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Abstract Injection-moulded-plastic-part design must ensure
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that the part can be manufactured to the desired quality level
by the injection moulding process. Simulation software has been
widely used in industry to assess mouldability and measures of
quality. However, it cannot be used to improve a design directly.
Design modifications must be performed by the designer after
evaluation of the simulation results. Based on the authors’ pre-
vious work on injection moulding CAD-CAE integration, this
paper explores the strategies and methods for automatic-part-
shape-modification to attain a desired part quality. An enhanced
CAD-CAE integration model is developed. This model is used to
specify the shape-modification variables, as well as the mould-
ability and other quality measuring criteria. The shape modifica-
tion variables include positional and sizing parameters of each
individual feature, as well as those associated with the part, such
as part thickness. With this information, an iterative process of
part-shape modification and execution of simulation subroutines
is carried out automatically, and the results are verified and eval-
uated. Optimal shape, according to the specified criteria can thus
be derived from the evaluation results. A software prototype has
been developed. A design case study is presented to illustrate
and demonstrate the usefulness of the proposed strategies and
methods.4207
Keywords Injection moulding · Plastic part design · Shape
modification
Y. -M. De n g () · Y.C. Lam
Singapore-MIT Alliance (SMA),
N2-B2C-15, Nanyang Technological University,
Nanyang Avenue, Singapore 639798, Singapore
E-mail: mymdeng@ntu.edu.sg
Tel: +65-67904273
Fax: +65-68627215
G.A. Britton
CAD/CAM Lab, School of Mechanical and Production Engineering,
Nanyang Technological University,
Nanyang Avenue, Singapore 639798, Singapore
1 Introduction
Injection moulding is a major manufacturing method for the fab-
rication of plastic parts. Part design is one of the most important
design tasks in injection moulding. During the design process,
designers must take into account functional requirements of the
part as well as its mouldability. The quality of a part is influ-
enced by many factors, such as selection of material, moulding
machine, and injection mould, as well as processing conditions.
Concurrent engineering techniques are recognised as facilitating
strategies in ensuring successful part design [1–4].
One way to apply concurrent engineering strategies in part
design is to get part designers to work with both the customers
and marketing personnel on the front end, as well as the mould
designers, material suppliers, and process engineers on the back
end [1]. Another important factor in the success of concurrent
engineering is the use of design support tools that can provide
relevant information and feedback with various degrees of de-
tail [5]. Various computer-based tools have been developed to
assist designers in assessing the mouldability, quality, and cost of
a design. Among these tools, simulation packages are the most
popular. For example, Moldflow is widely used in industry to
simulate the moulding process before part design and moulding-
process design are finalised and actual tooling is started.
However, existing computer-based tools only provide infor-
mation relating to the mouldability and performance of a design;
that is, they can only act as an evaluation tool. They are not
capable of directly improving design. To address this problem,
a number of optimisation algorithms have been proposed based
on the utilisation of the simulation software, such as gate loca-