Analysis on Chemical and Physical Behaviors of Polyurethane Foam for Prediction of Deformation of Refrigerator Panels

• Published in: International journal of precision engineering and manufacturing Vol. 20; no. 12; pp. 2041 - 2049
• Main Authors: Yang, Wook-Jin, Lee, Gun-Yeop, Park, Sang-Hu
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Seoul Korean Society for Precision Engineering 01.12.2019; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Chemical reactions; Deformation analysis; Deformation effects; Engineering; Foaming; Industrial and Production Engineering; Insulation; Materials Science; Organic chemistry; Physical properties; Polyurethane foam; Regular Paper; Side effects; Deformation of panel; Foam filling; Foam temperature; Foaming process; Polyurethane; Foam density; Reactions process
• ISSN: 2234-7593; 2005-4602
• DOI: 10.1007/s12541-019-00159-0

Polyurethanes foaming is considered as one of key technologies in refrigerator manufacturing to ensure insulation performance. We propose a method for the prediction of refrigerator panel deformation with considering full processes such as filling of polyurethane, chemical reactions, and thermal deformation of solidified polyurethane during foaming. The important influencing factors of the after-foaming deformation are studied and defined using three physical properties: temperature, density, and pressure in order to predict the panel deformation precisely. Analysis of the factors affecting the final deformation resulted in greater than 80% accuracy for each factor compared with those of experiment. Based on the fundamental research results, we tried to predict the deformation of a rear panel after foaming process. We evaluated the usefulness of the proposed analytical approach by experiments, and good agreements between two results obtained. So, we believe that this approach can be used to predict the deformation of a refrigerator panel and some side effects on it.