CAE/CAD in injection molding, blow molding, and foam molding—the shortest way to mold design
Authors: Schacht Th. , Maier U. , Esser K. , Kretzschmar O. , Schmidt Th. 
Published: April 2003

One of the basic prerequisites for rational and high quality production of plastic parts is a tool layout tailored to the production process. To date, both design and construction have generally been based on values acquired by experience. This first, necessitates highly qualified personnel and second, involves what is frequently time consuming and costly finishing work. Experience acquired so far with computer‐aided layout of injection molds shows that even a designer with little experience reaches the target more quickly and more reliably. At the same time he is able to draw on the results of intricate calculation and simulation methods which he was unable to apply in the past for reasons of time alone. This paper thus sets out the possibilities currently open and the experience available for computer‐aided mold layout. The chief point of focus here is a system for the layout of injection molds. Working on from this system, however, the potentials for computer application are presented for blow mold‐ and foaming mold‐design. After finding the mold principle, mold layout essentially divides up into two major areas, namely dimensioning calculations (CAE) and compilation of production documents (CAD). In dimensioning, the different functional elements of the mold are calculated. The aids that have been developed and the potentials of computer‐aided dimensioning are presented with examples from the fields of rheological, thermal, and mechanical mold layout. Computer‐aided rheological layout divides up into two steps. The first gives information on qualitative filling behavior (filling picture, flow paths) and the second provides quantitative results (pressures, shear stresses, temperatures). Computer‐aided thermal layout similarly divides up into part steps. These are a rough overall energy balance, a rough layout of the tempering system, a segmented layout, and a homogeneity check, which involves simulating the temperature conditions in the mold by means of difference methods. When it comes to mechanical layout of the mold, programs are available for deformation calculations on basic cases and these will frequently be sufficient. For more complex cases of loading and deformation, a finite element program is used. Graphic data processing units can be used to supply extra facilities—first, to provide an aid for the simulation programs in dimensioning and second, to rationalize the compilation of the production documents. An illustration of a CAD workplace is given, incorporating the necessary computer configuration and peripherals. Compiling production documents is essentially a problem of variant design. The variants in this case are the individual components of the mold and a number of standardized accessories that can be called up as “standardized components.” The mold cavity, however, always has to be a free design. All programs are dialogue driven and are in a standardized manner so that even designers with no data processing experience can use the computer as an aid. The CAD/CAE system presented duly fulfils all these requirements. It allows the designer, at a single computer work station, to carry out both simulation and dimensioning calculations, to obtain information on material data, and to compile production documents on the basis of variant and free design. This provides the designer with a readily manageable aid and makes a considerable contribution towards improving the design result. Finally, the capacity of different computer concepts and the CAE/CAD/CAM systems on the market are discussed. For the future it will be possible to establish a computer‐aided link between the different areas of design, from development of the molded part, via mold design and production, through setting the processing parameters of the injection molding machine.