: injection troubleshooter :

plastic sink marks

• Sink Marks - plastic injection troubleshooter


• Description:
Visible defects resulting from insufficient cooling before removal from the mould. A heavy rib intersecting a thin wall may show up sink marks, and these are very difficult to eliminate by varying processing conditions. Too high holding pressure - useless when gating is too small - creates very high stresses in gate areas.

• Causes:
machine
· injection pressure too low
· injection pressure time too short
· short of shot capacity
mould
· mould temperature too high: too high shrinkage
· gate too small - leads to early cooling/freezing at the gate and
  holding pressure cannot help anymore to compensate for the shrinkage
· land length too long
· wrong dimensions rib vs wall
material
· melt too hot


• Actions:
1st
increase injection speed to maximum range
2nd
sometimes lower injection speed: crystalline materials
3rd
increase injection hold time
4th
increase injection pressure
5th
reduce melt temperature
6th
reduce mould temperature
7th
check for hot spots: separate water channels in cooling system / add heat pipes such as thermal pins or beryllium copper slugs for spot cooling
8th
enlarge and/or add vents to mould parting line
9th
increase size of sprue and/or runners
10th
increase gate size and reduce gate land length
11th
relocate gate next to heavy or thicker areas
12th
core out heavy wall sections where possible
13th
incorporate textured surfaces


contact: jmfalcao@moldplast.com