392
Fig.6Theinsert2Ddrawing
–Thedeterminationofthemouldbase.Theprojection
areaofthecavitylayoutalongtheejectiondirectioncanbeusedtodeterminetheminimummouldbasesize.TheIKB-MOULDhasamouldbaselibrarythatstoresmanystandardmouldbases(the xedhalfandthemovinghalf).
Designrulesandexpertknowledgeintheinitialmoulddesignprocessareregardedasheuristicknowl-edgeincorporatedintotheIKB-MOULD.Aftertheinitialdesign,amouldspeci cationcanbegenerated.
themouldstructureisdetermined.Suchaninitialdesignisusuallytheguidelineforthemouldquotation,themouldbaseorderingandthedetailedmoulddesign.
–Thedeterminationofthecavitynumber.Thenumber
ofcavitiescanbedeterminedusinganempiricalfor-mulathatconsidersdi erentfactors.Thesefactorsaretheperiodofdelivery,theminimumcost,theproductprecisionqualityrequirementorthemachinetechnicaldatasuchasthemaximumshotcapacityandtheclampingforce(Menges[25]).Yeetal.[26]determinedthecavitynumberbasedonamixedconsiderationofthreefactors:machinetechnicaldata,minimumcostanddeliverydate.
Oftenmoulddesignersdeterminethecavitynumberbasedontheirexperienceandsuggestedempiricalcalculationswithconsiderationtodi erentfactors.–Thedeterminationofthecavitylayout.Thecavitylayoutofaninjectionmouldusuallyincludesthelayoutpatternandorientationofeachcavityinthemould.Thelayoutpatterndependsonthecavitynumber.Abal-ancedlayoutpatterniscommonlyadoptedformultiplecavities,suchastwo-cavity,four-cavityandeight-cavity.Orientationofthecavitya ectsthepositionandorientationofthegatesystem.Inotherwords,cavityorientationandgatelocationshouldbebalanced.
3.2.3Thedetailedmoulddesign
Inthedetailedmoulddesign,theIKB-MOULDisdevelopedforthreedifferentandusefulapplicationsforusebythemoulddesigncompanies:thedesignforassembly,thedesignfora2DdrawingandthedesignforBOM.
(1)Thedesignforassembly.Aninjectionmouldisa
mechanicalassemblythatiscomposedoftheprod-uct-independentandproduct-dependentparts.De-signoftheproduct-dependentpartsisbasedonthegeometryextractedfromtheplasticproduct.Thisextractioncanberealisedbyintegratingsomeautomationalgorithmsandexpertknowledge.Thedesignofproduct-independentpartsisbasedonthedesigner’sexperienceandcatalogue
information.