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Fig.5TheIKB-MOULDenvironment
3.2.1Thepre-mouldprocess
Productmouldabilityisevaluatedinthispre-mouldprocess.Someissuestobeconsideredarematerialthermalexpansion,theplastic owdirectionandtheproductdraftangle.Thesystemnotonlyallowsexpe-riencedmoulddesignerstode netheshrinkageoftheproductmodel,butalsotorecommendproductshrinkageusingthemateriallibrary.Thismaterialli-braryisamaterialdatabasethatstoresinformationaboutthematerial’sviscosity,temperaturesensitivity,anddegreeofdi erentialshrinkage.Basedonthegenerictypeofmaterialused,IKB-MOULDsystemretrievesthematerialshrinkageratefromthemateriallibrary.Onceshrinkageisdetermined,theproductmodelisreconstructedtoaccountformaterialshrink-agethatoccursduringthemouldoperation.3.2.2Theinitialmoulddesign
Mouldspeci cationisdoneintheinitialstageoftheinjectionmoulddesign.Therequirementsoftheplasticcomponentarespeci edatthisstage.Decisionsmadeatthisstageincludeafunctionalanalysis,thenumberofcavities,thecavitieslayoutandthetypeofmouldcon- guration.Theinitialdesignplaysanimportantroleinthemoulddesign.Oncetheinitialdesignstageis
completed,
Figure1showsthebasicstructureoftheinjectionmoulddesignprocessintheIKB-MOULD.TheIKB-MOULDiscomposedofthefollowingmodules:aproductmodelinterface,amoulddesignmodule,aknowledgebaseandsomeotherlibraries.3.1Theproductmodelinterface
TheproductmodelistheinputtotheIKB-MOULDdesignprocess.Thismodelcanbeasolid,standardengineeringinterchange,orasurfaceorwire-framemodel.TheIKB-MOULDsystemprovidesaproductmodelinterfacetoacceptasolidmodelbuiltindi erenttypesofsolidmodellingsoftware.ItcandirectlyloadtheproductmodelbuiltinSolidDesigner.IftheproductisdevelopedfromaCADsystemthatisotherthanSol-idDesigner,thentheproductneedstobeconvertedusingSTEP,IGESorDXF.3.2Themoulddesignmodule
TheinjectionmoulddesignprocessofthemoulddesignmoduleinIKB-MOULDcoversthepre-mouldingpro-cess,theinitialmoulddesignandthedetailedmoulddesign.