Obtaining crystallinity under pressure

/ department of mechanical engineering Introduction During injection molding, polymers crystallize in nonisothermal conditions and at elevated pressure. Crystallization reduces the specific volume (υ) and leads to shrinkage. The processing conditions affect crystallization and, thus, the dimension of the final product. However, the relationship between degree of crystallinity (X) and υ is not well understood and certainly not quantified. The aim of this project is to develop an experimental method to quantify X from υ as a function of cooling rate and pressure for (nucleated) isotactic polypropylene (iPP).