• Transactions of Materials Processing
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• v.14 no.5 s.77
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• pp.452-459
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• 2005

Gas assisted injection molding (GAIM) is an innovative low-pressure injection molding technique that can provide numerous benefits such as reduced part warpage, excellent surface quality without sink marks, low injection pressure and greater design flexibility. However, adoptions of GAIM may cause unexpected defects since it requires many subtle design factors such as resin shot size, delay time and gas injection pressure, which wouldn't be considered in conventional injection molding process. Therefore, experiences applying GAIM should be collected and examined in order to establish design rules of the new technique. The purpose of this paper is to summarize developing cases of three automotive interior parts such as instrument panel, map pocket folding and center facia side panel so that possibilities and limitations of GAIM were examined. As a result, it is necessary to consider characteristics of GAIM at the initial stage of part design in order to obtain various advantages of the GAIM process without occurring severe defects, which would increase time and cost required to the part development.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.144-150
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• 2005

Gas-assisted injection molding (GAIM) process is reducing the injection pressure during mold filling required as well as the shrinkage and warpage of the part and cycle time. Despite of these advantages, this process introduces new parameters and makes the application more difficult because the process interacts between gas and melt during injection molding process. Important GAIM factors that involved in this process include gas penetration design, locations of gas injection points, shot size, gas injection delay time as well as common injection molding parameters, gas pressure and gas injection time. In this study, the experiments were conducted to investigate effects of GAIM process variables on the gas penetration for PP and ABS moldings by changing gas injection point. Taguchi method was used fer the design of experiment. When the gas was injected at cavity's center, the most effective factor was shot size. When the gas was injected at cavity's end, the most effective factor was melt temperature. Injection speed was also an effective factor in GAIM process.

• International Journal of Precision Engineering and Manufacturing
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.8-11
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• 2006

Gas-assisted injection molding (GAIM) process reduces the required injection pressure during mold filling stage as well as the shrinkage and warpage of the part and cycle time. Despite of these advantages, this process needs new parameters and makes the application more difficult because gas and melt interact during the injection molding process. Important GAIM factors involved in this process are gas penetration design, locations of gas injection points, shot size, delay time to inject gas as well as common injection molding parameters. In this study, the experiments are conducted to investigate effects of GAIM process variables on the gas penetration for PP (Polypropylene) and ABS (Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene) moldings by changing the gas injection point. Taguchi method is used for the design of the experiments. When the gas is injected at a cavity's center, the most effective factor is the shot size. When the gas is injected at a cavity's end, the most effective factor is the melt temperature. The injection speed is also an effective factor in GAIM process.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 2003.06a
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• pp.852-855
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• 2003

Gas-Assisted Injection Molding(GAIM) process, that can be used to provide a hollow shape in a molding, is a variant of the conventional injection molding process. GAIM has many advantages such as reduction of material, sink mark. warpage. and lower injection pressure. Thus, GAIM has been widely applied in the industry to make moldings with a hollow channel such as handles, TV frames and so on. On the other hand, GAIM has some disadvantages such as slow cooling time and flow marks. In the disadvantages, hot gas core causes slow cooling of a molding and the overflow. which is to prevent flow mark. is waste of materials. To solve these problems, we developed a new GAIM system that we called RGIM(Reverse Gas Injection Molding). The RGIM has two special units; one is the overflow buffer, which is used for reduction of a material, and the other tile air unit, which is used for faster cooling of a molding. We conducted an experiment and simulation to verify the efficiency of the RGIM system. Through experiments and simulation, we confirmed the effectively operating of the RGIM system and extracted the optimum process conditions.

• Transactions of Materials Processing
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.107-112
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• 2012

Gas-assisted injection molding(GAIM) produces parts with hollow internal sections. The technique offers benefits to powder injection molding(PIM), with lower material usage and reduced time for de-binding processes. In this study, the effects of processing parameters on gas penetration length of gas-assisted powder injection molding(GAPIM) were investigated for SUS316L stainless steel powder feedstock. Experiments were planned based on the Taguchi method, involving processing variables such as melt temperature, shot size, gas pressure, and gas delay time. The most significant parameters affecting gas penetration length were gas delay time and shot size, while the effects of melt temperature and gas pressure was relatively insignificant.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 2004.05a
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• pp.221-221
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• 2004

플라스틱의 사출성형중 용용 수지에 가스를 주입하는 가스사출성형(Gas Assisted Injection Molding GAIM)에 의해 성형품을 만드는 생산방법은 약 30년 전부터 유럽지역을 중심으로 시작되었다 GAIN의 개발 배경은 발포성형을 대체하기 위한 공법으로 개발되었다. 발포성형은 싱크마크(sink mark) 제거, 치수안정성, 강도보강의 목적으로 사용하는 공법이지만, 가스기포가 표면으로 빠져나오고 표면에 가스 기포가 발생하여 외관부품에 부적당하며, 두께가 5-6mm이하의 성형품에는 적용할 수 없고, 성형시간이 긴 문제점을 가지고 있어 이러한 문제를 보강한 공법을 연구할 결과로 GAIM이 탄생하게 되었다.(중략)

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 2003.10a
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• pp.193-193
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• 2003

• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.137-142
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• 2005

Gas-Assisted Injection Molding(GAIM) is an innovative technology for producing plastic parts and has been received extensive attention in the plastic manufacturing industries. But, due to gas-polymer interacting during the gas injection phase, the process has significantly different characteristics from conventional injection molding and, therefore, the control of the process requires much technical knowledge in processing and materials. The experiment was performed about variations of gas-penetration length that is affected by filling imbalance resulting from the structure of runner. The Taguchi method was used for the design of experiment. The most effective factors for the gas-penetration length were the shot size and mold temperature. The most effective factors for the difference of the gas-penetration length were the melt temperature and shot size. This study also discussed the filling imbalance phenomenon in a unary branch runner type mold that has geometrically balanced runner.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 2003.10a
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• pp.281-281
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• 2003