• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2008.11b
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• pp.2254-2255
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• 2008

Thermoforming is one of the most versatile and economical process to produce polymer products. The drawback of thermoforming is difficult to control thickness of final products. Temperature distribution affects the thickness distribution of final products, but temperature difference between surface and center of sheet is difficult to decrease because of low thermal conductivity of ABS material. In order to decrease temperature difference between surface and center, heating profile must be expressed as exponential function form. In this study, Finite Difference Method was used to find out the coefficients of optimal heating profiles. Through investigation, the optimal results using Finite Difference Method show that temperature difference between surface and center of sheet can be remarkably minimized with satisfying Temperature of Forming Window.

• Transactions of Materials Processing
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• v.11 no.8
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• pp.651-667
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• 2002

Overview of plastics processing is described and the research trend of the processing is also noted. The main manufacturing processes in the plastics industry are injection molding, blow molding, compression molding, transfer molding, extrusion and thermoforming. The principles of those processes have been discussed and molds for shaping operation have been mentioned. References for each process have also been presented.

• Design & Manufacturing
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.27-35
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• 2022

Thermoforming is a plastic manufacturing process that applies a force to stretch a film of heated thermoplastic material over an engineered mold to create a 3-dimensional shape. After forming, the shaped part can then be trimmed and finished to specification to meet an end-user's requirements. The process and thermoplastic materials are extremely versatile and can be utilized to manufacture parts for a very wide range of applications. In this study, based on K-BKZ nonlinear viscoelastic model, thermoforming process analysis was performed for an interior room-lamp. The predicted thickness was minimum at the corner of a molded film, and maximum at the center of the bottom. By using the Taguchi method of design of experiments, the effects of process conditions on residual stresses were investigated. The dominant factors were the liner thickness and the film heating time. As the thickness of the liner increased, the residual stress decreased. And it was found that the residual stress decreased significantly when the film heating temperature was higher than the glass transition temperature. A thermoforming mold and a trimming mold were manufactured, and the spring back was investigated through experiments. The dominant factors were film heating time, liner thickness, and lower mold temperature. As the film heating time and liner thickness increased, the spring back decreased. In addition, it was found that the spring back decreased as the lower mold temperature increased.

• Composites Research
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.20-26
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• 2009

In the current study, thermoforming and compression analysis were carried out for the woven composite egg-box panel with the non-orthogonal constitutive material model, which is proposed by Xue et al. The material model is implemented in commercial engineering software, LS-DYNA, with a user subroutine. Directional properties in non-orthogonal coordinates are determinedusing the deformation gradient tensor and the material modulus matrix in local coordinate is updated at eaeh corresponding time step. After the implemented non-orthogonal constitutive model is verified by the bias extension test, the egg-box panel simulations are performed. The egg-box panel simulations are divided into two categories: thermoforming (draping) and crushing. The finite element model for crushing analysiscan be obtained using the displacement result of thermoforming process.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.25 no.5
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• pp.816-822
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• 2001

The thermoforming process is widely used in the plastics industry to produce articles for the packaging, automotive, domestic construction and leisure industries. The microcellular foaming process appeared at M.I.T. in 1980s to save a quantity of polymer materials and increase their mechanical properties. The glass transition temperature of polymer materials is one of many important process variables in appling the microcellular foaming process to the conventional thermoforming process. The goal of this research is to evaluate the relation between gas absorption and glass transition temperature in batch process using microcellular foaming process. The weight gain ratio of polymer materials has a conception of gas absorption. Polymers such as acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene(ABS), polystyrene(PS) have been used in this experiment. According to conventional Chows model and Cha-Yoon model, it was estimated with real experimental result to predict a change of glass transition temperature as a function of the weight gain ratio of polymer materials in batch process to gain microcellular foamed plastic products.

• The korean journal of orthodontics
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• v.51 no.2
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• pp.135-141
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• 2021

Objective: To assess the effects of thermoforming on aligner thickness and gap width in six aligner systems with the same nominal thickness. Methods: Six passive upper aligners of different brands were adapted to a single printed cast. Each sample was evaluated with high-resolution micro-computed tomography. To investigate aligner thickness and gap width, two-dimensional (2D) analysis was conducted assessing the effects of the following variables: tooth type (central incisor, canine, and first molar), 2D reference points, and aligner type. Data were analyzed and compared using analysis of variance and Tukey's post-hoc tests (p < 0.05). Results: Tooth type, dental region, and aligner type affected both the gap width and aligner thickness. The aligner thickness remained moderately stable across the arch only in the F22. Conclusions: All thermoformed samples displayed smaller aligner thickness and gap width at anterior teeth and both gingival and coronal centers than at posterior teeth and occlusal surfaces.

