Processability of reinforced Polyamide 6 (PA6) in manufacturing mini and micro molded parts

Currently, the increasing interest in polymer nanocomposites has been motivated by their potential to significantly improve the properties of obtainable products, thus accomplishing high design flexibility. In this work, experiments have been performed to analyze the filling ability of nanocomposite materials, in particular: Polyamide 6 (PA6) polymer matrix filled with Multi-wall carbon nanotubes (MWCNT) and Montmorillonite (MMT) as nanofillers. After compounding the pristine polymer, the resulting composite materials have been processed via micro injection molding. Different process conditions have been adopted to evaluate their filling ability in two mold designs, plates and ribs. The experimental results show that the compounded materials exhibit the same moldability characterizing the pristine polymer. This characteristic has been observed for all compounds regarding plate samples and only for MMT compounds regarding ribs. Moreover, a preliminary calorimetric characterization of PA6 plates and ribs has been also performed.