Experimental Investigation of Process Parameters Effects on Extrusion Blow Molding Process Using Response Surface Methodology for Industry 4.0

Plastic has changed the human life by frequent usage in daily needs due to its practical features compared to other materials. In addition, the ability to get easily molded and low production cost make it better a choice than other materials. Industry 4.0 concepts and technologies are playing vital role in manufacturing sector. Among the available processes extrusion molding is popularly used for producing the plastic products. The production time and quality of the product in extrusion blow molding is greatly affected by material selection, pressure, temperature, cooling time and extrusion speed. The optimum parameters selection is very crucial to increase the productivity with low cost of the product. The present work investigates the effect of various parameters such as extruder pressure, die temperature along with extruder speed on production time for 20-L bottle made up of low-density polyethylene (LDPE) material using extrusion molding process. Design of experiments using response surface methodology is used to obtain experimental results. The main and interaction effect of process parameters are studied successfully using central composite design (CDD). The individual main effect graphs and 3D surface plots are used to understand the effect of input parameters on the process timing.