• Design & Manufacturing
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.1-9
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• 2019

In-mold Coating is a method that can simultaneously perform injection molding and surface coating in injection mold. The material used for coating is two-component polyurethane which is composed of polyol and isocyanate. L-type mixing head can be used to mix polyol and isocyanate uniformly, and inject them inside the mold cavity. The surface quality of the injection molded products by using in-mold coating depends on the mixing uniformity between main agent and hardener. In this study, flow analysis was performed to design a mixing head for uniform mixing of two-component polyurethane. Especially the effects of design parameters of mixing head on mixing uniformity and nozzle pressure were investigated. The parameters of mixing head were mixing chamber diameter, cleaning cylinder diameter, nozzle alignment angle in the horizontal and vertical direction, and cleaning piston position. It was found that optimal design values were mixing chamber diameter of 3.5 mm, cleaning cylinder diameter of 5.0 mm, nozzle horizontal/vertical alignment angles of 140°/160°, and cleaning piston position of 1.8 mm. The optimal values would be used to develop a two-component mixing head achieving an uniform mixing for in-mold coating.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Manufacturing Process Engineers
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• v.16 no.5
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• pp.157-165
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• 2017

The high-pressure resin transfer molding (HP-RTM) technology has been commercialized for fast production of fiber reinforced composite materials. The high-pressure mixing head was one of the most core component of the HP-RTM process. In this study, a mixing head was systematically designed, manufactured and evaluated. This mixing head was composed of a nozzle, a mixing chamber, a cleaning piston part, and an internal mold release part. In actual, a straight-type structure was newly designed instead of the conventional L-type structure for improving the maximum mixing pressure and mixing ratio precision. The performance of mixing head was showed maximum mixing pressure of 15.22MPa and mixing ratio precision of 0.12%. CFRP molding experiments were successfully obtained a 6~11 laminating carbon sheet using HP-RTM presses and specimen molds.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.30 no.3
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• pp.317-323
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• 2013

In-mold coating is a reactive fluid designed to improve the surface quality of injection molded thermoplastic substrate in functional and cosmetic properties. In this study, a mixing head for in-mold coating was designed, and mixing characteristics of two-component polyurethane flowing through runner were investigated based on flow simulations. In order to achieve uniform mixing of two components injected through straight mixing head, an impingement aftermixer was used in runner design. Semi-circular cross-section was better than circular one for runners for uniform mixing. With increasing runner length and flow rate, mixing became more uniform. In addition, the degree of mixing was more improved with decreasing viscosity of isocyanate.

• Design & Manufacturing
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.18-23
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• 2016

Injection molded thermoplastic parts may need to be coated to facilitate paint adhesion, or to satisfy other surface property requirements, such as appearance, durability, and weather resistance. In this paper, a two-component polyurethane metering system was developed for the simultaneous injection and surface coating of a plastic substrate. The system was composed of storage tanks, feed pumps, axial piston pumps, mixing head. The tank was designed to be double-jacket structured and fabricated for polyol and isocyanate, respectively. A temperature chamber was used to maintain the material temperature to be $80^{\circ}C$ during flowing from storage tank to mixing head. Inside the chamber, feed pump, low pressure filter, high pressure pump, high pressure filter, pressure sensor, flow meter were installed. A mixing head of L-type was used for homogeneous mixing of polyol and isocyanate. Inside the mixing head, a cartridge heater and a temperature sensor were installed to control the temperature of the materials. The flow rate of axial-piston pump was controlled by using closed-loop feedback control algorithm. The input flow-rates were compared with the measured values. The output error was 6.7% for open-loop control, whereas the error was below 2.2% for closed-loop control. In addition, the pressure generated through mixing-head nozzle increased with increasing flow rate. It was found that the pressure drop between metering pump and mixing-head nozzle was almost 10 bar.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.33 no.1
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• pp.31-35
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• 2016

For reaction injection molding (RIM) polyurethane was mixed in the mixing head by impingement mixing, injected into the mold, and cured quickly, as soon as the mold is filled. The shape of the nozzle in the mixing head is critical to improve the quality of polyurethane. To achieve homogeneous mixing, an intensive turbulence energy in the mixing nozzle is essential. In this study, a mixing nozzle for RIM was designed, and mixing efficiency was investigated based on experiment. Experiments were conducted with different combinations of nozzle tips and exit diameter to measure the mixing efficiency by measuring jet force and investigating mixing image with high speed camera. Jet force increased gradually and reaches steady state conditions. The jet force depended on shape of nozzle tip and outlet sizes. These results suggest that optimized nozzle configurations are necessary for high efficiency mixing with RIM.

