TOWARDS AUTOMATED DESIGN OF THE FEED SYSTEM OF INJECTION MOLDS BY INTEGRATING CAE, ITERATIVE REDESIGN AND FEATURES

A prototype software system that automatically designs the gating and runner systems, which comprise the feed system, of injection molds is described. The system called AMDS (Automated Mold Design System), inte grates CAE, with iterative redesign and knowledge stored in a features representation of the part. Gating design involves the generation of the best gating configuration represented by number, location, and typ e of gates, and the determination of the best conditions under which p lastic should enter through the gates. Runner design also invokes the generation of a runner layout followed by the sizing of the runner seg ments. The design of both systems is iterative, whereby the design var iables are changed, the new design analyzed evaluated and redesigned i f necessary, until an acceptable design is obtained. The evaluation of the gating design is based on eighteen performance parameters, while the evaluation of the runner system is based on four performance param eters. The system has been tested on three-dimensional parts made up o f planar rectangular wall features with holes as add-on features.