POLITECNICO DI TORINO AUTOMOTIVE ENGINEERING

ENGINE VALVE COVER FOR A V4 ENGINE BY INJECTION MOLDING

PRODUCTION TECHNOLOGIES FOR BODY COMPONENTS
GROUP 10 Zeyd Okutan - 172754 Sinan Sevgin Remzi 173061 Antoni Fernandez Mas 170390 Cem Bugra Evci Bojun Wang

Academic Year 2011 - 2012

Automotive Engineering - a.a. 2011/2012 Production technologies for body components

INDEX
1. 2. a. c. 3. a. c. e. f. g. 4. a. INTRODUCTION ...................................................................................................................................... 3 PART SELECTION AND ANALYSIS ................................................................................................... 4 Description of the Part ..................................................................................................................... 4 Part Orientation & Mold Parting Plane ...................................................................................... 6 MOLD DESIGN AND SIMULATION ................................................................................................... 8 Plastic Material Selection ................................................................................................................ 9 Simulation Results .............................................................. Error! Bookmark not defined. Augmentation in Mold Design and Parameters ................................................................... 20 New Simulation Results ................................................................................................................ 21 Resume of Optimized Design ...................................................................................................... 22 CONCLUSIONS ....................................................................................................................................... 22 VISI Flow Software.......................................................................................................................... 22 b. Problems of Design Process ........................................................................................................ 22 b. Molding Parameters Selection ................................................................................................... 11 d. Mold Feeding System Design ...................................................................................................... 18 b. Drawings ................................................................................................................................................ 4 d. Part Thickness & Undercut ............................................................................................................. 8

Engine Cover for a V4 Engine by Injection Moulding

Automotive Engineering - a.a. 2011/2012 Production technologies for body components

1. INTRODUCTION
In this case study, there is the design and the production process of a plastic part which is used in real time applications of a V4 engine. This part has the purpose of covering the valve system. Valve covers are generally produced with various plastic production technologies, as plastic injection molding, which is the process chosen for this project. Furthermore, for the production of engine valve covers, various materials and composites are used in the industry. Depending on the design, costs and production technologies, very different types of solutions can be chosen. In this project, the design of the component is done with Solidworks 2010, which is one of the CAD program available to make different amendments and improvements on the model. After the proper design, the model is analyzed in Visi 19, this CAE software allows the simulation of the plastic injection molding process. After the simulations and analysis, the quality of the injection, the process conditions, material type and design are discussed as conclusion.

Engine Cover for a V4 Engine by Injection Moulding

Automotive Engineering - a.a. 2011/2012 Production technologies for body components

2. PART SELECTION AND ANALYSIS

a. Description of the Part V4Valve Engine Cover
Valve cover parts are generally designed to protect the valves and engine system. They provide the valve gaskets, oil cap and some more mounting hardware. It is very important to have a easy-removal ability. This component must ensure a perfect isolation from the external ambient avoiding the contamination of the lubricant, as the oil is pumped up through the pushrods and dispersed underneath in order to lubricate the various engine parts. Beside from this, the valve also protects the various valve train components, particularly the valves and the rocker arms. The tightening of seals and cylinder head are important also providing easy access and each time that the valve cover is removed; however, there is a need to replace the valve cover gasket with a new one.

Picture I
1: A Plastic Twin Valve Cover produced by Nissan 2: Another Plastic Valve Cover for V4 engine 3: Yamaha VMAX V4 Engine 4:Motus Katech KMV4 engine

Engine Cover for a V4 Engine by Injection Moulding

Automotive Engineering - a.a. 2011/2012 Production technologies for body components

b. Drawings

2D Drawings

Picture II
2D & 3D Drawing of General View of the Part

Engine Cover for a V4 Engine by Injection Moulding

Automotive Engineering - a.a. 2011/2012 Production technologies for body components

2D Critical Section Views

Picture III Critical Section Views of the Model: Section A has the maximum thickness of 14mm material and Section-B has 11mm. The piece present one undercut section. This could be solved with a lifter. As no specific requirements are request to that region, it could be cancelled simplifying the molds lay up, and hence the overall cost of the molds is reduced. The design has been realized in order to avoid this area. The modification doesnt affect on the piece function. The new piece design is shown on parting line section, where no undercuts are present.

