3D Rapid Initial Design Plastic Injection Moulds

Journal of The Institution of Engineers, Singapore
Vol. 44 Issue 4 2004
3D RAPID REALIZATION OF INITIAL DESIGN FOR

PLASTIC INJECTION MOULDS
Maria L.H. Low1 and K.S. Lee2
ABSTRACT
To provide an initial design of the mould assembly for customers prior to receiving the
final product CAD data is a preliminary work of any final plastic injection mould design.
Traditionally and even up till now, this initial design is always created using 2D CAD
packages. The information used for the initial design is based on the technical discussion
checklist, in which most mould makers have their own standards. This technical
discussion checklist is also being used as a quotation. This paper presents a
methodology of rapid realization of the initial design in 3D solid based on the technical
discussion checklist, which takes the role of the overall standard template. Information
are extracted from databases and coupled with the basic information from customer,
these information are input into the technical discussion checklist. Rules and heuristics
are also being used in the initial mould design. A case study is provided to illustrate the
use of the standard template and to exhibit its real application of rapid realization of the
initial design for plastic injection moulds.
INTRODUCTION
The most established method for producing plastic parts in large quantities is plastic
injection moulding. This is a highly cost-effective, precise and competent manufacturing
method, which can be automated. However, costly tooling and machinery are needed in
this manufacturing process. The design of a plastic injection mould is an integral part of
plastic injection moulding as the quality of the final plastic part is greatly reliant on the
injection mould. A plastic injection mould is a high precision tooling that is being used
to mass produce plastic parts and is by itself an assembly of cavities, mould base and
standard components etc. An example of an injection mould assembly is shown in Figure
1.
Over the years, much research work using computer-aided techniques had been done
from studying the very specific areas of mould design to studying mould design as a
whole integrated system. Knowledge-based systems such as IMOLD (Lee et al. 1997),
ESMOLD (Chin et al. 1997), IKMOULD (Mok et al. 2001), etc were developed for
injection mould design. Many commercial mould design software packages such as
IMOLD, UG MoldWizard, R&B MoldWorks, etc are also available today in the market
for mould makers. However, the systems and software packages mentioned above did
not consider the initial design prior to actual mould design. These software packages
1
Research Student, Department of Mechanical Engineering, National University of Singapore, Singapore 119260
2
Associate Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering, National University of Singapore,
Singapore 119260
15
assist in the preparation of the detailed mould design that includes the core/cavity
creation, cooling and ejection design. As a result, mould designers hardly used the mould
design software packages when they are doing their initial design because the software
does not catered for such a design process.
Figure 1: An injection mould assembly
There is not much research being done on the initial design of plastic injection moulds
except for Ye et al. (2000) who presented an algorithm for the initial design. The
researchers first determine the parting line for the plastic part followed by the calculation
of the number of cavities required. The cavity layout is created based on the input
information of the layout pattern and the orientation of each cavity. The mould base is
loaded automatically to accommodate the layout. The researchers also proposed to use
their initial design as a guide tool for the quotation of the mould. However, the research
that is being done may not be applicable for most plastic injection moulding industries.
The calculation of the number of cavities required is mostly determined by the customers
who provides the product CAD file and they seldom seek opinion from the mould makers,
thus this step could be omitted to save time. Although external undercuts are identified in
the product, the research did not consider the standard components that are required in
producing such undercuts, which in this case, the use of sliders. The research also did not
consider internal undercuts where lifters are required. Thus, the quotation derived would
not reflect the correct costing of the mould, and thus could be very misleading, since the
16
use of these types of standard components can increase the cost of producing such a
mould substantially.
Alternatively, the authors (Low et al. 2002) proposed a methodology of standardizing the
cavity layout design system for plastic injection mould such that only standard cavity
layouts are used. When only standard layouts are used, their layout configurations can
easily be stored in a database for fast retrieval later in the mould design stage. This
research is being incorporated into the rapid realization of the initial design for plastic
injection mould in this paper.
There is a need to introduce a faster method of mould design since there are fewer very
experienced mould designers and coupled with the fact of todays market demands of
having shorter lead-time and higher quality products. This is fulfilled by the introduction
of standardization into mould design, since the design processes are repeatable for every
mould design project. This paper presents a methodology of rapid realization of the
initial design in 3D solid instead of 2D drawings using standardization method. The
initial design in 3D solid will be based on the technical discussion checklist that acts as
the overall standard template. Every sub-design such as cavity layout design, gating
system, mould base design etc will have its own respective standard template. This is to
enable timesavings in the design stage as the final mould design can be obtained directly
by making minute changes to the initial design.
INITIAL DESIGN OF PLASTIC INJECTION MOULD

