Engineering with Computers (2002) 18: 8092

Ownership and Copyright

2002 Springer-Verlag London Limited
A CAD-CAE Integrated Injection Molding Design System
Y.-M. Deng, Y. C. Lam, S. B. Tor and G. A. Britton
CAD/CAM Lab, School of Mechanical and Production Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
Abstract. In the injection molding design process, interac-
tion between design and analysis is very intensive. This is
to ensure that the plastic part being designed is manufactur-
able by the injection molding process. However, such interac-
tion is not supported by current computer-aided systems
(CAD and CAE), because design and analysis are realized
as isolated modules. Although most of CAE systems provide
built-in modeling tools, these are only meant for developing
an analysis model with very limited CAD functionality. On
the other hand, some CAD systems have allowed certain
CAE systems to run under their environments, but inherently
they use different data models, thus communication between
them is poor. This paper presents an innovative, CAD-CAE
integrated, injection molding design system. This system uses
an integrated data model for both design and analysis. The
system is built on top of existing CAD and CAE systems,
which not only greatly saves development effort, but also
makes full use of the strong functionality of commercial
computer aided systems. The system architecture consists of
four layers: a CAD and CAE platform layer; a CAD-CAE
feature layer; a model layer; and a GUI layer. Two design
cases were studied to illustrate the iterative design-analysis
process and use of the developed system.
Keywords. CAD-CAE integration; Design-analysis
process; Injection molding
1. Introduction
Injection molding design is characterized by the fact
that there is intensive interaction between design
and analysis. This, however, is not supported by
current computer-aided systems. There are various
commercialized general-purpose CAD packages as
well as those specically designed for injection
molding design. These CAD systems enable the
designer to quickly develop a geometric model of
Correspondence and offprint requests to: Dr. Deng Yimin,
CAD/CAM Lab, School of Mechanical and Production Engineer-
ing, Nanyang Technological University, Nanyang Avenue, Singa-
pore 639798. E-mail: mymdengntu.edu.sg
the design. On the other hand, injection molding
CAE systems provide the designer with analysis
results regarding the moldability of the design, the
cost of the manufacturing process, the quality of the
product, and so on. However, despite the advanced
functionality of these systems, one problem is yet
to be solved: CAD and CAE systems use different
models to describe a design, and they run under
their own environments. Injection molding design
and analysis are still not integrated.
Some commercial computer-aided system pro-
viders have tried to tackle the problem. To compen-
sate for the lack of CAD functionality, most CAE
systems provide built-in modeling tools to users.
However, these are only meant for developing an
analysis model, so are of very limited CAD func-
tionality. On the other hand, some CAD systems
allow certain CAE systems to run under their own
environments, such as the integration of SolidWorks
with COSMOS, AutoCAD with ANSYS, and Uni-
graphics with MSC [1]. However, they only provide
an integrated environment, not an integrated system.
Designers still need to create their design model,
transfer the model to analysis model, and then spec-
ify their analysis-related information over the analy-
sis model. They inherently use different data models,
thus are in effect not integrated.
There have been quite a lot of research work
addressing this problem from different perspectives.
One earlier scheme is on the idealization of a CAD
model for CAE analysis and automatic mesh gener-
ation. This includes techniques to support idealiz-
ation and abstraction [24], as well as geometric
reasoning for enabling idealization and abstraction,
such as midsurface abstraction [57]. However,
model idealization and automatic mesh generation
only support transformation from the CAD model
to the CAE model in terms of geometry. The derived
idealization models (either with or without mesh
generation) still need to be provided with infor-
mation such as material type, manufacturing process
81 A CAD-CAE Integrated Injection Molding Design System
or physical behavioral process, boundary conditions,
and so on. That is, the model still lacks information
essential for CAE analysis.
There are in general two approaches for achieving
CAD-CAE integration. One is through the development
of an integrated environment with built-in CAD and
CAE functionality. For example, Kim [8] developed
an injection molding synthesis system, which integrates
both design synthesis and melt ow analysis, where
melt ow analysis is used as a design evaluation tool.
Irani et al [9] developed a framework for integrating
CAE and iterative design/redesign of injection molding
feed system. Kagan and Fischer [1] have developed
an integrated mechanically-based CAE system by using
a B-spline nite element model for both design and
analysis stages.