UNDERCUT

c. Part Orientation & Mold Parting Plane

Engine Cover for a V4 Engine by Injection Moulding

Automotive Engineering - a.a. 2011/2012 Production technologies for body components

The mold design is divided in two parts male and female parts. The male part corresponds to the movable plate coming from the top, enclosing the piece geometry with the female. The movable plate will shape the inner part of the valve cover, so no aesthetical requirements are request. The fixed plate draws the external aesthetic part of the piece, as the valve cover normally present a rough surface, a embossing treatment to the fixed plate must be performed. The parting plane corresponds to the inner surface and the contact surface of the piece.

Picture IV Parting line Now its possible to notice that no undercuts are present on the piece.

Picture IV Contacting surface

Engine Cover for a V4 Engine by Injection Moulding

Automotive Engineering - a.a. 2011/2012 Production technologies for body components

d. Part Thickness & Undercut

With the new design of the piece, no undercut are present and the part orientation is quite smooth. The movable plate comes from top to the bottom side of the part. As the fillers are on the sides, there is no undercut appears in the filling system design. The designed part has some variable thickness values for different sections. (Shown above picture III). The thickness values are changing between 5 mm to 24 mm. The maximum thickness is designed as 24 mm on one section. It could cause shrinkage and sink marks during cooling.

e. Analysis of Part Extraction and Drafting

To ensure a good quality piece, a draft angle of 0.5 has been adopted for all the parallel surfaces to the movement direction. It will ensure an easy removal and no superficial defects on the piece. The corner radius of the model are compressed between 0.9 6 mm to avoid sharp angles on the piece surface.

Picture VI Filled Sections of the Part Part extraction will be made by the several number of pins constructed on the male part. When the molds are separated, the ejector retainer plain pushes the ejectors to the inner part of the piece, so no witness marks will appear on the piece aesthetical surface.

3. MOLD DESIGN AND SIMULATION

Engine Cover for a V4 Engine by Injection Moulding

Automotive Engineering - a.a. 2011/2012 Production technologies for body components

a. Plastic Material Selection

The mechanical requests for an engine valve cover are high, as it must be stiff enough to support the vibrations and loads transmitted by the engine block, and must present a high thermal stability, as it will be in contact with the warm oil for the valve lubrication and heat release of the mechanical parts of the engine. Those requirements restricts the material selection. Its important to have a polymer with high mechanical properties with a high service temperature maintaining a reasonable price for the mass production. Nowadays for the high production of vehicles on automotive field the thermoplastic PP is spread used because of its price and aesthetics performance, is specially used on dashboards and interior plastics. When mechanical performance are request, PP doesnt match the requirements of design. For that reason is usually reinforced with short glass fibers but it decreases the aesthetics of the piece and is not used for visible parts. To overpass this problem ABS polymer is used. The PA6 polymer appear as the best solution for the engine cover. It has better mechanical properties than the ABS and presents a better thermal properties with a similar price.
MECHANICAL CHARACTERISTICS PROPERTIES PA6 Unfilled PP ABS Density (g/m3) 1.15 - 1.17 0.89 - 0.90 1.04 - 1.07 Young's Modulus (GPa) 3.36 - 3.53 0.89 - 1.24 2.21 - 2.62 Tensile Strenght (MPa) 82.1 - 90.5 27.6 - 37.9 42 - 46 Elongation at break(%) 20 - 45 200 - 500 15.26 - 20.86 THERMAL AND PROCESSING PROPERTIES PROPERTIES PA6 Unfilled PP ABS Glass temperature (C) 44 - 56 -10 100 - 110 Melting Point (C) 227 - 238 150 - 175 210 - 220 Service Temperature (C) - 70 - 105 -10 - 105 -20 - 80 Viscosity (Shear Rate 1000 1/s) 82 (270C) 116 (260C) 170 (240C) (Pas) Transition Range Temperature (C) No - Flow Temperature (C) 165 - 175 165 175 - 186 165 157 - 167 157 137 ABS 2.33 - 2.57 95.4 - 105 0.45 - 0.55