The customers and the mould designers have to work closely together to obtain a mould
that could produce what is desired suitably. It would be costly to rectify the errors after
the mould is manufactured completely. Thus the initial planning of how the layout
design of the mould is likely to be is important. A typical mould design project workflow
chart is shown in Figure 2. When the customers have decided to engage a particular
mould-maker, the CAD file of the product have to be provided to them. However, the
mould-maker is always prepared to receive newer versions of the product CAD file as
changes are constantly made to it. The downside of this is that the lead-time given to
complete the mould still remains as it is. Thus, the time that was left to complete the
final mould design and manufacture the mould becomes shorter.
When the product CAD file is first received, the assigned project engineer or mould
designer fills up a technical checklist during their first technical discussion with the
customers. The checklist records information such as the resin material to be used and its
shrinkage value, the number of cavities required by customers, the gating system, and the
moulding machine to be used, the required type of mould base and other information
needed to provide the basis of the initial design of the mould. Since this checklist
contains most of the basic information, it doubles up as a quotation. This allows
customers to decide whether to modify their product CAD file to produce a simpler
mould that is cheaper. After that, the mould designer prepares an initial design based on
the product CAD file and information in the checklist.
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Figure 2: Typical mould design project workflow chart
Traditionally and even up till now, mould designers are using 2D CAD packages to
create the initial design, although 3D CAD packages are readily available. Ironically,
mould designers would then use the 3D CAD package only in their final mould design.
When this initial design is completed, it will be presented on the next technical discussion.
Modifications made to the initial design are normally done by marking and sketching the
changes on the printed drawing paper. Though there is no final product CAD file at this
stage, the mould-maker could go ahead to purchase the raw materials and standard
components subject to approval of the customers. After the final product CAD file has
been received, the mould designer would start the actual mould design afresh using the
3D CAD package that they have. This is a time consuming method since the initial
design is not related to the final mould design.
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Figure 3: Proposed design structure
THE DESIGN STRUCTURE

Figure 3 shows the overall structure of the proposed system. In the proposed approach,
the standardization method utilizes standard mould designs, which are derived from the
information listed in the technical discussion checklist. This checklist takes on the role of
the overall standard template and must be used for every new mould project. The sub-
designs will have their own templates. Databases are used to record information such as
types of standard components, types of design, geometrical parameters and project data
etc. Mould-making industries can easily adopt the proposed approach since they are able
19
to customize the databases to include their own standards. A standard mould design uses
only standard components such as the mould bases; ejector pins and other accessories.
Standard configuration of cavity layouts, that produces only the same products in a
balanced layout are used in a standard mould design. Calculations used in a standard
mould design are based on rules and heuristics, which can be applied universally to any
organizations. Rules and heuristics make up an important sector of mould design since
they determine if the mould that is designed, is able to fit into the specified moulding
machine or be able to mass produce the product without any problems due to bad design.
The hierarchical organization of the assembly files of a standard mould design should
also follow a single mould assembly structure.
Provision had been made in this system to present representations of the core, cavity,
slider head and lifter head as blocks in the initial design. These blocks can be edited to
trim to the profile only when the final product CAD file has been received and confirmed.
During the initial design, ejector pins/blades and cooling lines are still not included
because these depend greatly on the final product CAD file. Since this paper focuses on
the rapid realization of initial design, core/cavity parting, profile creation, addition of
ejector pins/blades and cooling lines will not be discussed here. 3D solids would be used
as they have their advantages. The advantages of solid modeling are better visualization,
simplified simulation, improved producability, faster drawing production and facilitates
an integrated design process.
Standardization method
Standardization method involves using standard mould designs, standard components and
a standard working method of mould design. This means that every mould designer will
design moulds in exactly the same method, use the same design assembly hierarchy tree,
and use standard components from a specified supplier. This allows the different teams
involved in the mould project to speak the same language. The advantages are as follows:
a) Easy following-up of mould project, b) Lower cost and faster delivery of components
and c) Proper mould project management.
Databases
Four different types of databases are used in this system (Figure 3): a) Library database
is a collection of all standard components commonly used by the mould-making industry.
b) Configuration database is used for all standard components and cavity layout design.
All the different configurations are already pre-defined in the 3D solid files and only the
required configuration will be activated. c) Project database is a collection of all data that
is input into the technical discussion checklist and sub-designs interfaces, thus enables
tracking and retrieval of information that are unique to a particular project. The quantity
of the various components and their types that are to be used in the project are also
recorded here, thus enabling an easy generation of an initial bill of materials (BOMs)
when desired and d) Geometrical parameters database is utilized where there is a need to
change the geometrical parameters such as distances between different cavities and
locations of standard components etc.
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SYSTEM IMPLEMENTATION
A prototype of the rapid realization of initial design system for plastic injection mould
has been implemented using a PIII PC-compatible as the hardware. This prototype
system utilizes SolidWorks 2001 as the CAD software, Microsoft Visual C++ V6.0 as the
programming language and the SolidWorks API in a Windows environment. The rules,
heuristics and formulations used in this prototype system are based on the local mould
making industries in Singapore.
Figure 4: Completed Technical Discussion Checklist
Technical discussion checklist & mould assembly structure

