An experimental study of planar entry flow of rubber compound

Abstract

An automated rheometer based on an injection molding machine is developed for the evaluation of entry flow problems. Several entry flow geometries having different contraction and expansion angles and different channel lengths are tested. Two pressure transducers are flushmounted along the die length and a displacement transducer is installed to measure the screw motion. Signals generated by the pressure transducers and displacement transducer are supplied to an A/D converter and an IBM PC/AT computer. The pressure losses for a rubber compound are measured between two cross-sections along the flow direction. The time evolution of pressure with overshoot during flow before and after the entry region is observed. At low flow rates the pressure drops of the expansion flow are larger than those of the contraction flow. At high flow rates the pressure drops of the contraction flow become higher than those of the expansion flow. A ratio of the pressure drop to absolute pressure before the entry is found to be almost independent of flow rate.