| EPSRC Reference: |
GR/L58705/01 |
| Title: |
OPTIMISATION OF THE THERMOFORMING OF SEMI-CRYSTALLINE POLYMERS FOR PACKAGING APPLICATIONS |
| Principal Investigator: |
Harkin-Jones, Professor E |
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| Department: |
Sch Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering |
| Organisation: |
Queen's University of Belfast |
| Scheme: |
Standard Research (Pre-FEC) |
| Starts: |
01 October 1997 |
Ends: |
31 March 2001 |
Value (£): |
195,518
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Summary on Grant Application Form |
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Thermoforming, blow moulding and injection moulding are three of the main processes employed in the manufacture of rigid and semi-rigid containers for packaging applications today. Thermoforming, with its relatively low cost tooling and short lead times for tool manufacture, presents an attractive alternative to injection and blow moulding. This process has not realised its full potential in the packaging field because the industry has been slow to adopt semi-crystalline materials such as polypropylene and PET (which are displacing traditional packaging materials such as polystyrene and PVC at a rapid rate) due to (i) processing problems such as sheet sag, (ii) lack of good process control technology, (iii) lack of information on material behaviour such as shrinkage in finished parts (very important when matching lids to tubs, etc.).The proposed research project will improve the thermoforming process by (i) the introduction of process control based on measurement of sheet modulus (ii) rapid identification of processing windows for new materials based on a simple one step test, (iii) determination of the effect of process and material variables on the morphology of semi-crystalline materials and hence on mechanical properties of end products, (iv) development of a process simulation model based on finite element analysis.
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Key Findings |
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Potential use in non-academic contexts |
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Impacts |
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| Description |
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Sectors submitted by the Researcher |
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This information can now be found on Gateway to Research (GtR) http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk
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| Project URL: |
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| Further Information: |
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| Organisation Website: |
http://www.qub.ac.uk |