Before the sub-designs are utilized, the overall standard template, Technical Discussion
Checklist, must be used first (Figure 4). This enables the mould design to follow a
21
standard mould assembly structure using the initial product CAD file, the basic
information and requirements from customers. It is important to adhere to the same
mould assembly structure for every mould design project within an organization to ensure
every mould designer follows the same working methods of designing. It also enables
other mould designers to be able to locate a certain design of a component easily.
Table 1: Short extraction of injection moulding machine database
TYPE COMPANY MC MODEL MC TONN TIE BAR (H*V) PLATEN DIM OPEN ST MOULD HT MAX DAYLT EJECT ST
Toggle Engel ES 350 K-SL 350 735 x 735 1080 x 1080 700 250-660 1360 240
Toggle Engel ES 500 K 500 840 x 840 1200 x 1200 700 250-750 1450 240
Toggle Toshiba EC 20 20 280 x 280 390 x 390 230 130-250 480 50

Hydraulic Toshiba IS 90 B 90 375 x 375 545 x 545 475 160 635 63

Hydraulic Toshiba IS 550 E 550 860 x 860 1230 x 1230 1200 400 1600 160
Hydraulic Toshiba IS 630 CNII 630 930 x 930 1350 x 1350 1200 600 1800 180
The section Project Tracking records down the basic details of the project. In the
section known as the Moulding Material, the resin to be used is chosen from the list.
The shrinkage value of the resin is entered into the space provided so that the initial
product CAD file can be scaled accordingly prior to mould design. The section on
Moulding Machine Details allows users to select the moulding machine to be used.
The customers provide this information. Upon selecting the required machine from the
list, it extracts data from the moulding machine database and reflects the relevant
dimensional information onto the appropriate spaces in the interface. A short extraction
of the injection moulding machine database is depicted in Table 1. The section on
Mould Information records down information such as the type of cavity layout and the
number of cavities that is required. All these information in this section will eventually
be used in their own individual sub-designs templates where users are able to input more
information or to edit the current selection or the geometrical parameters. The last
22
section records down the mould materials and the type of surface finishing required. This
information is needed for the initial quotation and the procurement of materials for the
mould project. Finally, entering the persons name that had recorded the information and
the date when the information is recorded ensures that a proper record is kept. All the
information that is entered is listed into a mould project database.
Shrinkage factor & core/cavity creation

A representation of the core and a representation of the cavity in the form of blocks are
simultaneously created to encapsulate the scaled product CAD file. A default-offset
value is applied to the range box of the scaled part to give the approximate size of the
blocks (Figure 5). These values are commonly used by mould designers locally and can
be edited.
Figure 5: Default-offset value between range box of the scaled part and
core/cavity
23
Other accessories/secondary components

The secondary components that may need to be selected during the initial mould design
are sliders, lifters and special inserts. Sliders and lifters will be the source of concern in
the layout assembly level as they played a part in determining the overall size of the
layout assembly. They are initially categorized into the general types and are available in
three basic sizes: Small (S), Medium (M) and Large (L). The respective sub-design
templates for the sliders and lifters are used to place the components to the appropriate
undercuts. They also functions as an interface to allow users to edit the geometrical
parameters or configurations of the secondary components. As this is the initial design,
very accurate positioning is not required but the secondary components have to be at its
correct location and orientation.
Cavity layout
Only standard types of cavity layout are used in this prototype system (Low et al. 2002).
As the types of available layouts are fixed, the different types of layouts can be listed into
a configuration database that enables the required layout to be activated in the mould
assembly during the mould design. This provides a faster method of designing. The
desired new configuration can be reloaded via the sub-design template for cavity layout.
In addition, the orientation, the distances between cavities, which are known as
geometrical parameters can also be edited through the same interface.
Selection of mould base size

