Manufacturability analysis of injected parts based on a mid-surface approach

Abstract

In order to save cost and time, the manufacturability of injected parts should be analysed and estimated in early design stages using some appropriate method of part representation. This paper presents the use of the mid-surface of a part to perform automatic assessment of the manufacturability of injected parts. This approach allows the manufacturability to be analysed in a short time, so that the analysis can be integrated into the stage of part modelling. The mid-surface is homotopically identical to the solid model of the part, and it can substitute the corresponding solid model in the evaluation of aspects of manufacturability such as safe demoulding. In other aspects, such as partial cycle times and abrupt changes in thickness, mid-surface offers more possibilities than a solid model because it contains an explicitly defined thickness distribution. Furthermore, mid-surface can be used for the purpose of guiding design correction. This paper outlines the foundations underlying the analysis of manufacturability aspects based on a mid-surface approach.

A new computational method for MAT of injected parts integrated in part modelling stage

“…We present three examples with the corresponding model, offset steps and final MAT in Figures 15-17. Note that what is shown for each model corresponds to mid-surface which is a part of MAT (Petrovic and Rosado 2008). It is done for two reasons: mid-surface is used rather than MAT in manufacturability analysis, and it can be related visually with corresponding model more clearly than MAT.…”

“…In this paper, a simple and fast approach for injected parts discrete MAT computation, for the purpose of manufacturability analysis (Petrovic and Rosado 2008), is presented. Many existing solutions to MAT generations are available.…”