Publications by authors named "Chao-Tsai Huang"
Article Synopsis
- Fiber-reinforced composites (FRPs) are lightweight and strong materials used widely in industries like aerospace and automotive, but the mechanisms of fiber and polymer melt interaction during processing are not fully understood.!* -
- The study introduces a symmetrical 1 × 4 multi-cavity mold to evaluate how runner and overflow designs affect the flow-fiber coupling effect, using both theoretical simulations and experimental tests.!* -
- Results show that a well-designed runner leads to consistent fiber orientation, while an overflow area changes the flow dynamics, causing delays in fiber coupling effects and resulting in uneven shrinkage patterns in the final product.!*
Nonsurgical treatment and surgical repairment of injured Achilles tendons seldom restore the wounded tendon to its original elasticity and stiffness. Therefore, we hypothesized that the surgically repaired Achilles tendon can achieve satisfactory regeneration by applying multi-drug encapsulated hydrogels. In this study, a novel bupivacaine-eluting carbon dioxide-encapsulated Pluronic F127 hydrogel (BC-hydrogel) was developed for the treatment of Achilles tendon injuries.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe treatment and surgical repair of torn Achilles tendons seldom return the wounded tendon to its original elasticity and stiffness. This study explored the in vitro and in vivo simultaneous release of indomethacin and bupivacaine from electrospun polylactide-polyglycolide composite membranes for their capacity to repair torn Achilles tendons. These membranes were fabricated by mixing polylactide-polyglycolide/indomethacin, polylactide-polyglycolide/collagen, and polylactide-polyglycolide/bupivacaine with 1,1,1,3,3,3-hexafluoro-2-propanol into sandwich-structured composites.
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- Plastic foam molding methods encompass three techniques: thermoforming, extrusion, and injection molding, with injection foam molding being the most efficient for producing complex shapes and high-quality products.
- A new structural foam injection molding technology was developed, utilizing nitrogen gas with polypropylene to enhance melting and foaming properties, while maintaining control over the mix's viscosity.
- The study revealed that increasing nitrogen content affects melt fluidity and foaming characteristics; as nitrogen levels rise, melt viscosity decreases, and foaming varies significantly based on the distance from the gate during molding.
One of the main challenges in co-injection molding is how to predict the skin to core morphology accurately and then manage it properly, especially after skin material has been broken through. In this study, the formation of the Core-Skin-Core (CSC) structure and its physical mechanism in a two-stage co-injection molding has been studied based on the ASTM D638 TYPE V system by using both numerical simulation and experimental observation. Results showed that when the skin to core ratio is selected properly (say 30/70), the CSC structure can be observed clearly at central location for 30SFPP/30SFPP system.
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- The study focuses on how processing equipment and parameters affect the properties of long-fiber-reinforced injection-molded thermoplastic composites, particularly around retaining fiber length during the injection molding process.
- Researchers used a specially designed injection molding machine with a three-barrel setup to fabricate long-glass-fiber-reinforced polypropylene while investigating how factors like back pressure, screw speed, and melt temperature influence fiber length and orientation.
- Results indicated that higher screw speeds and back pressures lead to shorter fiber lengths, but with the right settings, fibers can be maintained over 10 mm, improve cross direction by 15%, reduce air trap volume, and achieve higher tensile strength in single-edge-gate molding compared
In this study, the assembly behavior for two injected components made by a family mold system were investigated. Specifically, a feasible method was proposed to evaluate the characteristic length of two components within a family mold system using numerical simulation and experimental validation. Results show that as the packing pressure increases, the product index (characteristic length) becomes worse.
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- The study examined how different mold designs, melt fill paths, and plasticization settings affected the breaking behavior and orientation of long glass fibers in polypropylene composites during injection molding.* -
- An ultra-long-fiber composite injection molding machine was utilized, revealing that higher screw speeds led to increased fiber breakage, shortening the original 25 mm fibers to an average of 10 mm.* -
- Results indicated that longer fibers were better at filling molds than shorter ones, and that factors like specimen thickness and gate design (specifically rounded angle gates) significantly influenced flow ability and fiber distribution in the molded products.*
Glass or carbon fibers have been verified that can enhance the mechanical properties of the polymeric composite injection molding parts due to their orientation distribution. However, the interaction between flow and fiber is still not fully understood yet, especially for the flow-fiber coupling effect. In this study, we have tried to investigate the flow-fiber coupling effect on fiber reinforced plastics (FRP) injection parts utilizing a more complicated geometry system with three ASTM D638 specimens.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIn recent years, due to the rapid development of industrial lightweight technology, composite materials based on fiber reinforced plastics (FRP) have been widely used in the industry. However, the environmental impact of the FRPs is higher each year. To overcome this impact, co-injection molding could be one of the good solutions.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCompression molding is a lightweight technology that allows to preserve fiber length and retain better mechanical properties compared to injection molding. In compression molding development, a suitable material such as glass fiber mat thermoplastics (GMT) is often used. However, because of the complicated micro-structure of the fibers and the fiber⁻resin matrix interactions, it is still quite challenging to understand the mechanism of compression molding and it is very difficult to obtain a uniformly compressed GMT product.
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