Title: An effective method for multi-material part design

Authors: Zhan Gao, Yonghua Chen

Addresses: Department of Mechanical Engineering, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam Road, Hong Kong, China. ' Department of Mechanical Engineering, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam Road, Hong Kong, China

Abstract: Injection moulding is the most commercially important of all plastic processing methods. In recent years, multi-material over-moulding has become one of the fastest growing sectors of the injection moulding industry mainly due to its in-mould assembly and in-mould decoration features. Unlike the rapid development of multi-material over-moulding technologies, research in computer-aided design of multi-material parts lags far behind. This paper reports initial thoughts and preliminary results about a computer-aided design method for multi-material parts. Haptic modelling has been developed into the computer-aided design system for quick and intuitive design concepts generation and evaluation. Some of the tedious and difficult tasks such as free-form surface painting, part decompositions, and stiffness evaluation can now be done in the proposed system.

Keywords: haptic interface; over-moulding; multi-material parts; product design; virtual prototyping; injection moulding; computer-aided design; CAD; conceptual design; freeform surfaces; surface painting; part decomposition; stiffness evaluation; in-mould assembly; in-mould decoration.

DOI: 10.1504/IJCAT.2008.019486

International Journal of Computer Applications in Technology, 2008 Vol.32 No.1, pp.21 - 30

Published online: 14 Jul 2008 *

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