A second, more promising, approach is to develop
an integration model on top of existing CAD and
CAE packages. This model is different from the vari-
ous neutral les such as DXF and IGES, in that it
incorporates product lifecycle information rather than
geometry alone. These neutral les only provide
interfacing mechanism between different computer-
aided systems. In this respect, the STEP standard (ISO
10303) provides a promising model paradigm. STEP
was initially proposed for the integration of different
applications within the product development process,
such as design, manufacturing, economy, numerical
analysis, and so on. It has several partial models
concerning the Finite Element Analysis (FEA) method
(part 104) and the CAD-FEA link (parts 209/214)
[10]. However, these partial models are still in draft
status, and they are of limited application.
There is also some research focusing on the opti-
mization of gate location [11, 12]. Although these
have touched upon the problem of design-analysis
interaction, their focus is the specic problem of
the gate location optimization algorithm. Such work
only shows the importance of design-analysis inter-
action, and they have not addressed the general
problem of enabling injection molding CAD-CAE
integration.
This paper presents strategies and methods for the
development of a CAD-CAE integrated injection
molding design system based on existing CAD/CAE
systems. The system uses an integrated feature model
for both design and analysis, which is also referred
to as an integration model. The next section briey
discusses the model, which is then followed by a
description of the proposed integrated, iterative,
design-analysis process. The paper then continues
to discuss the system framework and methods
for its development. A case study is presented
before concluding.
2. CAD-CAE Integration Model
The authors propose a set of CAD-CAE features
that are oriented to both the design and analysis
processes of plastic part design [13]. These include
a part feature and a collection of wall features, hole
features, rib features, boss features and treatment
features. These features can be decomposed into a
number of sub-features because designers may need
to specify different analysis information over differ-
ent parts of a feature (either a wall feature, or a rib
feature or a boss feature). Therefore, there are also
collections of sub-features.
The part feature contains the overall information
of a plastic part. Wall features are the base of the
plastic part. Other features are developed from wall
features, so are referred to as development features.
Rib features are developed from two adjacent wall
features. Hole features refer to any cutouts in a
plastic part. Boss features refer to any protrusions
from a plastic part. Treatment features are used as
a treatment of other features, such as a chamfer,
round and llet. These features are organized into
a hierarchical structure called a feature tree (Fig. 1).
At the root of the feature tree is the part feature.
The second level of the feature tree contains collec-
tions of wall features and development features. The
third level contains individual features. The fourth
level contains sub-features, such as sub-wall, sub-
rib and sub-boss features.
Each feature contains design and analysis related
data, which are called feature attributes (Table 1).
Most of the attributes are self-explanatory, except
for the attributes of pointer, constraint and sup-
pressibility. All features have a pointer attribute,
which describes the relationship between the fea-
tures. The constraints relating to part features refer
to the relevant analysis criteria. The constraints relat-
ing to other features include gate location con-
straints, which act on the edges and surfaces of the
feature geometry. The suppressibility attribute of rib,
boss, hole and treatment features allows the designer
to suppress these features when abstracting the
analysis model.
This feature-based scheme has been implemented
using Object Oriented technology [13] and a com-
mercial CAD platform (Solid Edge

).
3. Integrated Injection Molding
Design-Analysis Process
Figure 2 shows the proposed injection molding
design and analysis process. The process consists
82 Y.-M. Deng et al.
Fig. 1. CAD-CAE feature tree.
Table 1. Feature attributes
Feature type Feature attributes
Part part identier, thickness, material,
constraints, analysis type, boundary
conditions, processing conditions,
pointers to wall features
Wall wall identier, wall geometry, thickness,
constraints, pointers to children sub-
walls, pointers to embedded rib/boss/
hole/treatment features
Hole hole identier, hole geometry,
constraints, suppressibility, pointer to
parent feature, pointers to embedded
treatment features
Rib rib identier, rib geometry, thickness,
constraints, suppressibility, pointers to
parent wall features, pointers to children
sub-ribs, pointers to embedded hole and
treatment features
Boss boss identier, boss geometry, thickness,
constraints, suppressibility, pointer to
parent wall feature, pointers to children
sub-bosses, pointers to embedded hole
and treatment features
Treatment treatment identier, treatment geometry,
constraints, suppressibility, pointer to
parent feature
Sub-Wall sub-wall identier, sub-wall geometry,
constraints, pointer to parent wall
feature
Sub-Rib sub-rib identier, sub-rib geometry,
constraints, pointer to parent rib feature
Sub-Boss sub-boss identier, sub-boss geometry,
constraints, pointer to parent boss
feature
of several steps, such as creating individual
CAD-CAE features, constructing an integration
model, abstracting information to create an analysis
model and activating the analysis.
