Studying polymer particle sintering with an automated imaging system

The formation of hollow plastic parts during rotational molding requires sintering, which involves the melting, coalescence and densification of polymer thermoplastic powder. Monitoring, visualizing and measuring the densification, which includes bubble formation and bubble dissolution, yields valuable information and is a useful technique to assess the rotomold-Ability of different resins. An image visualization technique had been developed referred to as the automated Polymer Analyses Vision System (PAVS) to perform the quantification of a granular assembly rather than just a few particles.