{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,12]],"date-time":"2026-09-12T03:19:41Z","timestamp":1789183181692,"version":"build-2803163510"},"reference-count":34,"publisher":"Public Library of Science (PLoS)","issue":"7","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,15]],"date-time":"2026-07-15T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1784073600000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"http:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["www.plosone.org"],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["PLoS One"],"abstract":"<jats:p>This study investigates the effects of injection molding parameters on the flexural and tensile strengths of neat acrylonitrile\u2013butadiene\u2013styrene (ABS) and woven carbon fiber fabric\u2013reinforced ABS composites (ABS\/CF) fabricated by a two-step insert injection molding process. A Taguchi L25 orthogonal experimental design was employed with five processing parameters: filling pressure (104\u2013118 MPa), packing pressure (96\u2013100 MPa), filling time (1\u20133 s), packing time (0.5\u20132.5 s), and melt temperature (228\u2013232 \u00b0C). The results show that flexural strength increased from 5.86\u20136.49 MPa (ABS) to 5.76\u20136.93 MPa (ABS\/CF), while tensile strength increased from 33.35\u201335.17 MPa to 38.20\u201341.27 MPa, corresponding to improvements of approximately 7% and 17\u201318%, respectively. ANOVA results indicate that filling pressure is the most significant factor, with p-values of 0.012 and 0.039 for flexural performance and a maximum contribution of 47.08% for tensile strength. The optimal parameter combination identified by Taguchi\u2013Grey analysis yields Grey relational grades of 0.725 and 0.728 for flexural and tensile strength, respectively. Confirmation experiments show good agreement with predicted values, with deviations of 1.59% (flexural) and 2.98% (tensile). Overall, this study provides a comprehensive understanding of the process\u2013structure\u2013property relationships in injection-molded ABS\/CF composites and demonstrates that the Taguchi\u2013Grey approach is an effective method for simultaneous optimization of multiple mechanical properties. The findings offer practical guidelines for improving the mechanical performance of fiber-reinforced thermoplastic composites in thin-walled and structural applications.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1371\/journal.pone.0352647","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,15]],"date-time":"2026-07-15T17:32:31Z","timestamp":1784136751000},"page":"e0352647","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1371\/journal.pone.corrections_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":1,"title":["Optimization of injection molding parameters for bending and tensile strength of ABS and ABS\/carbon fiber composites using Taguchi\u2013Grey correlation analysis"],"prefix":"10.1371","volume":"21","author":[{"given":"Hieu Giang","family":"Le","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Thanh Trung","family":"Do","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Tran Minh The","family":"Uyen","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Bui Chan","family":"Thanh","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-8236-2202","authenticated-orcid":true,"given":"Pham","family":"Son Minh","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"340","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,15]]},"reference":[{"key":"pone.0352647.ref001","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","DOI":"10.1201\/9781420005981","author":"PK Mallick","year":"2007","journal-title":"Fiber-reinforced composites: materials, manufacturing, and design"},{"issue":"2","key":"pone.0352647.ref002","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"143","DOI":"10.1016\/j.paerosci.2005.02.004","article-title":"Fibre reinforced composites in aircraft construction","volume":"41","author":"C Soutis","year":"2005","journal-title":"Prog Aerosp Sci"},{"key":"pone.0352647.ref003","volume-title":"Biofiber reinforcements in composite materials","author":"O Faruk","year":"2015"},{"key":"pone.0352647.ref004","volume-title":"Science and engineering of short fibre reinforced polymer composites","author":"SY Fu","year":"2009"},{"issue":"7","key":"pone.0352647.ref005","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"995","DOI":"10.1016\/j.compositesa.2004.11.004","article-title":"The influence of fibre length and concentration on the properties of glass fibre reinforced polypropylene. 6. 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