Saeed Fathi - Department of Mechanical Engineering Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran
Amir Hossein Behravesh - Department of Mechanical Engineering Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran

This paper presents a research work on visualization of the flow front advancement during filling stage of the plastic injection molding process. A visual mold was designed and manufactured to monitor the flow advancement. Observations were carried out for two cavity designs: i) a simple rectangular plate (non-constrained plate) and ii) a rectangular plate with an obstacle pin (constrained plate). The flow advancement was recorded using a high speed camera. The recorded frames of the advancing flow front were used to measure the instant flow rate. The implemented setup could clearly show the flow behavior from which the instant flow rate could be extracted. Results show a relatively high dependency of the flow rate on the mold geometry.

flow visualization, flow front, instant flow rate, visual mold, injection molding