Ejection Temperature (C) 145 145 MANUFACTURING PROPERTIES PROPERTIES PA6 Unfilled PP Prize (/kg) 2.78 - 3.06 0.94 - 1.02 Production Energy (MJ/kg) 99.4 - 110 77.3 - 85,4 Recycle Fraction 0.45 - 0.55 0.45 - 0.55

Engine Cover for a V4 Engine by Injection Moulding

Automotive Engineering - a.a. 2011/2012 Production technologies for body components

To ensure the mechanical properties of the piece, glass fiber reinforcement is advisable. The problem by adding short fibers is reflect with an increase of the viscosity during the manufacturing process, which means an increase of the process cost because higher pressures and stiffer molds are needed.
MECHANICAL CHARACTERISTICS PROPERTIES PA6 Unfilled PA6GF10 Density (g/m3) 1.15 - 1.17 1.22 - 1.24 Young's Modulus (GPa) 3.36 - 3.53 5.37 - 5.64 Tensile Strenght (MPa) 82.1 - 90.5 124 - 137 Elongation at break(%) 20 - 45 3.26 - 3.76 THERMAL AND PROCESSING PROPERTIES PROPERTIES PA6 Unfilled PA6GF10 Glass temperature (C) 44 - 56 44 - 56 Melting Point (C) 227 - 238 210 - 230 Viscosity (Shear Rate 1000 1/s) 82 (270C) 116 (260C) (Pas) Transition Range Temperature (C) No - Flow Temperature (C) 165 - 175 165 175 - 186 165

PA6GF30 1.35 - 1.42 8. 62 - 11 165 - 190 2.2 - 3.6 PA6GF30 44- 56 210 - 220 203 (270C) 157 - 167 157 137 PA6GF30 3.08 - 3.40 109 - 121 0.09 - 0.11

Ejection Temperature (C) 145 145 MANUFACTURING PROPERTIES PROPERTIES PA6 Unfilled PA6GF10 Prize (/kg) 2.78 - 3.06 2.97 - 3.27 Production Energy (MJ/kg) 99.4 - 110 109 - 121 Recycle Fraction 0.45 - 0.55 0.09 - 0.11

On the previous table its possible to see the influence of the percentage of the glass fiber reinforcement on the mechanical and thermal and processing properties. By increasing the percentage of fibers, the mechanical properties increases and the viscosity increases. Its also interesting see how the melting point decreases by increasing the rate of reinforcement, it is because the percentage of PA6 decreases and less temperature is needed to melt the polymer. Its importing to highlight that the glass fiber reinforcement also decreases the shrinkage of the piece during cooling, which is a really advantageous point, especially for the PA6 material that suffers a great shrinkage. The final polymer for the realization of the engine cover will be PA6 GF10 because it offer the perfect balance between performance and processing properties.

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Automotive Engineering - a.a. 2011/2012 Production technologies for body components

b. Molding Parameters Selection and Simulation Results

FILLING PHASE The injection points has been positioned on the same face in order to achieve an unidirectional flow, even spaced to balance the flow. In this way the shrinkage will be uniform, preventing stresses and warpage that could damage the piece.

Filing Analyze Trial 1st

Filing Analyze Trial 2nd

In the filling analyze, for the first approximation we just used the parameters that the program has suggested. After the quality of the filling analyze is checked, its seen that the temperature isnt in the acceptable limit. Then, the injection time is decreased to get an acceptable temperature. On the third trial, we got the acceptable quality for temperature and other parameters are still in the good region.

Filing Analyze Trial 3rd FILLING ANALYSE - INJECTION PARAMETERS 1st Trail Injection Time [s] Flow Rate [cm^3/s] Melt Temperatrue [] Mold Temperature [] 9.57 44.989 280 85 2nd Trial 7 61.506 280 85 3rd Trail 6.5 66.237 280 85

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Automotive Engineering - a.a. 2011/2012 Production technologies for body components

After selecting the filling parameters, lets evaluate the flow inside the mold.

