However, the benefits of this technology also come with some limitations, notably higher equipment costs as well as parts with rougher surfaces and lower mechanical properties compared with those of normal
solid injection molded parts.
It uses a far more
solid injection and interception method than my earlier efforts
Ernsberger and Hunerberg also agree that, in some respects, structural foam is easier to run than
solid injection molding.
By creating the instrument panel for the new Ford Escape in microcellular foam, it is claimed its weight is reduced by more than 11b, mechanical properties are improved, moulding cycle time is reduced by 15 percent and moulding clamp tonnage is reduced by 45 percent, saving an estimated 1.85 per vehicle versus
solid injection moulding processes.
In Chapter 10, Rolt refers to the seldom-acknowledged fact that the progenitor of the modern high-speed compression-ignition engine was Herbert Akroyd Stuart's '
solid injection' machine: Akroyd Stuart's patents preceded those of Rudolph Diesel and his 'blast injection' engine by several years.
With
solid injection molding, it is necessary to inject all the resin to the end of flow prior to skin closure.
Cookson's structural foam pallets are claimed to have a higher strength to weight ratio than conventional
solid injection moulded ones, with up to four times the rigidity of solid parts of similar weight.
Properties of
solid injection molded parts were compared with properties of porous parts.
It allows direct comparison of large parts, such as auto instrument panels, produced by
solid injection and microcellular physical foaming with gas injection.