0附錄 4 英文資料及中文翻譯3D RAPID REALIZATION OF INITIAL DESIGN FORPLASTIC INJECTION MOULDSMaria L.H. Low1 and K.S. Lee2ABSTRACTTo provide an initial design of the mould assembly for customers prior to receiving the final product CAD data is a preliminary work of any final plastic injection mould design. Traditionally and even up till now, this initial design is always created using 2D CAD packages. The information used for the initial design is based on the technical discussion checklist, in which most mould makers have their own standards. This technical discussion checklist is also being used as a quotation. This paper presents a methodology of rapid realization of the initial design in 3D solid based on the technical discussion checklist, which takes the role of the overall standard template. Information are extracted from databases and coupled with the basic information from customer, these information are input into the technical discussion checklist. Rules and heuristics are also being used in the initial mould design. A case study is provided to illustrate the use of the standard template and to exhibit its real application of rapid realization of the initial design for plastic injection moulds.INTRODUCTIONThe most established method for producing plastic parts in large quantities is plastic injection moulding. This is a highly cost-effective, precise and competent manufacturing method, which can be automated. However, costly tooling and machinery are needed in this manufacturing process. The design of a plastic injection mould is an integral part of plastic injection moulding as the quality of the final plastic part is greatly reliant on the injection mould. A plastic injection mould is a high precision tooling that is being used to mass produce plastic parts and is by itself an assembly of cavities, mould base and standard components etc.Over the years, much research work using computer-aided techniques had been done from studying the very specific areas of mould design to studying mould design as a whole integrated system. Knowledge-based systems such as IMOLD (Lee et al. 11997),ESMOLD (Chin et al. 1997), IKMOULD (Mok et al. 2001), etc were developed for injection mould design. Many commercial mould design software packages such as IMOLD, UG MoldWizard, R&B MoldWorks, etc are also available today in the marketfor mould makers. However, the systems and software packages mentioned above did not consider the initial design prior to actual mould design. These software packages assist in the preparation of the detailed mould design that includes the core/cavity creation, cooling and ejection design. As a result, mould designers hardly used the mould design software packages when they are doing their initial design because the software does not catered for such a design process.There is not much research being done on the initial design of plastic injection moulds except for Ye et al. (2000) who presented an algorithm for the initial design. The researchers first determine the parting line for the plastic part followed by the calculation of the number of cavities required. The cavity layout is created based on the input information of the layout pattern and the orientation of each cavity. The mould base is loaded automatically to accommodate the layout. The researchers also proposed to use their initial design as a guide tool for the quotation of the mould. However, the research that is being done may not be applicable for most plastic injection moulding industries.The calculation of the number of cavities required is mostly determined by the customers who provides the product CAD file and they seldom seek opinion from the mould makers, thus this step could be omitted to save time. Although external undercuts are identified in the product, the research did not consider the standard components that are required in producing such undercuts, which in this case, the use of sliders. The research also did not consider internal undercuts where lifters are required. Thus, the quotation derived would not reflect the correct costing of the mould, and thus could be very misleading, since theuse of these types of standard components can increase the cost of producing such a mould substantially.Alternatively, the authors (Low et al. 2002) proposed a methodology of standardizing the cavity layout design system for plastic injection mould such that only standard cavity layouts are used. When only standard layouts are used, their layout configurations can easily be stored in a database for fast retrieval later in the mould design stage. This research is being incorporated into the rapid realization of the initial design for plastic injection mould in this paper. There is a need to introduce a faster method of mould design since there are fewer very experienced mould designers and 2coupled with the fact of todays market demands of having shorter lead-time and higher quality products. This is fulfilled by the introduction of standardization into mould design, since the design processes are repeatable for every mould design project. This paper presents a methodology of rapid realization of the initial design in 3D solid instead of 2D drawings using standardization method. The initial design in 3D solid will be based on the technical discussion checklist that acts as the overall standard template. Every sub-design such as cavity layout design, gating system, mould base design etc will have its own respective standard template. This is to enable timesavings in the design stage as the final mould design can be obtained directly by making minute changes to the initial design.INITIAL DESIGN OF PLASTIC INJECTION MOULDThe customers and the mould designers have to work closely together to obtain a mould that could produce what is desired suitably. It would be costly to rectify the errors after the mould is manufactured completely. Thus the initial planning of how the layout design of the mould is likely to be is important. A typical mould design project workflow chart is shown in Figure 2. When the customers have decided to engage a particular mould-maker, the CAD file of the product have to be provided to them. However, the mould-maker is always prepared to receive newer versions of the product CAD file as changes are constantly made to it. The downside of this is that the lead-time given to complete the mould still remains as it is. Thus, the time that was left to complete the final mould design and manufacture the mould becomes shorter.When the product CAD file is first received, the assigned project engineer or mould designer fills up a technical checklist during their first technical discussion with the customers. The checklist records information such as the resin material to be used and its shrinkage value, the number of