Sažetak
Nowadays, it is necessary to educate people about the separation of waste depending on the type of the material. In the Republic of Croatia, more and more work is being done on proper composting of fruits, vegetables and other food in the households. Decomposition of organic matter is sensitive to air flow, humidity and temperature, thus apropriate conditions are needed for effective composting. This, includes the correct selection of materials, design and the process of production for the composter. In this paper, the simulation analysis will be carried out during injection moulding of the bottom of the composter. Contemporary injection moulding machines require fine tuning for succesfull mould filing and satisfactory product quality. Plastic products are often approached from design for manufacturing standpoint to ease the challenges related to injection moulding process and mould design. Injection pressure, injection time, packing pressure, packing pressure holding time, melt temperature, mould cavity temperature and cooling system features are common variables of choice in process optimization. Achieving consistency in product quality, process parameters should be optimized for a specific case since there is a lot of variability among injection moulding input parameters. To recognize locations of critical values of defects, such are shrinkage and warpage, Moldex3D software is used. Warpage and shrinkage defects are minimized by DOE optimization method. Results show that simulation can be implemented with optimization techniques to successfuly improve product quality and process efficiency.
Ključne riječi
composter bottom; injection moulding; polymer; simulation