Polymer melt manipulation and in-process morphology control during molding processes: A review

As the manufacturing industry becomes increasingly competitive, improved processing technology is needed in order to improve product quality without sacrificing productivity. One new approach, In-Process Morphology Control, appears to hold promise in this endeavor. While there are several forms of application of this concept, the ones discussed in the current paper were selected because of the availability of published experimental data. This paper presents a summary of five different types of hybrid injection molding processes, namely, SCORIM (Shear Controlled Orientation in Injection Molding), Push-Pull Processing, Injection Spin Processing, the Moving Boundary Technique, and RHEOMOLDING. Methods of application and their resulting effects on molded part properties are presented in a review format.