DESIGN AND PRODUCTION WORKFLOW OF PLASTIC

INJECTION MOULDS

Balzs Mik
PhD, Assoc. Prof.
Budapest Polytechnic, Bnki Dont Mechanical Engineering Faculty
Department of Manufacturing Engineering, miko.balazs@bgk.bmf.hu
1081 Budapest Npsznhz u. 8.

Summary
The application of CAD/CAM/CAE systems are indispensable during the plastic
injection production workflow, because the mould design and manufacturing
process is going fast for the sake of increasing customers demand. Use of an
appropriate workflow can help to manage and control the whole process.
Keywords: plastic injection mould, design and manufacturing process, CAD/CAM
applications

1. INTRODUCTION

The role of the engineering plastics is increasing in our days in the automotive
industry. Aluminium and steel parts are replaced by plastic parts, which generate
less overall mass, reduce production costs and environment pollution. Due to these
trends the mould maker companies face a considerable challenge in terms of
productivity of design and manufacturing and control of project management.
The expansion of productivity of design and manufacturing is not conceivable
without the application of 3D parametric CAD/CAM systems. These systems have
important effect to the design and manufacturing of plastic injection moulds,
because they permit to design very complex parts with many freeform surfaces,
which was unthinkable in the past. Based on the part model the models of core and
cavity are designed by simple processes, and based on it the NC programs are
planned too. In this wise the whole design and manufacturing process build on
common digital part model, and it allows uniform data handling and the simple and
efficient change management.
The current article will present the workflow of plastic injection mould design
and manufacturing, the subtasks of each steps and the industrial practice of
computer support.

2. DESIGN AND MANUFACTURING WORKFLOW

An injection mould is a customize product, so its production process is

customize too. Even so the production workflow consists of same steps (Fig. 1.),
only the object of design and manufacturing is changed. The presented workflow is
a general process, which was created based on industrial practice of several firms.
Of course some company can apply a different process.
Figure 1. Mould design and manufacturing workflow
 The start point of a project is the customer, who wants to apply an injection
mould for production of a plastic part. The customer ensures the geometrical
description of the part and the requirements list of the demanded mould. The form
of geometric data can be in various formats, like engineering drawing, digital
computer model, physical model or prototype.
The digital model has two main types. In one hand it can be a native, general
format like step, iges etc. In the other hand it can be a special CAD system defined
format like Pro/Engineer, Catia, and Unigraphics etc. The advantage of the first
format is the independence from the customers CAD system, so we can design in a
different system. The disadvantage of this solution is the data failure during the
transformation process, to say the opened model contains surface failures and the
correction needs lot of time and work. The CAD system specific models never
contain failures and the latter modification (like drafts) can be solved simpler, but
we have to use same CAD system like our customer. If we would like to work in
other CAD system, we have to transform the model, but in this case we use a native
format as in the first case.
The requirements list contains such information, which isnt a part of
geometric description. The list can be diverse in different firms. The most frequent
and important data are next: material of the plastic part, mass of the part, number of
cavities, type of runner system, material of the mould, type and manufacturer of
other accessories: hydraulic system, pneumatic system, hot runner system,
temperature controller system, QMC system etc.
Based on given information and the results of engineering analysis the mould
manufacturer creates a quotation. The first engineering analysis aspect is the
mouldability. We have to check the shape of the part, especially ribs, corners and
the wall thickness. We have to define the gate location, the direction of the mould
opening, and we have to study the undercuts and the drafts. Problems and questions
have been discussed with the customer.
Based on engineering analysis the overall size and the structure of the mould are
defined, which have great effect on moulds cost. After this the quotation is
prepared, which contains the price, the due date and the main technical parameters
of the mould. If the customer accepts the quotation, after the conclusion of contract
the project starts.

The first step of the design process is the engineering analysis, which is similar
to the previous task, but more detail and the sometimes the plastic part could be
modified. The next steps are follows: define the drafts, set up the shrinkage, design
the parting line and surface, which are necessary for modelling the forming
elements like core, cavity, slides, lifters and other inserts. The next task is the
design and modelling of mould base, which consists of three sub-assemblies in the
simplest case: injection side sub-assembly, ejection side sub-assembly and the
ejection system (Fig. 2.).
After the mould base modelling we should design the runner system, the
ejection system (position of ejection bar), the cooling system and in the end the
electric system and connectors. The type of runner system is given by the
requirements list and we have to take account of it during the design of mould
elements and base.
After the modelling we have to prepare the engineering documentation of the
mould, which consists of the assembly drawing, the shop drawing of non-standard
parts, the bill of material and the users manuals.

Figure 2. Components of a standard two-plate mould base with two cavities [1]

The first step of the preparation of the production is the compilation of the
material order list based on models, documentation and the conceptual process
planning. If we use conventional machine tools (not CNC driven), the production
dont need any other documents and process planning for machining, because the
mould manufacturing is an individual production and there is not necessary more
detail process planning. In case of CNC machining based on mould parts CAD
models NC programs are designed. If EDM machining is required, EDM electrodes
and theirs NC programs are prepared too. The last step is the creation of
documentation, which contains all information to manage and execute the
production.
During the mould production basically we use general cutting technologies
(milling, grilling, turning, grinding) which are completed by wire and die-sinking
EDM technology. Heat treatment technologies are also important operations; in
general we use hardening, hardening and tempering, carburizing and nitriding. The
mould production requires a large amount of hand work, which means in general
fitting of accurate parts, polishing and assembling of finished parts. The critical
points measurement is the last step.
The assembled mould has to be validated by trial shots, which has a complex
role. We should study the right working of the mould, the ejection and the cooling
system. The next objects of the test are the fill up process, the open/close process,
the injection moulding parameters and the cycle time adjustment. After the test the
proto parts are study in geometric and aesthetic viewpoint. The deviations and
failures are corrected in mould manufacturing shop and the corrected mould is
tested again. The final proto parts are accepted by customer.