Shear stress, Weld lines (yellow) and Air trapped (green)

The maximum shear stress is located at the ending area of filling. This zone doesnt perform any special purpose, so no problems during its product life could appear due to shear stress. As three gates has been selected to balance the flow and due to the shape of the piece, the flow is divided and so weld lines (yellow lines) are created. They are located mainly on the edge holes which could cause failures during the product life. In order to avoid that, metallic inserts will be set up on those holes that will link the valve cover with the engine block. Due to the fact that great thickness gradient appears through the piece, its important to evaluate hesitation in order to avoid possible air traps, overpack, sink marks or void defects. After simulation air traped appear (green line), fortunately the area where its located doesnt affect the performance of the piece as its just a contact surface.

Engine Cover for a V4 Engine by Injection Moulding

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Automotive Engineering - a.a. 2011/2012 Production technologies for body components

HOLDING PHASE After computing several test, holding time is limited to 130 seconds because, is the limit time determined with no-flow in the injection points. In this way the shutoff of the runners is set adequatelly to avoid overpack and reverse flow. HOLDING PHASE - IMPORTANT PARAMETERS 1st Trail Holding Pressure [MPa] Hold Time [s] Cooling Time [s] 25 140 189 2nd Trial 50 140 189 3rd Trail 50 98 189 4th Trial 50 130 250

Accrording to the holding phase results, we compared the important values of each trial by checking the solid fraction,frozen skin and volumetric shrinkage. The results are tabled below: HOLDING PHASE ANALYSE - RESULTS 1st Trail Solid Fraction [%] Frozen Skin [%] Volumetric Srinkage [%] 35 53 5 2nd Trial 35 53 4 3rd Trail 35 53 4.6 4th Trial 47 75 4

After the results of the 4th trial, its possible to ensure a safe extraction of the piece as the frozen skin is almost freezed (75%) and the hole solid fraction is near the half percent.

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Automotive Engineering - a.a. 2011/2012 Production technologies for body components

Optimizated result of the Holding Phase 4th trial

Frozen Skin [%], weld lines (yellow) and air trapped (green)

In the Frozen Skin result, possible to see that nearly all the part is frozen. Only a few small parts arent frozen very well. All in all, in these region we have at least 75% frozen skin which is a good value. Ejectors will not be set near those areas. Its possible to see that the air trapped is mainly located on the areas with lower fraction of frozen skin.

Solid Fraction [%], weld lines (yellow) and air trapped (green)

Minimum Solid Fraction is about 47%. The result is good because we can see that, nearly all part of the piece is 100 % solid. The areas with a lower solid fraction could present warpage problems due to differential cooling rates. They are located where a great thickness variation is located. A high thickness gradient means great cooling rates that will introduce differential orientations introducing residual stresses on the piece. Its important to control those areas by the mold cooling system.

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Automotive Engineering - a.a. 2011/2012 Production technologies for body components

SHAPE ANALYSE As said before, the six perimetrical holes will set metalic inserts for the linkage between valve cover and engine block. For that reason, fixation points on the holes are created simulating the inserts, in this way, no deformation is achieved on these parts.

Before computing the holding analysis, its possible to evaluate the final shrinkage of the piece.

Engine Cover for a V4 Engine by Injection Moulding

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Automotive Engineering - a.a. 2011/2012 Production technologies for body components

SHRINKAGE EFFECT - WRAPPAGE Shrinkage is 1.77mm so this warpage is not so high for plastic injection.

Engine Cover for a V4 Engine by Injection Moulding

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Automotive Engineering - a.a. 2011/2012 Production technologies for body components

ALL EFFECT WARPAGE In shape analysis, we see 1.34mm warpage if we choose the all effect.

By increasing the hole magnitude of deformation is possible to see the tendency on deformation of the piece. In this way is easiest to realize where are located and which influence have the deformations on the working conditions of the piece. Its possible to observe that the piece present a double concave curvature, one which connects the 2 longer edges of the piece (small) and another that links the shorter ones. The beginner presents a really low influence, and so by screwing the piece onto the engine block the deformations will disappear. The other deformation tendency presents a more or less flat behavior on the plane containing the oil gasket (enclosed by the six holes for the screws) and a sharp deformation on the last area. As the main objective of the piece, oil sealing, is achieved, the deformation behavior doesnt influence on the working conditions of the piece.

