3D RAPID REALIZATION OF INITIAL DESIGN FOR
PLASTIC INJECTION MOULDS
Maria L.H. Low1 and K.S. Lee2
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.
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,ESMOLD, IKMOULD, 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 assist in the preparation of the detailed mould design that includes the