This is a CAD-CAE integrated process design
and analysis use the same data model, and operate
under the same computational environment. By
using the same data model, the authors mean that
the design process aims at developing a model that
consists of both design and analysis information.
This same model is then directly used by the analy-
sis process. Hence, this model is not a geometric
model (CSG or B-Rep) for both design and analysis,
but rather an integration model, which can incorpor-
ate any geometric models as long as the CAD
system supports them.
Note that, although the process requires an
analysis model, this model is abstracted from the
integration model, not converted from a CAD
geometric model, as is current practice. The inte-
grated model captures essential analysis infor-
mation during the design process, which is then
used to automatically set the boundary conditions
and processing conditions for analysis. On the
other hand, current practice requires designers to
manually specify the boundary conditions and
other analysis data over an analysis model, not
the design model.
3.1. Create CAD-CAE Features
The creation of feature geometry is dependent on
the functionality of the CAD system platform. If a
CAD system supports feature-based modeling, as is
the case for most commercial CAD systems, the
CAD geometry will be referred to as features in
83 A CAD-CAE Integrated Injection Molding Design System
Fig. 2. Flowchart of the integrated design-analysis process.
the CAD system (CAD features). However, these
features are CAM-oriented and, in general, cannot
be directly mapped into CAE-oriented features.
These CAD features provide the geometry for the
proposed CAD-CAE features. Assignment of CAD
geometry to a CAD-CAE feature may involve selec-
tion of a complete CAD feature, combining several
features, and/or decomposing a feature so part of it
can be selected. After the geometry has been dened
non-geometric information can be added.
The part feature is created after the individual
CAD-CAE features. Its geometry is assigned through
the assignment of the constituent wall features.
Overall product information relating to design and
analysis can be specied over the part feature. For
example, for ow analysis, it is necessary to specify
the injection location(s) as part of the boundary
conditions. CAD tools are used to create gate
location markers for this purpose. These markers
can also be regarded as CAD-CAE features.
3.2. Construct Integration Model
The integration model is constructed from the fea-
tures. This includes constructing the geometry of a
plastic part by Boolean operations, as well as estab-
lishing relationship information between features. If
a CAD system supports automatic Boolean oper-
ations during geometric feature creation, then only
the second task is required. For example, in the
Solid Edge environment, the creation of a Cutout
feature will automatically invoke the Boolean Sub-
traction operation between the created feature and
the base feature. Other CAD systems, such as Auto-
CAD

, require users to manually activate Boolean

operations during the model construction process.
3.3. Abstract Information to Create Analysis
Model
Abstraction depends upon the type of analysis and
the strategy of the optimization routines. The
abstraction process involves abstracting an idealized
geometric model as well as non-geometric analysis
information, such as material type, boundary con-
ditions, processing conditions and constraint infor-
mation. In this paper, idealization refers to simplify-
ing the geometric model to suppress non-signicant
features. This is a very subjective process which
relies heavily on a designers experience and expert-
ise. Hence, the system allows designers to specify
whether a feature can be suppressed or not.
3.4. Activate CAE Analysis Routines
With all of the information is available, the under-
lying CAE system can be activated to conduct a
CAE analysis. The analysis results are then examined
84 Y.-M. Deng et al.
to check whether any of the pre-dened criteria
which are in the form of part feature constraints in
the integration model are violated. If they are
then the CAD-CAE features need to be modied.
After modication, a new integration model will be
constructed and an analysis model abstracted, so
that another CAE analysis can be activated. The
process iterates until all criteria have been satised.
If the design requires optimization of some para-
meters, then designers need to have a predened
optimization routine. This routine can take full
advantage of the integration model. For example, if
a designer needs to search for an optimized gate
location over a restricted area of the plastic part,
the optimization routine will only need to change
the gate location attribute of the part feature in
the integration model for each iteration process.
Furthermore, the gate location constraint of the cor-
responding wall feature can be utilized to reduce
the optimization search space.
