IntJAdvManufTechnol(2003)22:387–395DOI10.1007/s00170-002-1514-9
ORIGINALARTICLE
W.M.ChanÆL.YanÆW.XiangÆB.T.Cheok
A3DCADknowledge-basedassistedinjectionmoulddesignsystem
Received:5June2002/Accepted:23August2002/Publishedonline:29May2003ÓSpringer-VerlagLondonLimited2003
AbstractThispaperpresentsthebasicstructureofaninteractiveknowledge-basedinjectionmoulddesignsystem(IKB-MOULD).Thebasisofthissystemarisesfromananalysisoftheinjectionmoulddesignprocessformoulddesigncompanies.Thisinjectionmouldde-signsystemcoversboththemoulddesignprocessandmouldknowledgemanagement.IKB-MOULDinte-gratestheintelligentdesignprocessandknowledgemanagementwithmanydevelopedinteractivetoolsinacommercialsolidmodellingsoftwareenvironment.KeywordsInjectionmoulddesignÆKnowledgebaseÆInjectionmouldobjectrepresentation
1Introduction
Inrecentyearstheplasticproductmanufacturingindustryhasbeengrowingrapidly.Averypopularmouldingprocessformakingplasticpartsisinjectionmoulding.Theinjectionmoulddesigniscriticallyimportanttoproductqualityande cientproductpro-cessing.Mould-makingcompanies,whowishtomain-tainthecompetitiveedge,desiretoshortenbothdesignandmanufacturingleadingtimesbyautomatingthedesignprocess.Thus,thedevelopmentofacomputer-aidedinjectionmoulddesignsystem(CAIMDS)isbecomingafocusofresearchinbothindustryandaca-demia.
Recentlypublishedpapersshowthatresearchinautomaticmoulddesignfocusesonindividualcompo-nentsofthemouldprocess.ForexampleOngetal.[1]andRavi[2]focusedtheirresearchonthefeeding
W.M.Chan(&)ÆL.YanÆW.XiangÆB.T.Cheok
InstituteofHighPerformanceComputing,1ScienceParkRoad,#01-01TheCapricorn,SingaporeScienceParkII,117528,Singapore
E-mail:chanwm@ihpc.a-star.edu.sgTel.:+65-6-4191111Fax:+65-6-4191280
system.Wangetal.[3]focusedtheirresearchontheejectionsystem.Othersfocustheirresearchonthegeneraldesign.Mostresearchdoneonthegeneralinjectionmouldsystemcanbeclassi edintotwoareas:(a)functional,conceptualandinitialmoulddesigns;and(b)algorithmstoautomatemouldgeneration.
Functional,conceptualandinitialdesignsoftheinjectionmouldareappliedmainlytothepre-moulddesign.Suchdesigninvolvesselectingasuitablemouldbase,arrangingthecavitylayout,designingtherunneranddesigningthegate.Theobjectiveistocomeupwithalargenumberofverydi erentproductideasforacertainrequirement.Brittonetal.[4]addressedinjectionmoulddesignfromafunctionalperspectivebypresent-ingtheFunction-Environment-Behaviour-Structure(FEBS)model.Thestudyfosteredawiderangeofde-signalternatives.CostaandYoung[5]proposedaproductrangemodel(PRM)tosupportthereuseofdesigninformationinvariantdesigncases.ThegeneralstructureofaPRMisde nedintermsofdesignfunc-tionslinkedwithsetsofdesignsolutions,interactionsbetweenpotentialsolutionsandknowledgelinks.Yeetal.[6]presentedanapproachtoautomaticinitialdesignwithalgorithmsthatcalculatethecavitynumberandautomaticallylayoutthecavity.Theinitialinjectionmoulddesigninvolvesextensiveempiricalknowledgeofthestructureandfunctionsofthemouldcomponents.Thus,alotofresearchersadoptaknowledge-basedapproach.Severalknowledge-basedsystems(KBSs)weredevelopedtoadviseplasticmaterialselection,captureinjectionmouldpartdesignfeatures,analysemouldability,automatethemoulddesignprocessanddevelopmoulddesignformanufacture.ExamplesofsuchsystemsareGERES(Nielsen[7]),PLASSEX(AgrawalandVasudevan[8]),EIMPPLAN-1(ChinandWong[9]),CADFEED(Ongetal.[10]),ICAD(Cin-quegrana[11]),IKMOULD(Moketal.[12])andKBSofDrexelUniversity(Tsengetal.[13]).However,theseKBSsconsideronlycertainaspectsofthetotaldesign.Asfortheautomaticgenerationofaninjectionmould,anumberoftheoreticalresearchworkswere