The effect of processing conditions during injection on the structure formation and mechanical properties of injection molded polyamide 6 samples was investigated in detail. A large effect of the mold temperature on the crystallographic properties was observed. Also the the effect of pressure and shear flow was taken in to consideration and analysed. The yield and failure kinetics, including time-to-failure, were studied by performing tensile and creep tests at several test temperatures and relative humidities. As far as mechanical properties are concerned, a strong influence of temperature and relative humidity on the yield stress and time-to-failure was found. A semi-empirical model, able to describe yield and failure kinetics, was applied to the experimental results and related to the crystalline phase present in the sample. In agreement with findings in the literature it is observed that for high mold temperatures the sample morphology is more stable with respect to humidity and temperature than in case of low mold temperatures and this effects could be successfully captured by the model. The samples molded at low temperatures showed, during mechanical testing, a strong evolution of the crystallographic properties when exposed to high testing temperature and high relative humidity, i.e., an increase of crystallinity or a crystal phase transition. This makes a full description of the mechanical behavior rather complicated.
Keywords: humidity; injection molding; mechanical properties; polyamide 6; polymorphism.