Thz imaging of injection-mold weld lines in ABS thermoplastic
1 : Georgia Tech - CNRS [Metz]
Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Arts et Metiers Metz, SUPELEC, Georgia Institute of Technology [Atlanta], Georgia Institute of Technology [Lorraine, France], CentraleSupélec, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique : UMI2958, Université de Franche-Comté
2 : School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology
Atlanta, Georgia 30332-0250, USA -
États-Unis
3 : Georgia Tech - CNRS [Metz]
Georgia Institute of Technology [Atlanta], Georgia Institute of Technology [Lorraine, France], Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique : UMI2958
Metz Technopôle 2-3 rue Marconi 57070 METZ -
France
Terahertz (THz) reflective imaging and scanning acoustic microscopy (SAM) were utilized to characterize the weld lines in an injection-molded thermoplastic electrical receptacle plate. V-notched weld lines are found in both THz and SAM results. Enhanced THz birefringence is observed close to the weld lines and drops moving away from them, indicating that the degree of anisotropy decreases and the state eventually becomes isotropic over a certain length scale. These results demonstrate that THz techniques are capable of quality control for injetion-molded thermoplastic components in a nondestructive fashion.