A KNOWLEDGE-BASED PROCESS PLANNING SYSTEM FOR INJECTION MOLD

The goal of this study is to develop a knowledge-based process plannin g system interfaced with design for injection mold. Mold parts are int eractively designed by using feature-based design approach, and then a part feature database is created through a data conversion module. At tribute information of the database is used as an input for the expert process design module and the standard time estimation module of the knowledge-based process planning system developed in this study. In th is developed system, decision making of process design is performed by rules which were acquired from experienced process planners through i nterviews, and machining operation time is estimated by using empirica l formulas derived from the actual shop floor data. A case example of split cavity plate is used to demonstrate the system performance.