The secondary components and cavity layout are assembled in the layout assembly. The
overall size of the layout assembly needs to be known in order to select the appropriate
mould base size. The system automatically loads the smallest possible mould base from
the available configurations of the specified model of mould base that has been selected.
Simultaneously, the system has to check the compatibility of the chosen mould base with
the targeted injection moulding machine that is to be used for moulding the products.
Parameters that are checked are the tie-bar dimensions, platen dimensions, mould height
and maximum daylight of moulding machine. A representation of the clamping unit of
the chosen injection moulding machine can be activated to allow the user to verify the
design visually.
Gating & runner design

The standard design of gates and runner are pre-created and store in a library database.
Depending on the number of cavities that are indicated earlier, the appropriate
configuration will be activated in the initial mould design. In this prototype system, some
rules and heuristics are also set for the gating and runner design. The available options
can be selected only after the type of mould base has been chosen since they are
dependent on the type of mould base.
24
The rules for selection of the gating are:
1. For 2-plate mould, types of gating that can be used are all but pin-point gating
and hot-runner gating.
2. For 3-plate mould, only pin-point gating and side gating can be used and not
the rest of the options.
3. For hot runner moulds, only the different choices of hot runner gating can be
used.
The general rules in the design of runners are:
1. For 2-plate moulds, runners with round cross-sections are being used.
2. For 3-plate mould, runners with trapezoidal cross-sections are being used.
3. For hot runner moulds, no runners are needed.
Figure 6a: External undercuts of Figure 6b: Internal undercut of

test part and sliders test part and lifter
A CASE STUDY
The test part that is used in this case study is a phone casing. The approximate size is
180mm 60mm 35mm. ABS that has a shrinkage value of 0.5% is used. The
25
moulding machine used is a Toshiba 280-ton toggle type injection moulding machine
(Table 1). The dimensional information of the clamping unit is given in Table 1. A
closer observation of this test part reveals that there are three undercuts, thus requiring
additional accessories such as lifters and sliders. Figure 6a illustrates the external
undercuts that require sliders and Figure 6b shows an internal undercut that requires a
lifter. A 2-plate mould with two cavities is also required for this test part. The
information as supplied by the customer, are entered into or selected from the Technical
Discussion Checklist interface that acts as a standard template for all mould projects
(Figure 4). Then, the original product CAD file of the test part is scaled accordingly to
the shrinkage factor provided by the interface. The core and cavity are also created at the
same time to encapsulate the test part. The selected type of the mould base, gating
system and the required accessories are copied into the respective levels of the mould
assembly structure.
Figure 7: Application of sub-design template for lifter to test part
Secondary components are attached to the core/cavity assembly. Figure 7 shows the
application of the sub-design template for the lifter. A similar sub-design template is
used separately for sliders. Since the requirement for this test part is to have a two-cavity
layout, the linear two-cavity configuration is activated. Since there are sliders between
the two cavities, an allowance is given between the cavities (Figure 8). This distance can
be edited using the cavity layout sub-design interface. In this case study, the overall size
of the layout is approximately 520mm 250mm 320mm (Figure 9). Thus, a mould
base must have an ejector plate and ejector retainer plate that is larger than 520mm
250mm. Since the mould base type that was chosen is the DME SF series, a smallest
possible mould base is of the 4060 configuration. As the distance between the tie bars of
26
the moulding machine is 730mm 730mm, the selected mould base can be secured onto
the moulding machine without any difficulty. The completed initial design of the
injection mould for the test part is shown in Figure 10. A representation of the clamping
unit of the moulding machine can be activated to allow verification that the mould is
designed correctly since it is easy to visualize them in 3D (Figure 11).
Figure 8: Providing allowance between cavities
Figure 9: Overall size of layout assembly of test part
27
Figure 10: Completed initial design of the injection mould for the test part
Figure 11: Designed mould of test part with clamping unit
28
CONCLUSIONS
An approach to using the standardization method is applied to the rapid realization of the
initial design of plastic injection moulds in this paper. Design processes that are the same
for every mould design project are consolidated into a standard template. The technical
discussion checklist takes on the role of the overall standard template while the sub-
designs have their own sub-templates. The use of databases allows the flexibility in
allowing customization. Approximate costing of the mould can also be derived from the
information based on the checklist. Other advantages include having a faster approach to
design, designing a mould that functions and easy visualization.
However, this rapid realization of initial design system has its limitations. As technology
advances, more databases, rules and heuristics needs to be built into the system to
accommodate for mould designs meant for the newer forms of plastic injection moulding
such as multi-colour moulding and thin-wall moulding. Much effort and money needs to
be invested by organizations to customize their systems to consider the new technologies.
The databases for the materials and moulding machine also had to be constantly updated
and checked to account for the newer materials and machines that are introduced into the
industry. If there is a wrong entry in the databases, the results that are obtained can be
disastrous. An experienced designer would know at once when the design is not right but
to a novice designer, he/she may just accept the design without much thought, believing
that the system would always provide the correct solution. The authors are currently
researching into improving the system so as to enable an easier approach of
customization.
REFERENCES
CHIN, KWAI-SANG and T. N. WONG, 1996, Knowledge-based evaluation for the
conceptual design development of injection molding parts. Engineering Application of
Artificial Intelligence, 9(4), 359-376
LEE, K. S., Z. LI, J. Y. H, FUH, Y. F. ZHANG and A. Y. C. NEE, 1997, Knowledge-based

