Modelling functional design information for injection mould design

Injection mould design is a complex process incorporating various aspects o f design information and a variety of design activities. Specific requireme nts such as undercut mould design add difficulties to the problem because t hey often require innovation, which involves the conceptual stage of design problem solving. Modelling injection mould design from a functional perspe ctive enables a higher level of design abstraction, thus facilitating a wid er range of conceptual variants selection. In this paper, the authors discu ss the essential aspects of functional design information in injection moul d design and how they can be modelled. Functional design knowledge supporti ng the modelling process is also discussed and formalized, and a number of knowledge libraries are implemented. A side core mechanism design is used a s an example to illustrate the proposed method and its usefulness.