out of the channel in which the guide element is positioned to result in reinforcing fibers from the converging melt flows passing through a formed oblique elongated weld line and thereby produce the sealing plate.

17. The method according to claim 16, wherein in step (c) the fiber-reinforced plastic is injected into the mold where a center of the produced sealing plate is located.

18. The method according to claim 16, wherein in step (d) the guide element is moved out of the channel by pressure of the converging melt flows acting against an external resistance force applied to the guide element.

19. The method according to claim 18, including varying the resistance force applied to the guide element during injecting of the plastic melt into the mold.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0019] The present invention is explained in greater detail below on the basis of the exemplary embodiments which are illustrated schematically in the drawings.

[0020] FIG. 1 shows an sealing plate according to the invention, which is not profiled here for example, shown in a perspective view,

[0021] FIG. 2 shows the enlarged detail II from FIG. 1 in a view from above,

[0022] FIG. 3 shows a schematic diagram of a shape for producing a sealing plate according to FIGS. 1 and 2,

[0023] FIGS. 4 and 5 show schematically the weld lines of the type to be adjusted in the production of a sealing plate (FIG. 4 without and FIG. 5 with wall-type guide elements according to the present invention),

[0024] FIGS. 6 through 12 show various designs of wall-type guide elements for use in methods and molds according to the present invention, and

[0025] FIGS. 13 through 17 show different arrangements of wall-type guide elements consisting of individual elements.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE DEPICTED EMBODIMENTS

[0026] The sealing plate 1 shown in FIG. 1 consists of three sealing rings 3 connected by radial webs 2 and is made of fiber-reinforced plastic by injection molding. This shows the sealing side of the sealing plate which in the finished plate valve (not shown here) cooperates with the valve seatthis is the sealing plate with a flat sealing surface, which is yet to be reground after injection molding to improve the imperviousness. The sealing plate 1 according to FIGS. 1 and 2 has not yet been ground over, which is why sickle-shaped elevations 4 can still be recognized and their development and function are described in greater detail below. However, apart from flat sealing plates according to FIGS. 1 and 2, it is also possible to manufacture so-called profiled sealing plates according to the invention; the individual sealing rings 3 with these profiled sealing plates are provided with a chamfer around the circumference, and these chamfers in turn cooperate with the corresponding sealing surfaces on the valve seat (not shown)in this case, the radial webs 2 would be formed with a recess on the sealing side opposite these lateral chamfers.

[0027] In injection molding of the sealing plate 1 shown here, fiber-reinforced plastic is supplied with plastic melt from the innermost ring 14 which has a cone gate, for example, which is not shown here but is used for supplying melt to the mold channels for the radial webs 2. During the ongoing filling of the mold, four melt streams first flow outward along the radial webs 2 and each is divided to the right left and to the left at the intersections with the sealing rings 3. These divided streams of molten plastic thus fill up the mold channels for the sealing rings 3 from both ends and converge in the central region between the radial webs 2. In the absence of the wall-type guide elements 5 according to the invention (see FIG. 3 and FIGS. 6 through 17), weld lines 15 essentially like those in FIG. 4 would be obtained in the region of the convergence of the fronts of the two melt streams, but this would result in a reduced strength of the sealing plate 1 in this region, in particular in a case of fiber-reinforced plastic melts, because the fibers of the fiber reinforcement of the two converging melt streams would not pass through the weld line 15 and therefore would not provide any reinforcement there.

[0028] Therefore, in the method according to the present invention, a wall-type guide element 5 is arranged obliquely to the direction of flow in the mold channel 6 which is therefore initially largely constricted, as represented schematically in FIG. 3, in the region of the weld lines 15 formed by the convergence of the fronts of the divided plastic melt streams. These guide elements 5 are moved out of the mold channel 6 during the further filling of same (toward the top in FIG. 3), namely being moved out of the initial position depicted in FIG. 3 into a retracted position, in which the bottom side near the mold wall forms a seal with the surrounding mold channel wall or is raised slightly above same. Raising the guide elements slightly above the surrounding mold channel wall causes the elevations 4 to be formed, as depicted in FIGS. 1 and 2, which are then removed in regrinding the sealing plate 1.