The last step of the mould production is the texturing of visible surface if it is
necessary. In general it is created by photoetching. The etched surface is
uncorrectable, because welding and cutting cause marks in the surface and the re-
etching is impossible. After cleaning and packaging we can deliver the mould to the
customer.

3. FACILITIES OF COMPUTER SUPPORT

Knowing the complexity of plastic parts in automotive industry, it will be

conceived that the design and manufacturing process can not be executed without
application of computer software. In line with it I would like to emphasize four field
of workflow, which have well-tried industrial practice: (1) analysis of injection
moulding process, (2) design of core and cavity, (3) design of mould base, (4) NC
programming.
The aim of the analysis of injection moulding process is to estimate the process
flow, adjust the moulding parameters, and discover the problematic point of
injection from the viewpoint of the mould. There are several software for solve this
problem. I show as demonstration the PlasticAdvisor v6, which is a part of the
Pro/Engineer WildFire2 CAD/CAM/CAE system (www.ptc.com). The most
interesting and useful results of the analysis is the best gate location (Fig. 3.). The
Fig. 4. shows additional results, like fill time, confidence of fill, injection pressure,
pressure drop, flow front temperature, quality prediction, weld lines and air traps.

Figure 3. Best gate location in ProE WF2 PlasticAdvisor

 [s]

a) Fill time b) Confidence of fill

[MPa] [MPa]

c) Injection pressure d) Pressure drop

[C]

e) Flow front temperature f) Quality prediction

g) Weld lines h) Air traps

Figure 4. Results of analysis
 We have a number of possibilities to design the core and cavity in an up-to-date
3D associative parametric hybrid (integrated solid and surface modelling) CAD
system. Many CAD systems have a special module to support mould design, which
can solve several tasks from the list of previous chapter automatically or semi-
automatically.
The Fig. 5. shows the main steps of surface modelling driven method. A closed
surface is generated by coping the parts surface, designing the parting line and
surface. The closed surface can be transformed to solid model, and then the
additional modelling tasks (chamfers, rounds, holes, etc.) are performed by solid
modelling features. The main advantage of this method is the failure tolerance,
because the possible surface failures are managed by surface modelling techniques
simpler like solid modelling. Of course there are disadvantages too: in particular in
case of a simple plastic part it needs more modelling work and it needs deeper
knowledge in surface modelling.
The engineering drawings are created based on prepared models, so the direct
connection between the models and the drawings means a live connection: the
modification of the model appears immediately in the drawing.

Figure 5. Steps of cores design

The next task is the mould base modelling. The mould base have a standard
size, and in behalf of productivity and cost reduction of manufacturing expedient to
work with standard mould plates and standard elements (guide bush and pin, ejector
bar, guide bar etc.). There are several companies, who produce a wide range of
standard elements. We can increase the productivity of the design process by using
the electronic catalogue of these companies and download the complete CAD
model of the mould base directly to our mould assembly model. Every significant
company, who work in this area (e.g. Hasco, DME, Meusburger, Cumsa etc.) have
CAD model based electronic catalogue, which contains the price of the selected
component, so we can plan the cost of standard components in the design phase.
The Fig. 6. shows an example of selecting and assembling of a standard plate
and guide bushes. The presented electronic catalogue is the Meusburger digital
catalogue (www.meusburger-norm.com).
 Figure 6. Use of digital catalogue

The fourth presented step is the NC programming, which performed on

completed CAD models after the manufacturing process planning. The use of
common models ensures the conformance of tool path and machined surface, and
the simple managing of the future modification. The Fig. 7. shows the roughing tool
path of the core insert and a section of generated CL (cutting location) data file.
SPINDL / RPM, 2380.000000, CLW
RAPID
FROM / 41.300, -0.000, 35.000
$$-> SETSTART / 41.300, -0.000, 35.000
RAPID
GOTO / 41.300, -0.000, 26.950
FEDRAT / 850.000000, MMPM
GOTO / 41.300, -0.000, 24.050
FEDRAT / 1700.000000, MMPM
GOTO / 2.000, -0.000, 24.050
GOTO / 2.000, 1.700, 24.050
GOTO / -1.700, 1.700, 24.050
GOTO / -1.700, -1.700, 24.050
GOTO / 2.000, -1.700, 24.050
GOTO / 2.000, -0.000, 24.050
GOTO / 5.000, -0.000, 24.050
GOTO / 5.000, 4.700, 24.050
GOTO / -4.700, 4.700, 24.050
GOTO / -4.700, -4.700, 24.050

Figure 7. Roughing tool path and a section of CL data

4. SUMMARY

The mould design and manufacturing process is going fast for the sake of
increasing customers demand, more complicate moulds are produced to shorter due
date. On the grounds of it the application of CAD/CAM/CAE systems are
indispensable during the production workflow.
The author would like render thanks to the CEEPUS II SK-0067-01-05/06
project.

5. REFERENCES

[1] Part and mold design A design guide; Bayer Material Science, 2000.
www.bayer.com