injection mold design system. CIRP International Conference and Exhibition on
Design and Production of Dies and Moulds, Turkey, June, 45-50
LOW, MARIA L. H. and K. S. LEE, 2002, A parametric-controlled cavity layout design

system for plastic injection mould. The International Journal of Advanced
Manufacturing Technology, Accepted for publication
Li Pang, Kamath G M, Wereley N M, Dynamic Characterisation And Analysis Of

Magnetorheological Damper Behaviour, SPIE Conference on Passive Damping and
Isolation SPIE Vol. 3327, pp 284-302, 1998
MOK, C. K, K. S. CHIN and JOHN K. L. HO, 2001, An interactive knowledge-based CAD

system for mould design in injection moulding processes. The International Journal of
Advanced Manufacturing Technology, 17, 27-38
29
YE, X. G., K. S. LEE, J. Y. H, FUH, Y. F. ZHANG and A. Y. C. NEE, 2000, Automatic

initial design of injection mould. International Journal of Material & Product
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30

3D Rapid Initial Design Plastic Injection Moulds

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Journal of The Institution of Engineers, Singapore

Vol. 44 Issue 4 2004

3D RAPID REALIZATION OF INITIAL DESIGN FOR

Figure 1: An injection mould assembly

INITIAL DESIGN OF PLASTIC INJECTION MOULD

Figure 2: Typical mould design project workflow chart

Figure 3: Proposed design structure

THE DESIGN STRUCTURE

Figure 4: Completed Technical Discussion Checklist

Technical discussion checklist & mould assembly structure

Table 1: Short extraction of injection moulding machine database

Toggle Toshiba EC 20 20 280 x 280 390 x 390 230 130-250 480 50

Hydraulic Toshiba IS 90 B 90 375 x 375 545 x 545 475 160 635 63

Shrinkage factor & core/cavity creation

Other accessories/secondary components

Selection of mould base size

Gating & runner design

The rules for selection of the gating are:

The general rules in the design of runners are:

3. For hot runner moulds, no runners are needed.

Figure 6a: External undercuts of Figure 6b: Internal undercut of

Figure 7: Application of sub-design template for lifter to test part

Figure 8: Providing allowance between cavities

Figure 9: Overall size of layout assembly of test part

Figure 11: Designed mould of test part with clamping unit

LEE, K. S., Z. LI, J. Y. H, FUH, Y. F. ZHANG and A. Y. C. NEE, 1997, Knowledge-based

LOW, MARIA L. H. and K. S. LEE, 2002, A parametric-controlled cavity layout design

Li Pang, Kamath G M, Wereley N M, Dynamic Characterisation And Analysis Of

MOK, C. K, K. S. CHIN and JOHN K. L. HO, 2001, An interactive knowledge-based CAD

YE, X. G., K. S. LEE, J. Y. H, FUH, Y. F. ZHANG and A. Y. C. NEE, 2000, Automatic

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