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–Standard/previousdesignedcomponents/assemblies
(product-independentparts)management.Apartfromthecoreandcavity,aninjectionmouldhasmanyotherpartsthataresimilarinstructureandgeometricalshapethatcanbeusedinotherinjectionmoulddesigns.Thesepartsareindependentoftheplasticmouldproducts.Theyaremostlystandardcomponentsthatcanbereusedindi erentmoulddesignsandmouldsets.
–Usefultools(includingsoliddesignandanalysiscalculation)inthecoreandthecavity(product-dependentparts)design.Geometricalshapesandthesizesofthecoreandcavitysystemaredetermineddirectlybythemouldproduct.Allcomponentsinsuchasystemareproductdependent.Also,thesepartsarethecriticalcomponentsinthemoulddesign.
Fig.1ThestructureoftheIKB-MOULD
Theirgeometricalrequirementsmaybecomplicated.Thus,sometoolsdevelopedtodesignthecoreandthecavitybasedonpartialautomationandpartialinteractioncanbequiteuseful.
–Designforassembly.InconventionalCAD/CAMsystems,mouldsarerepresentedandstoredasacompletegeometricandtopologicalsolidmodel.Thismodeliscomposedoffaces,edgesandverticesinathreedimensional(3D)Euclideanspace.Sucharep-resentationissuitableforvisualdisplayandper-forminggeometricallycomputation-intensivetaskssuchasengineeringanalysisandsimulation.How-ever,thisformisnotappropriatefortasksthatrequiredecision-makingbasedonhigh-levelinfor-mationaboutproductgeometricentitiesandtheirrelationships.Moulddesignerspreferadesignforassemblyenvironmentinsteadofasimplesolidmodelenvironment.ThisideaisalsopresentedinYeetal.’swork
[24].