Fast mold surface temperature evolution in injection molding improves the surface finishing and replicability of the molded parts, and may significantly reduce frozen-in orientation. In this paper the effect of a fast control of cavity surface temperature evolution on the morphology and processing conditions of iPP molded parts has been characterized. Phenomena not previously encountered, such as a double pressure packing step when the cavity surface heating lasts longer than the packing step, have been pointed out. Significant effects on the samples frozen-in orientation have been observed by optical microscopy and confirmed by X-ray analysis. AFM analysis shows that it is possible to achieve isotropic morphology with cavity surface temperature kept constant at 150 °C for a long heating time and low holding pressure.
