Title: Design for manufacture: the case of concurrent mould and part design in injection moulding

Authors: Laurence Meylheuc, Virginie Goepp

Addresses: INSA de Strasbourg – LGeCo Equipe LICIA, 24, Boulevard de la Victoire 67084 – Strasbourg Cedex, France. ' INSA de Strasbourg – LGeCo Equipe LICIA, 24, Boulevard de la Victoire 67084 – Strasbourg Cedex, France

Abstract: In the current context, efficient DFM relying on the ability to manage simultaneously the definitions of the shape, the material and the process, is crucial. The aim of this article is to illustrate, for plastic injection moulding, how to tackle such a situation. To reach our target, computer aided engineering systems should enable to manage the mutual links between the product properties and the product and process parameters. Such a system integrated to conventional computer aided design (CAD) environment and its supporting design process are detailed. The main idea consists in checking systematically the mutual influences between the part and mould CAD models. The design process has two main design sequences: the part driven one and the mould driven one. The proposed architecture is implemented into the commercial CAD environment PTC ProEngineer. The use of the computer system is illustrated on a real study case dealing.

Keywords: plastic injection moulding; concurrent engineering; mould design; part design; computer aided design; CAD; computer aided engineering; CAE; design for X; DFX; design for manufacture; DFM; simultaneous engineering; design process.

DOI: 10.1504/IJDE.2009.030822

International Journal of Design Engineering, 2009 Vol.2 No.4, pp.432 - 450

Published online: 07 Jan 2010 *

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