4. Framework of a Prototype
Injection Molding Design System
4.1. System Architecture
A prototype injection molding design system has
been developed to provide designers with an inte-
grated environment for design and analysis. The
system architecture is organized into four layers: a
CAD and CAE platform layer, a CAD-CAE feature
layer, a model layer and a GUI layer. The CAD
platform (Solid Edge was used) provides modeling
tools and algorithms for specifying geometric infor-
mation of the plastic part, while CAE platform
(Moldow was used) provides analysis routines
for the CAE analysis. The feature layer comprises
predened features and user-dened features based
on the proposed CAD-CAE feature denition. The
model layer is used to develop the feature model
and to abstract the required CAE analysis model.
Figure 3 shows the system architecture.
4.2. CAD System and ActiveX Automation
A commercial CAD system provides the modeling
tools and geometric processing algorithms for cre-
ating and editing feature geometry. This geometry
will be incorporated in the CAD-CAE features as
geometry objects. Solid Edge was selected as CAD
Fig. 3. System architecture of the software prototype.
platform because it supports ActiveX automation
1
.
By using a CAD system that supports ActiveX
automation, users and other applications can access
the CAD functionality of the system via its exposed
ActiveX objects and ActiveX controls (components).
For example, Table 2 lists the information of an
object ExtrudedProtrusion (representing the geo-
metric feature of extruded protrusion) exposed by
Solid Edge. Obviously, outside applications can eas-
ily create, modify, delete, display and query a geo-
metric feature using this kind of object. Hence, the
exposed ActiveX objects can be directly used as the
geometry objects of the CAD-CAE features.
4.3. GUI of the System
Figure 4 shows the graphical user interface of the
prototype system. The upper panel shows the system
1
ActiveX is the term used to describe the Microsoft component
object technology. Components are independent (both language-
independent and hardware independent) software modules. The
component object technology provides the means to make an
application expose its functionality to the other applications [14].
The technology is based on a communicating protocol called
Component Object Model (COM). COM is a software architecture
that allows applications to be built from binary software compo-
nents. It is the underlying architecture that forms the foundation
for higher-level software services.
85 A CAD-CAE Integrated Injection Molding Design System
Table 2. An ActiveX object ExtrudedProtrusion exposed
by Solid Edge
Properties Application, AttributeSets, BottomCap,
BottomCaps, Depth, Edges, ExtentSide,
ExtentType, Faces, FacesByRay,
FromPlane, IsAttributeSetPresent, Name,
Parent, Prole, ProleSide,
ShowDimensions, SideFaces, Status,
Suppress, ToCap, ToCaps, ToPlane, Type
Methods Delete, GetProles, Range, Reorder,
SetProles
Table 3. Iterative design-analysis results of the design case
Node No. Pressure Pressure20? Pressure
(gate (MPa) (1 for yes, increase
location) 0 for no) over the
minimum
484 17.536 1 11.20%
485 17.2083 1 9.10%
486 16.838 1 6.80%
488 17.1707 1 8.90%
493 20.221 0 28.20%
494 18.6344 1 18.20%
495 17.3293 1 9.90%
496 17.0481 1 8.10%
497 18.1478 1 15.10%
498 19.609 1 24.30%
499 17.6907 1 12.20%
500 16.9489 1 7.50%
504 18.5845 1 17.90%
507 18.1689 1 15.20%
508 19.4148 1 23.10%
510 17.6612 1 12.00%
512 20.6822 0 31.20%
514 18.4319 1 16.90%
515 19.8195 1 25.70%
516 18.5524 1 17.60%
517 18.5423 1 17.60%
519 15.7696 1 0.00%
520 16.1881 1 2.70%
521 15.8102 1 0.30%
522 16.2429 1 3.00%
523 16.4471 1 4.30%
524 17.0368 1 8.00%
534 20.5398 0 30.20%
535 20.5571 0 30.40%
536 18.0001 1 14.10%
537 18.5524 1 17.60%
538 19.0828 1 21.00%
539 20.1463 0 27.80%
578 20.9275 0 32.70%
582 17.126 1 8.60%
menus and tool bars and the panel on the left shows
the feature tree of a plastic part, which is being
designed. The graphics window is shown on the
right.
The primary menu structure of the system is given
in Fig. 5. Figure 6 shows the popup menu structure
of the feature tree operation.
4.4. Feature Creation and Modication
The software contains a library of CAD-CAE feature
prototypes which can be used to create features.
