Simulation and experimental study in determining injection molding process parameters for thin-shell plastic parts via design of experiments analysis

This paper deals with the application computer-aided engineering integrating with statistical technique to reduce warpage variation depended on injection molding process parameters during production of thin-shell plastic components. For this purpose, a number of Mold-Flow analyses are carried out by utilizing the combination of process parameters based on three level of L-18 orthogonal array table. In the meantime, apply the design of experiments (DOE) approach to determine an optimal parameter setting. In addition, a side-by-side comparison of two different approaches of simulation and experimental is provided. In this study, regression models that link the controlled parameters and the targeted outputs are developed, and the identified models can be utilized to predict the warpage at various injection molding conditions. The melt temperature and the packing pressure are found to be the most significant factors in both the simulation and the experimental for an injection molding process of thin-shell plastic parts. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.