3. Molding cycle
The time of finishing one time injection molding is called cycle time, also named mold injection cycle. It actually includes below parts:
a. Molding cycle, molding cycle directly influence production rate and equipment utilization rate. Therefore, during production, on condition that product quality is guaranteed, all time consumed for molding should be reduced as much as possible. During the whole molding process, injection time and cooling time are most important, and have decisive effect on product quality. Injection filling time is inversely proportional to the filling rate directly, the filling cavity time is generally 3~5s. holding time is the time pressure of mold cavity on plastic material, and occupies great proportion in injection time, and is generally 20~120s (very thick piece is about 5~10 minutes).
b. Before plastic melting around sprue gate, the holding pressure has decisive effect on part dimension precision, after that stage, there's no effect. Holding pressure has the most optimum value, and it relys on material temperature, mold temperature and main runner and sprue size. If the main runner and sprue size and processing conditions are normal, then subject to the holding pressure of lowest shrinkage rate.