Modeling of cure kinetics of molding compound and its effects on drag force in compression molding

The main goal of the study is to investigate the cure kinetics of a liquid type of molding compound through experiment and modeling, and in addition, their relation with the mechanical properties, such as viscosity. Drag force during the compression molding is one of the key factors affecting the movement behavior of the reconstituted dies. Thus, the alternative goal is to explore the drag force acting on the reconstituted dies. First of all, the degree of cure as a function of time is derived in several isothermal conditions using a differential scanning calorimetry. The measured data are then applied to construct a cure kinetics model based on an autocatalytic expression. The parameters in the expression are determined by curve fitting of the measured degree of cure data. Furthermore, the conversion dependent mechanical properties of the liquid molding compound are experimentally investigated. The conversion-dependent viscosity is obtained by correlating the measured time- and temperature-dependent viscosity with the cure kinetics model. Besides, the drag force acting on the reconstituted dies is predicted by using mold flow simulation with the derived conversion-dependent viscosity. Finally, a parametric study for minimizing the drag force on the die is conducted.