Dynamics, reliability, and comfort in automotive engineering relate not only to driving performance but also the visual and physical experience the vehicle emits. Recent advancements in the technological manufacturing processes allow for continual improvements to this experience.
For one automotive project on an upcoming SUV class vehicle, the production managers were challenged to mould all four interior door panels in a single 4-cavity family mould. Maintaining high quality on such a dynamic process with its unique challenges would require the most reliable, efficient, and robust process in injection moulding.
Synventive Moulding Solutions, a business within Barnes Moulding Solutions strategic business unit and manufacturer and developer of innovative hot runner technologies, supported this injection moulding project and equipped the unique family mould with its DynamicFeed hot runner technology.
At the onset of the project, Synventive supported engineering with part-filling analyses and recommendations on the hot runner design and control technology that would be required. The decision to utilise the Dynamic Feed was based on its ability to deliver reliable, consistent, and uniform filling of the parts on this complex family tool.
Dynamic Feed provides individual melt pressure control at each nozzle gate. Each gate receives the exact injection and pack pressure profile that is predefined for its position, performing as if it had an individual injection unit. In the injection and pack pressure stages, the filling of the cavity is individually adjusted and provides closed-loop control via intelligent software.
The project includes four hot runner systems with a total of 28 cascade nozzles and a bridge manifold with four dynamic feed transfers. The resulting melt pressure control – and the associated different melt pressure supply of each individual sub-manifold during the injection moulding process – made it possible to implement this highly demanding and efficient family mould concept with the highest dimensional accuracy and surface quality requirements of the four family parts.
