2007 Volume 15 Issue 6 Pages 108-113
In the development of injection-molded products, the processes of designing and manufacturing molds are repeated through trial and error in order to be able to mold products into required shapes. In recent years, mold design by simulation using CAE has achieved good results in reducing development time and cost, e.g., by reducing the number of prototype molds. However, selection of optimal conditions relies heavily on experience, and no systematic practical methods have been established yet. Although several approaches using quality engineering have already been proposed and attempted, an established method has not been found. As a simulation vendor, in this study we attacked the problems of injection molding in order to provide design techniques that make use of simulation more effectively. In a previous study, we evaluated measurements of molded products by transferability, but some unsolved problems remained. This time we tested a new method in which shrinkage rate, which is a control factor that affects the shape of molded products, is evaluated directly, and were able to reach optimal molding by achieving even and stable shrinkage.
