This engineering research equipment grant is to acquire three separate pieces of equipment, each of which is important to the continued research progress of the Cornell Injection Molding Program - an interdisciplinary research group in the Engineering School at Cornell University which has received continuous NSF funding since 1974. The acquisitions include (1) computer hardware for upgrading a heavily used computer facility in various areas related to the injection molding of thermoplastics as well as thermosets, ceramic-filled polymers and semi-solid metal alloys; (2) a high-temperature/high-pressure capillary rheometer which will be used for establishing more accurate and reliable material-property data such as melt viscosity in support of computer-simulation and process-control work; and (3) a tensile tester for plastic specimens which will be used for experimental verification of research aimed at development of predictive models for the load-deformation behavior of short- fiber-reinforced injection-molded parts.