Features are created by rst using the modeling
tools provided by the CAD platform to create the
feature geometry. After that, the CAD geometry is
assigned to a feature using the feature prototypes.
Finally, non-geometric information is added to the
feature.
4.4.1. Wall/Hole/Rib/Boss/Treatment feature
Figure 7 shows the user interface for creating/
modifying a wall feature. By clicking the Assign
Geometry button, the system will automatically
access the CAD system and allow a designer to
select the desired geometry from the CAD environ-
ment. The collection of ActiveX objects correspond-
ing to the selected geometry is then used as the
geometry object of the wall feature. This geometry
object incorporates not only all the geometric entities
of the feature, but also the topological relationships
contained within the CAD system.
Using the interface, information relating to the
constraints of the wall feature can also be specied.
A designer can drag the slider to specify a value
between 0 and 10 for the weight of the gate location.
The value 0 indicates a gate is not to be located
on this wall feature, while the value 10 indicates
that the wall feature is highly desirable for locating
a gate.
If it is necessary to specify different constraints
over different areas of a wall feature, it can be
decomposed by selecting the decomposing geometry.
The resulting sub-wall features can be assigned with
individual constraints as desired. Figure 4 shows an
example of a U-shape Carrier, where three wall
features have been created. The Right plate has
been decomposed into two sub-wall features; the
Solid Edge sketch geometry is used as the decom-
posing geometry.
Other features are created in a similar way.
4.4.2. Part Feature
The boundary condition is specied through part
feature. The software uses a circle (a Solid Edge
86 Y.-M. Deng et al.
Fig. 4. Graphical user interface of the developed prototype system. The two small circles represent gate locations, which are actually
on the outside face of the wall geometry. The reason they appear on the inside face is for pedagogical convenience.
Fig. 5. Primary menu structure of the system.
sketch) as a gate location marker to represent the
required gate location. Similar to the creation of
other features, Solid Edge system is accessed via
the relevant ActiveX object to allow a designer to
create the gate location markers. Figure 4 shows
that two gate locations have been specied.
Material type is also specied through part fea-
ture, which will be discussed in the following sec-
tion. Depending upon the type of analysis, infor-
mation relating to the processing conditions can
also be specied, such as mold temperature, melt
temperature and injection time.
4.5. Material Library
Material properties data are provided by Moldow.
However, a designer might wish to specify material
type during the design process. Since Moldow uses
the manufacturer and the trade name of a material
as the index to the material properties database, the
authors propose to use them as the material infor-
mation.
To assist a designer specify this information, the
prototype system has its own material library. Thus,
a designer can simply choose the desired material
87 A CAD-CAE Integrated Injection Molding Design System
Fig. 6. Popup menu structure of the feature tree operation.
Fig. 7. User interface for creating a wall feature.
from the library without searching through the Mold-
ow material database. The library uses material
type as an indexing eld, together with the elds
of manufacturer and trade name. If two materials
are of the same type, then a serial number is auto-
matically added to ensure unique representation, e.g.
ABS-1 and ABS-2. The data stored in the library
is extracted from Moldow material database to
ensure that during CAE analysis, the relevant
material properties can be retrieved.
The material can be specied over the part feature
during design process. The following is an example
of material data specied:
Material type: PP-2.
Material manufacturer: ATC Inc. [ATC].
Material trade name: ATX 75939B [AT 001].
4.6. Integration Model Construction
Once all the CAD-CAE features have been created
the integration model can be constructed. This is an
automatic process because the inter-feature relation-
ships have been specied during feature creation
process. For example, when a hole feature is created
on a wall feature, a pointer attribute is specied for
both the wall feature and the hole feature. As such,
a relationship between the wall feature and the
hole feature will be automatically established and
captured in the integration model. Figure 8 shows
the algorithm for constructing the integration model.
4.7. Analysis Model Abstraction and CAE
Analysis
Of the two types of data for analysis model abstrac-
tion, analysis model geometry can be easily idealized
because the integration model already has the speci-
ed information about whether a feature can be
suppressed or not. By using the ActiveX objects of
the CAD geometry, the system can access the fea-
ture geometry to be suppressed and change its sup-
press attribute from False to True.
The idealized analysis geometry is used to gener-
ate nite element mesh. Moldow supports three
types of mesh model: midplane mesh model, surface
mesh model and 3D mesh model. A midplane mesh
is a web of three-noded triangular elements. The
midplane mesh model represents the solid model
using the thickness information during an analysis.
