文献Single gate optimization for plastic injection mold.docxVIP

Single gate optimizationforplastic injectionmoldAbstract：This paper deals with a methodology for single gate location optimization for plastic injection mold The objective of the gate optimization is to minimize the warpage of injection molded pans，because warpage is a crucial quality issue for most injection molded parts while it is influenced greatly by the gate location．Feature warpage is defined as the ratio of maximum displacement on the feature surface to the projected length of the feature surface to describe part warpage．The optimization is combined with the numerical simulation technology to find the optimal gate location，in which the simulated annealing algorithm is used to search for the optimum．Finally，an example is discussed in the paper and it can be concluded that the proposed method is effective．Key words：Injection mold，Gate location，Optimization，Feature warpageIntroductionPlastic injection molding is a widely used， complex but highlyefficienttechniqueforproducingalarge variety ofplastic products，particularlythosewithhigh production requirement，tight tolerance，andcomplex shapes．The quality ofinjection moldedpartsis a function ofplastic material，part geometry，moldstructure and process conditions．The most importantpartof an injectionmoldbasicallyis thefollowingthree sets of components：cavities，gates and runners，andcooling system．Lam andSeow(2000)andJin andLam(2002)achieved cavity balancing by varyingthe wall thickness of the part A balance filling processwithin thecavity givesanevenlydistributedpressureand temperaturewhich candrasticallyreduce thewarpageofthe part．But the cavity balancingisonlyone of theimportant influencingfactors ofpart qualities．Especially，the part has its functional requirements，anditsthicknesses should not be varied usually．From the pointview of the injection mold design．A gate is characterized by its size and location．And the runner system by the size and layout．The gate size and runner layout are usually determined as constants．