| Plastic industry has grown significantly during the last five years due to heavy demand of plastic products. The biggest reason for this growth is the substitution of metal by plastic in various applications. The most versatile process for manufacturing plastic products is injection molding. Injection molding is capable of producing plastic products having complex geometries with great dimensional accuracy. There are many critical parameters involved in injection molding process. The most critical parameters that define the quality of part are design of runner system and processing conditions. Design of runner system includes design of runner, design of sprue, gate design and location. Processing conditions include injection pressure, melt temperature, mold temperature, injection time, cooling time and mold opening time.;In most of the industries, design of injection mold and selection of processing conditions is done by people who have experience in injection molding process. Industries have to invest a considerable amount of money on experiments for finding the optimum values for critical parameters. The aim of this study is to optimize the design of injection mold by simulating injection molding process, using computer aided engineering (CAE) analysis software. Different results of analysis like fill time, temperature and pressure distribution, weld line, air traps and quality helps in determining the causes for part defects. Based on the results, modifications are made to the design of injection mold and processing conditions to improve the results. Various trials are run to find the optimum values for injection mold design parameters and processing conditions. Industries can save a lot of investment by adopting this strategy of optimizing the injection mold design through simulation. Industries can produce high quality parts without conducting any experiment for finding optimum design parameters. |
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