Abstract
Runner system is important in the plastic injection moulding as it affects the part quality and the material costs. The layout of the runners for a multiple non-identical cavity mould is geometrically imbalance. Even for a multiple identical cavity mould, the layout can be imbalance due to various reasons. This paper presents an approach to balance the flow by adjusting the runner sizes. Runner size determination is a multiobjective optimisation problem. The non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm is adopted for determining the runner sizes. Multiple objective functions including runner balancing, part quality in terms of warpage and runner volume are incorporated into the algorithm. The moulding conditions affecting the mould cavity filling are also determined due to their sensitivity to runner sizes. This runner sizing approach is suitable for the geometric imbalance mouldings and family mouldings.
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Acknowledgment
The authors would like to acknowledge the support of Moldflow Pty Ltd and school of MAE at Nanyang Technological University.
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Zhai, M., Lam, Y.C. & Au, C.K. Runner sizing in multiple cavity injection mould by non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm. Engineering with Computers 25, 237–245 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00366-008-0120-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00366-008-0120-3