A surface mesh analysis works by simulating the
ow of the melt on both the top and bottom surfaces
of the mold cavity. The surface mesh consists of a
mixture of different types of mesh including regions
with traditional midplane elements and surface
(double-skin) elements. A 3D mesh is made up of
solid, tetrahedral shaped mesh elements. Tetrahedral
elements have four nodes, four faces and six edges
and allow an accurate 3D ow simulation to be
calculated [15].
Another type of data for analysis model abstrac-
tion is non-geometric, analysis-related information.
After the analysis mesh model is generated, the
prototype system automatically generates the bound-
ary condition le using the specied gate location
information from the integration model. After that,
an analysis inputs le is generated for other non-
geometric information such as material, processing
conditions, and so on. This le contains all the
88 Y.-M. Deng et al.
Fig. 8. Flowchart of constructing integration model from
individual features.
necessary data, either directly or through pointers to
the relevant data les, for activating the correspond-
ing analysis routines from Moldow to conduct
the desired analyses. Figure 9 is a owchart of
abstracting the analysis model.
Fig. 9. Flowchart of abstracting analysis model from integration
model.
5. Case Study
5.1. Case No. 1
This case study illustrates the integrated CAD-CAE
process and how the system can be used to specify
89 A CAD-CAE Integrated Injection Molding Design System
analysis information over a CAD design model. The
part is a U-shape carrier (Fig. 4). Using the pre-
dened feature prototypes from the system, three
wall features are created rst: Base plate, Left
plate and Right plate. All design and analysis
information relating to these walls are specied in
the corresponding wall features. System GUI tools
assist in the specication process. Assume that the
designer wishes to specify that a certain part of the
outer surface of the Right plate wall feature not
be allowed to have gate location mark. To achieve
this, the wall feature is decomposed into two sub-
wall features: Left sub-wall feature (allowed to
put gate location) and Right sub-wall feature (not
allowed to put gate location) (Fig. 4).
After this, development features are created. These
include a boss feature developed on the Base plate
wall feature, named Base boss; two ribs on both
the Base plate wall feature and the Left plate
wall feature, named Side rib and Small rib, as
well as two hole features on the Base plate wall
feature, named Base hole and Square hole. Two
treatment features, named Left round and Right
round, are also created, which correspond to the
Round features under the Solid Edge environment.
Assume that the designer wants to specify that some
of these development features can be suppressed
during CAE analysis. This is achieved by assigning
the suppressibility attribute of the corresponding
features.
The part feature is created next. The part name
Fig. 10. Abstracting analysis geometry model of the design case.
is specied as U-shape Carrier. Material is speci-
ed as: material type: PP-2; manufacturer: ATC
Inc. [ATC]; trade name: ATX 75939B [AT001].
Assume that the designer has created two gate
location markers (Fig. 4), which will later be used
to create the boundary condition le.
With all the features created and their relevant
information specied, the system will automatically
construct the desired integration model.
Based on this integration model, the designer can
activate the CAE package to carry out analysis. This
is achieved by rst abstracting an idealized analysis
geometry model from the integration model (Fig.
10). As can be seen, a hole feature (Square hole),
a rib feature (Small rib) and two treatment features
(Left round and Right round) have been sup-
pressed (their names are prexed with a star in the
feature tree window).
The abstracted geometry model is used to create
a surface mesh model. The system activates the
relevant module of Moldow to achieve this. By
extracting the coordinates of the gate location mark-
ers from the integration model, and comparing them
with the node coordinates of the created mesh
model, the gate locations can be assigned to the
mesh model, hence a boundary condition le can be
automatically created. Figure 11 shows the generated
mesh model displayed under Moldow Plastic
Insight (MPI) environment (the two gate locations
are also displayed).
Next the non-geometric information is abstracted
90 Y.-M. Deng et al.
Fig. 11. Surface mesh model of the design case under MPI environment.
to create the Moldow analysis inputs le. With
this le, the relevant Moldow analysis routines are
executed automatically. The whole process incorpor-
ates both design and analysis. During this process,
a same data model, namely the integration model,
was created and used, which allows the designer to
specify analysis information over the CAD design
model directly.
