Ultem® Plastic Machined Parts

Polyetherimide (PEI) has excellent thermal, mechanical and electrical properties and has occupied a place in cutting-edge fields such as automobiles, aerospace and industry. Exploring why it can become a suitable material in high-end fields will help us develop more use scenarios.

As an amber amorphous thermoplastic special engineering plastic, it has several obvious characteristics:

High strength to weight ratio

Thermal oxidation stability

Excellent mechanical properties

High temperature resistance without deformation

Easy to process and form

This high-performance polymer also exhibits high tensile strength, good flame retardancy and low smoke emissions and is therefore widely used in the automotive, medical and food industries. It can maintain stable tensile strength, flexural modulus and mechanical properties at high temperatures of 200°C. According to laboratory measurement data, PEI also has good hydrolytic stability.

When PEI parts are injection molded, four glass fiber reinforcement grades (10%, 20%, 30%, 40% glass), bearing grades, and several high temperature grades can be provided according to the required strength and brittleness of the parts. Glass fiber reinforcement provides greater stiffness and dimensional stability while maintaining many of the original important properties of basic PEI. Fiberglass reinforcement produces products with exceptional strength-to-weight ratios and enhanced tensile strength.

Different from other polyimides, PEI needs to dry the raw materials before injection molding to maintain sufficient dryness and maximize drying moisture, which will help the warpage of PEI processed parts; the mold also needs to pass through the hot runner Preheating treatment is carried out. Since it is a high-temperature material, the barrel temperature during injection molding can reach 370°C~400°C. Materials like this, which are extremely costly and require demanding injection molding processes, have a great impact on the accuracy of injection molding such as the screw of the injection molding machine. High requirements.

To address the above difficulties, the following solutions can be adopted:

Optimize the injection molding process: adjust injection molding temperature, pressure, time and other process parameters to optimize the melt fluidity of PEI plastic.

Adjust injection molding equipment: According to the characteristics and production requirements of PEI special plastics, select an injection molding machine of appropriate size to improve production efficiency.

Application areas of PEI

PEI has excellent comprehensive balance performance, high performance-price ratio, and good molding processability. Therefore, it not only serves as a substitute material for metal, but also becomes an indispensable engineering plastic. It has been widely used in many fields and has achieved obvious results. Technical and economic effects include: used to manufacture various aircraft parts such as nose instrument panels, interior panels, portholes, seat brackets, restaurant tables, etc.