[0029] According to FIG. 3, the movement of the guide elements 5 may take place either simply by means of the pressure occurring between mold channel bottom and the guide element 5 in the continued filling in the plastic feed (against the force of a spring 7) or by means of an actuator A, for example, an electric actuator, or by means of a pneumatic or hydraulic cylinder 8 or a combination thereof, such that the chronological course of the movement or of the acting opposing pressure can also be controlled here in a manner which is not depicted further.

[0030] It can be seen clearly from FIG. 2 that with the mold used for this sealing plate 1 the wall-type guide elements 5 are curved in the circumferential direction of the sealing rings 3 and have rounded areas on the outer side edges. The angle a formed by the wall-type guide elements 5 with the circumferential tangent 9 of the sealing rings 3 and/or of the corresponding mold channel is preferably in the range of 10-35 with which the melt streams striking the guide elements 5 from both sides are deflected accordingly, such that the elevated pressure due to the constriction of the mold channel to an equal extent on both ends is also built up beneath the guide elements 5, tending to displace them upward out of the mold channel in the course of further filling. This yields a strong alignment of the fibers of the fiber reinforcement in the plastic melt along the guide elements 5 moving upward out of the mold, which results in the desired inclined position of the weld line 15 (see FIG. 5) with simultaneous penetration of same with fibers of the fiber reinforcement from both melt streams. In the initial position of the wall-type guide elements 5 depicted in FIG. 3, approx. 5% of the mold channel is preferably cleared on both sides and approximately 10% is cleared at the bottom, which yields a very advantageous design of the weld line 15 with excellent strength values for the sealing plate 1.

[0031] Various possibilities for advantageous design of the end faces 10 of the wall-type guide elements 5 are illustrated in FIGS. 6 through 12, such that the term end face 10 is to be understood to refer to the bottom side of the guide elements 5 facing the mold channel bottom according to FIG. 3, said bottom side constricting the mold channel at the bottom in the initial position. The end face 10 is designed to be straight in FIG. 6 (as also indicated in FIG. 3). According to FIG. 7, the end face 10 is provided with a rounded area over the entire length. FIG. 8 shows an inclination at the center, such that the edge regions are not inclined and therefore the guide element 5 can be set in the initial position on the mold bottom. FIGS. 9 and 10 show rooftop-shaped slopes of the end face 10, such that in the embodiment according to FIG. 10, the first edge of this inclined surface runs from one side of the guide element to the other, which has a targeted influence on the flow beneath the guide elements 5 and thus has a targeted influence on the design of the resulting weld line. The discussion according to FIGS. 11 and 12 includes flow-through regions 11 and exterior regions 12 standing upright on the mold channel bottom in the initial position.

[0032] However, apart from the design of the wall-type guide elements 5 according to FIG. 3 and FIGS. 6 through 12 as one-piece parts, these guide elements 5 according to FIGS. 13 through 17 could also consist of a plurality of individual elements, labeled as 13 here, that are arranged side by side with a small distance between them and are preferably jointly movable. According to FIGS. 13 through 16, pins having a round cross section are usedthe cross section of these individual elements 13 is oval according to FIG. 17. This also results in a wide variety of possibilities for influencing the melt streams in the region of the resulting weld lines. In addition, weld lines can be produced with the guide elements 5 according to FIGS. 6 through 12, as well as with those according to FIGS. 13 through 17; in deviation from FIG. 5, it is possible to manufacture these guide elements not only to stand essentially obliquely, but also to have V-shaped or similar geometries, which can likewise contribute toward an improvement in the quality of the resulting sealing plates 1.