Electricity consumption estimation of the polymer material injection-molding manufacturing process: empirical model and application

Elduque, Ana ; Elduque, Daniel (Universidad de Zaragoza) ; Pina, Carmelo (Universidad de Zaragoza) ; Clavería, Isabel (Universidad de Zaragoza) ; Javierre, Carlos (Universidad de Zaragoza)

Resumen: Polymer injection-molding is one of the most used manufacturing processes for the production of plastic products. Its electricity consumption highly influences its cost as well as its environmental impact. Reducing these factors is one of the challenges that material science and production engineering face today. However, there is currently a lack of data regarding electricity consumption values for injection-molding, which leads to significant errors due to the inherent high variability of injection-molding and its configurations. In this paper, an empirical model is proposed to better estimate the electricity consumption and the environmental impact of the injection-molding process. This empirical model was created after measuring the electricity consumption of a wide range of parts. It provides a method to estimate both electricity consumption and environmental impact, taking into account characteristics of both the molded parts and the molding machine. A case study of an induction cooktop housing is presented, showing adequate accuracy of the empirical model and the importance of proper machine selection to reduce cost, electricity consumption, and environmental impact.

Idioma: Inglés

DOI: 10.3390/ma11091740

Año: 2018

Publicado en: Materials 11, 9 (2018), 1740 [13 pp.]
ISSN: 1996-1944

Factor impacto JCR: 2.972 (2018)

Categ. JCR: MATERIALS SCIENCE, MULTIDISCIPLINARY rank: 102 / 293 = 0.348 (2018) - Q2 - T2

Factor impacto SCIMAGO: 0.686 - Materials Science (miscellaneous) (Q2)

Financiación: info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/ES/DGA/T08-17R
Financiación: info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/ES/MINECO/RTC-2014-1847-6

Tipo y forma: Article (Published version)

Área (Departamento): Área Ingeniería Mecánica (Dpto. Ingeniería Mecánica)
Área (Departamento): Área Expresión Gráfica en Ing. (Dpto. Ingeniería Diseño Fabri.)