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Automotive Engineering - a.a. 2011/2012 Production technologies for body components

Notice that between the piece and the engine block, it will be set a sealing sheet element to ensure no leakages or possible contamination. This sealing sheet will also provide a cushion tolerance, and possible piece deformations will be damped by this element.

Deformation Magnitude 1

Deformation Magnitude 10

c. Mold Feeding System Design

The feeding system has been designed by a central sprue connected to the extruder that finishes into a perpendicular cylinder that fills three parallel runners. Those runners have a conic gate on its end. The hole runner system represents the 12% of the hole piece material. The characteristics of the feeding system are:
Central Conical Sprue Cylindrical Runners Conical Gates D1 = 6 mm , D2 = 1.5mm D = 5 mm D1= 5 mm , D2= 1 mm

The runner system has been design to achieve a high pressure drop and a high temperature, in this way its possible to decrease the flow viscosity entering the piece.
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Automotive Engineering - a.a. 2011/2012 Production technologies for body components

Once the filling system has been designed, the overall thickness has been checked to ensure that the geometric parameters are correct. If no errors occurs during this phase the model was ready for a filling simulation. The first simulation was run with the optimized parameters of the single piece. The results obtained were:

An excessive Shear Stress appears so before doing modifications its advisable to detect were those loads are located. The piece stability must be ensured.

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Automotive Engineering - a.a. 2011/2012 Production technologies for body components

The simulation shows that the shear stresses are located only on the gates entrance which is normal and acceptable. It could be noticed that the hole piece is subjected to a high margin of shear stresses, so the piece its not damaged and the simulation results are acceptable. Even though, one more simulation has been run increasing the holding time to 7 seconds trying to downsize the magnitude of the shear stress.

The results highlights that the new parameters diminishes the performance, as temperature has raised to a non-acceptable limit.

d. Augmentation in Mold Design and Parameters

Due to the presence of the feeding system the holding parameters have to be adjusted.
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Automotive Engineering - a.a. 2011/2012 Production technologies for body components

HOLDING PHASE - IMPORTANT PARAMETERS No feeding system Holding Pressure [MPa] Hold Time [s] Cooling Time [s] Solid Fraction [%] Frozen Skin [%] Volumetric Srinkage [%] 50 130 250 47 75 4 With feeding system 50 185 280 42,96 76 6,17

The main cycle parameters have been increased while the piece quality after process has been decreased.

e. New Simulation Results

With the runners design the solid fraction and frozen skin have changed.

Frozen skin [%], weld lines (yellow) and air trapped (green)

Solid fraction [%], weld lines (yellow) and air trapped (green)

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Automotive Engineering - a.a. 2011/2012 Production technologies for body components

With the feeding system the weld line and air trapped behavior is better, less areas and located better that the simulation without the runners. Also the frozen skin and solid fraction distribution is better with the new parameters. Besides those improvements the overall piece increases its shrinkage, passing form a 4% of deformation to 6,17%. As the difference between those values is not so important, the simulation could be finished.

f. Resume of Optimized Design

The presence of the feeding system increases the holding and cooling time, those variations stabilizes the operating parameters and improves the overall quality of the piece. The greater shearing stress introduced by the runners is reflected with an increase on the overall shrinkage of the piece. It could be interesting to check the film gate or fan gate feeding systems as present better filling configurations for our piece. The feeding system has been only designed for filling one piece for simulation simplifications. For production purposes this is not a performance solution as the injection shot must be used to fill more than one piece, in order to increase the cycle time.

4. CONCLUSIONS
a. VISI Flow Software
This CAE software helps to understand the several parameters that are involve on the injection process. Thanks to this kind of simulators is possible to predict and estimate the melt flow behavior inside the mold and so, different changes on the injection process could be done to perform in the best conditions the operation. This helps to reduce the time to market of a product and reduce the investment on molds, which are really expensive, and configuring the process which is reflected in a great save of money. The only negative point to this software is the CAD functions which arent intuitive and difficult to manage, specially while designing the feeding system.

b. Problems of Design Process

We did not have so many problems of mold design. Only during the simulations of the feeding system some problems related to the shear stress on the runners appear, as no danger on the piece was created, we could continue with our simulations.

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