In-mold coating (IMC) for thermoplastic parts is employed either to protect products from outdoor exposure or to improve the surface appearance as in automotive applications, or both. The coating material is injected into the closed mold and advances by compressing the thermoplastic substrate. In this paper, we discuss a 2D non-steady heat transfer computer code coupled with chemo-rheological analysis to predict the IMC cure cycle and a case study to demonstrate the effect of part thickness and initial molding conditions on cycle time. A two-dimensional mathematical model of IMC flow is presented. This model will be extended to include a packing phase.
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