Analysis and optimization of a polyurethane reaction injection molding (RIM) process using multivariate projection methods

Principal component analysis (PCA) and projection to latent structure (PLS) methods are used with industrial data to successfully diagnose several different problems arising in the manufacturing of rigid polyurethane foam insulation panels. The PCA and PLS models are used to reveal the spatial variation of quality variables throughout the foamed product, and their relations with the process variables. Designed experiments are performed in the key process variables identified from the PCA studies and the results are used to optimize the process.