• Journal of Aerospace System Engineering
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.34-40
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• 2015

Staged combustion cycle engines are well known to have high combustion efficiencies and specific impulse. In this study, design of mixing head part of combustion chamber for 8tonf class staged combustion cycle rocket engine (ES-08) was performed. Structural stability of the mixing head part of the combustion chamber is very important design factor because it is loaded by high temperature and high pressure of fuel and oxidizer as well as by thrust load simultaneously. Uniformity of flow distributions of the propellants to the injectors is also important factor. First, a basic configuration for the ES-08 mixing head part was designed on the basis of the structural design requirements. And then, the structural analyses were performed on the basic configuration as well as some of reinforced configurations. As the structural analyses results, the most stable configuration was selected for the ES-08 mixing head part. In order to examine the uniformity of the flow distributions of the propellants through the manifold of the mixing head, flow analysis was performed based on the selected configuration. The results of the flow analysis showed that the fuel and the oxidizer were uniformly supplied to the injector.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers Conference
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• 2011.11a
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• pp.515-519
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• 2011

Structural tests for the mixing head of a 75tonf class thrust chamber were performed to verify structural stability. The mixing head of a thrust chamber is loaded by high pressure with regeneratively cooled fuel and cryogenic liquid oxygen(LOx) as well as it transfers thrust load generated by liquid rocket engine. Therefore structural stability of mixing head is a very important factor to work without any plastic deformation or structural failure. In this study, two mixing heads were manufactured using different welding methods, Tungsten Inert Gas(TIG) welding and Electron Beam Welding(EBW) and evaluated a structural stability. The results of structural tests showed that the mixing head assembled by EBW can withstand the applied design load without any structural failures and be structurally more stable than that of TIG welding.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers
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• v.14 no.5
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• pp.92-100
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• 2010

Combustion stability rating tests of 75-tonf-class thrust chamber for technology demonstration were carried out at a low pressure. Two kinds of mixing heads were used in this study. One of them has injectors of 631 and the other has injectors of 721. Mixing head with injectors of 631 showed a self-oscillation instability at the chamber pressure of 30 bar. Mixing head with injectors of 721 showed that a high frequency combustion stability was maintained under the same pressure and the same mass flow rate. But mixing head with injectors of 721 generated a self-oscillation instability at the chamber pressure of 20 bar and it was found that stability boundary region was changed due to the configuration of a mixing head from these results.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.54-65
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• 2022

We are developing a compact ignition device that can provide a multi-ignition capability for an upper stage methane engine of a two staged small satellite launch vehicle. Firstly, the multi-ignition device is designed and built as an integral part of an additively manufactured mixing head. Secondly, the ignition device requires no separate high-pressure vessels to store ignition propellants as they are branched out from the main feed lines for the mixing head. We performed experiments at various levels, including igniter autonomous tests, thrust chamber ignition and combustion tests on the new compact ignition device which is integrated in the thrust chamber of one-tonf class liquid oxygen/liquid methane engine, and confirmed stable ignition performance.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers Conference
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• 2010.05a
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• pp.231-238
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• 2010

Combustion stability rating tests under condition low pressure of a 75-$ton_f$ liquid rocket engine(LRE) thrust chamber were carried out. Mixing head with decreased number of injectors than that of the other but with the same mass flow rate to the combustion chamber showed self-oscillation instability in chamber pressure of 30 bar. The other combustion chamber with increased number of injectors showed that high frequency combustion stability was maintained under condition of same pressure, but self-oscillation instability was generated in chamber pressure of 20 bar which can be considered as stability boundary region of this mixing head.