Fibre orientation of fibre-reinforced PBT composites in injection moulding

The present study investigates the fibre orientation and distribution of 15 wt-% short fibre-reinforced polybutylene terephthalate using both experimentation and computer-aided analysis. Filling time, melt temperature, mould temperature and packing pressure are chosen to be the controllable parameters that govern the injection-moulding process. The influence of injection-moulding process parameters on the frozen-intermediate-core morphology is observed using scanning electron microscopy. The variations of frozen layer thickness are strongly affected by the injection-moulding parameters. The minimum is at a filling time of 3 s, a melt temperature of 240 C, a mould temperature of 90 C, and a packing pressure of 100% of the constant 42 MPa injection pressure for the mould with dimension 45 mm x 45 mm x 4(.)0 mm. The experimental results are used to validate the accuracy of the computer simulation in fibre orientation and distribution. Simulated and experimental results closely correspond to each other.