• Composites Research
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• v.30 no.3
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• pp.175-180
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• 2017

Currently, since carbon fiber reinforced plastics (CFRPs) are lightweight and have excellent physical properties, their demand has increased dramatically. Many works have studied the CFRPs based on recycled thermoplastics. In this study, the applicability of recycled composite was evaluated using recycled polyethylene terephthalate (PET). PET was collected from waste materials used in beverage bottles and processed to produce PET films. Optimal thermoforming temperature and time were analyzed by comparing the mechanical properties with forming temperature and time difference for producing PET films. CF mat and PET film were used to determine the suitable parameters for the optimum thermoforming of CF/PET composites. The mechanical properties of each thermoforming condition were verified by bending test. The degree of impregnation of the PET film into the CF mat was evaluated by cross-sectional photographs, whereas the interfacial properties were evaluated by interlaminar shear strength (ILSS). Ultimately, it was confirmed that the thermoforming condition for forming the CF/recycled PET composites yielding the optimal mechanical and interfacial properties was at $270^{\circ}C$ for 5 minutes.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.20 no.5
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• pp.124-131
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• 2003

As the new model development lead time becoming shorter and the market requirements becoming more strict, automobile manufacturer begins to utilize 3-dimensional CAD system based techniques such as DMU (Digital Mock-up), Rf (Rapid Prototyping), VE (Virtual Engineering) to meet the market trends. But, no satisfactory utilities have been developed yet, to represent emotional properties such as embossment on the surface of interior parts, touch originated from material characteristics in virtual environment, so it is inevitable to manufacture prototype parts to verify actual feeling which passengers feel in automobile. This paper suggests a methodology to enhance the human sensitivity via embodying embossment on the surface of prototype car interior trim without deterioration of dimensional accuracy using RIM (Reaction Injection Molding) and thermoforming method.

• 한국금형공학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2008.06a
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• pp.69-73
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• 2008

본 연구에서는 고분자 플라스틱 부품의 친환경 외장성형공법인 Insert Film 사출성형공법중 첫 번째 공정인 진공성형공정에서 진공금형의 표면온도 균일화 기술에 대해 연구를 수행하였다. 진공금형의 온도분포 균일화를 위한 금형설계 및 설계된 금형에 대한 온도분포 평가를 위한 ANSYS를 이용한 유한요소열해석을 수행하였으며, 이때 정상상태 및 과도상태를 함께 평가하였다. 설계 결과를 바탕으로 금형을 제작하였으며, 생산성을 고려하여 4캐비티로 제작된 금형에 대해 금형표면의 온도분포 평가실험을 수행하였다. 또한 금형내 캐비티 온도센서 및 제어시스템을 설치하여 진공금형표면 온도분포가 항상 일정하게 유지될 수 있도록 금형시스템을 개발하였다. 결과적으로 일정한 온도범위의 금형표면온도제어가 가능하였다.

• Journal of computational fluids engineering
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.20-25
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• 2013

In various manufacturing industries, an in-mold decoration (IMD) process for plastic objects is widely utilized because a film forming and an injection molding processes run simultaneously. In the present study, the deformation of polymer film and filling of resin in the IMD process were numerically investigated to evaluate the quality of the plastic object formed by the IMD process, which consists of thermoforming and injection molding processes. To obtain the initial shape of the polymer film during the injection molding process, the deformation of the polymer film in the thermoforming process was pre-formed using the vacuum conditions to attach the film to a cavity. Since the properties and deformation of polymer film are greatly affected by the behavior of polymer resin being injected into a mold cavity, numerical simulations for the injection molding and film forming were performed with one-way coupling method. The results showed that the injected resin could lead to the tearing of the polymer film in local regions near the corners. In order to verify the proposed numerical methodology, the numerical results of the deformation patterns printed on the initial polymer film were compared with the experimental data. The proposed methodology to couple film forming analysis with injection molding analysis can be used to predict the deformation of film in IMD process.