Analysis of injection molding parameters for graphene/polypropylene composite material with thermal conductivity as quality objective

Abstract

Polypropylene (PP) is a common thermoplastic polymer material with high impact resistance and strong mechanical properties, and it is thus widely used in the industry. With high thermal conductivity and low resistivity, graphene is expected to be used to develop a new generation of electrical components. In this study, we mix blended graphene and PP into a composite material for injection molding specimens. Experiments were designed using an orthogonal array in the Taguchi method to obtain the optimal parameter combination for thermal conductivity, the process parameters including A. injection temperature, B. holding time, C. injection pressure, and D. the graphene ratio. The study results indicate that the optimal parameter combination in the Taguchi analysis was A3BlC2D3, the resulting thermal conductivity coefficient of which was 0.102 (W/m2x2122; K). The optimal parameter combination of the original design in the L9 orthogonal array was A2BlC2D3, the thermal conductivity coefficient of which was 0.081 (W/m2x2122; K). Thus, the improvement rate 25.9%.