5.2. Case No. 2
This case study illustrates how an iterative design-
analysis process can be carried out by using the
developed system. Specic targets for the analysis
results can be input as constraint information of
the part feature during the design process, and the
constraints checked against the corresponding analy-
sis results. If a constraint is not satised, then the
relevant CAD-CAE features need to be modied in
the integration model. The designer can specify
which parameter is to be changed in the integration
model, e.g. gate location. The CAD-CAE integration
process is then repeated. The process iterates auto-
matically until all the constraints are satised. If
there is more than one design variant satisfying all
constraints, then an optimal one can be selected
which best satises these constraints.
To illustrate this process, a same CAD design
model U-shape Carrier from the above case study
is used. The part material remains unchanged. The
processing conditions are specied as:
Melt temperature: 215C.
Mold temperature: 50C.
Injection time: 2 sec.
Assume that this time the designer decides to use
a single gate instead of the above two-gate design.
The designer also wishes to constrain the single-
gate location to a sub-wall feature Left sub-wall
(Figs 4 or 10). This will automatically constrain the
gate location to those mesh nodes located within this
area. Figure 12 shows the surface mesh generated by
Moldow. This is the same mesh shown in Fig. 11
but viewed from different perspective. The mesh
nodes for the constrained gate location are those
within the outlined area.
Another constraint is specied over the part
feature: the maximum pressure should be less than
20 MPa. After all these data are specied, the
design-analysis process is automatically iterated,
with each iteration a new gate location is used.
Table 3 lists the results from this process.
The results show that when nodes 493, 512, 534,
535, 539, 578 are used as the gate location, the
pressure constraint is not satised. These nodes form
the upper-side area of the constrained sub-wall
feature (Fig. 12). Of those successful nodes, node
519 is the optimum because it best satises the
pressure constraint (it has the minimum value of
the maximum pressure). Node 578, which is at the
upper left corner of the constrained area, has the
maximum value of the maximum pressure, which is
32.7% more than the value when node 519 is used.
Figure 13 shows the contour plot of the maximum
pressure versus the gate location within the con-
strained area of the Left sub-wall feature.
91 A CAD-CAE Integrated Injection Molding Design System
Fig. 12. Mesh nodes for the constrained gate location (within the outlined area).
Fig. 13. Contour plot of maximum pressure versus the constrained gate location.
An intuitive interpretation of these results is that,
in general, a single-gate location should be approxi-
mately in the geometric center of the plastic part,
so as to minimize the requirement of pressure and
to have a uniform ow pattern. Hence, for the
current design case, the gate location is required to
be positioned at the lower edge of the constrained
area, which includes nodes 519524 and 582.
Because of the presence of the Base hole and
Base boss feature, node 519 is nearest to the
geometric center among these candidate nodes.
6. Conclusions
The objective of this research is to develop a CAD-
CAE integrated injection molding design system.
92 Y.-M. Deng et al.
Integration is achieved through a feature-based inte-
gration model and an iterative design-analysis pro-
cess based on the model. The integration model
consists of a number of CAD-CAE features and the
relationships between them. The features capture
both geometric and non-geometric information
essential for CAE analysis.
A system framework for integrating design and
analysis was described. The system platform consists
of a commercial CAD system (Solid Edge) and a
commercial CAE system (Moldow). By using exist-
ing CAD/CAE software as the system platform, devel-
opment effort is reduced considerably and full advan-
tage can be taken of the functionality of this software.
The functionality of ActiveX automation of Solid Edge
is used for retrieving feature geometry and for
accessing Solid Edge itself. A prototype system has
been developed, which consists of a number of mod-
ules organized into four layers: CAD and CAE plat-
form layer, feature layer, model layer and GUI layer.
A number of tools have been developed to assist in
the integrated design-analysis process.
Two design cases were studied which demonstrate
that the system provides a unied data model for
both design and analysis. With this model, designers
can specify not only design information, but also
analysis-related information. This is especially useful
when a designer needs to specify design intentions
that are analysis-related, such as gate location con-
straints. The case study also shows that the
developed system supports iterative design-analysis
process.
The results of this work are not limited to Solid
Edge and Moldow. The feature prototypes and the
integration model can be applied to other CAD
software employing ActiveX automation technology
and to other CAE software.
Future research is aimed at developing automatic
interpretation of CAE analysis results based on pre-
specied target criteria and providing design guides
for modifying the integration model when criteria
are not satised.
Acknowledgments
This project is supported by the Academic Research
Fund, Ministry of Education, Singapore and Moldow
Pty Ltd.
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