cavities required by customers, the gating system, and the moulding machine to be used, the required type of mould base and other information needed to provide the basis of the initial design of the mould. Since this checklist contains most of the basic information, it doubles up as a quotation. This allows customers to decide whether to modify their product CAD file to produce a simpler mould that is cheaper. After that, the mould designer prepares an initial design based on the product CAD file and information in the checklist.Traditionally and even up till now, mould designers are using 2D CAD packages to create the initial design, although 3D CAD packages are readily available. Ironically,mould designers would then use the 3D CAD package only in their final mould design. When this initial design is completed, it will be presented on the next technical 3discussion. Modifications made to the initial design are normally done by marking and sketching the changes on the printed drawing paper. Though there is no final product CAD file at this stage, the mould-maker could go ahead to purchase the raw materials and standard components subject to approval of the customers. After the final product CAD file has been received, the mould designer would start the actual mould design a fresh using the 3D CAD package that they have. This is a time consuming method since the initial design is not related to the final mould design.THE DESIGN STRUCTUREIn the proposed approach, the standardization method utilizes standard mould designs, which are derived from the information listed in the technical discussion checklist. This checklist takes on the role of the overall standard template and must be used for every new mould project. The subdesigns will have their own templates. Databases are used to record information such as types of standard components, types of design, geometrical parameters and project data etc. Mould-making industries can easily adopt the proposed approach since they are able to customize the databases to include their own standards. A standard mould design uses only standard components such as the mould bases; ejector pins and other accessories. Standard configuration of cavity layouts, that produces only the same products in a balanced layout are used in a standard mould design. Calculations used in a standard mould design are based on rules and heuristics, which can be applied universally to any organizations. Rules and heuristics make up an important sector of mould design since they determine if the mould that is designed, is able to fit into the specified moulding machine or be able to mass produce the product without any problems due to bad design .The hierarchical organization of the assembly files of a standard mould design should also follow a single mould assembly structure. Provision had been made in this system to present representations of the core, cavity, slider head and lifter head as blocks in the initial design. These blocks can be edited to trim to the profile only when the final product CAD file has been received and confirmed. During the initial design, ejector pins/blades and cooling lines are still not included because these depend greatly on the final product CAD file. Since this paper focuses on the rapid realization of initial design, core/cavity parting, profile creation, addition of ejector pins/blades and cooling lines will not be discussed here. 3D solids would be used as they have their advantages. The advantages of solid modeling are better visualization, simplified simulation, improved producability, faster drawing production and facilitates an integrated design process.4STANDARDIZATION METHODStandardization method involves using standard mould designs, standard components and a standard working method of mould design. This means that every mould designer will design moulds in exactly the same method, use the same design assembly hierarchy tree, and use standard components from a specified supplier. This allows the different teams involved in the mould project to speak the same language. The advantages are as follows: a) Easy following-up of mould project, b) Lower cost and faster delivery of components, c) Proper mould project management.DATABASESFour different types of databases are used in this system: a) Library database is a collection of all standard components commonly used by the mould-making industry. b) Configuration database is used for all standard components and cavity layout design. All the different configurations are already pre-defined in the 3D solid files and only the required configuration will be activated. c) Project database is a collection of all data that is input into the technical discussion checklist and sub-designs interfaces, thus enables tracking and retrieval of information that are unique to a particular project. The quantity of the various components and their types that are to be used in the project are also recorded here, thus enabling an easy generation of an initial bill of materials when desired and d) Geometrical parameters database is utilized where there is a need to change the geometrical parameters such as distances between different cavities and locations of standard components etc.SYSTEM IMPLEMENTATIONA prototype of the rapid realization of initial design system for plastic injection mould has been implemented using a PIII PC-compatible as the hardware. This prototype system utilizes SolidWorks 2001 as the CAD software, Microsoft Visual C+ V6.0 as the programming language and the SolidWorks API in a Windows environment. The rules, heuristics and formulations used in this prototype system are based on the local mould making industries in Singapore.CONCLUSIONSAn approach to using the standardization method is applied to the rapid realization of the initial design of plastic injection moulds in this paper. Design processes that are the same for every mould design project are consolidated into a standard template. The technical discussion checklist takes on the role of the overall standard template while the subdesigns have their own sub-templates. The use of databases allows the flexibility in allowing customization. Approximate costing of the 5mould can also be derived from the information based on the checklist. Other advantages include having a faster approach to design, designing a mould that functions and easy visualization.However, this rapid realization of initial design system has its limitations. As technology advances, more databases, rules and heuristics needs to be built into the system to accommodate for mould designs meant for the newer forms of plastic injection moulding such as multi-colour moulding and thin-wall moulding. Much effort and money needs to be invested by organizations to customize their systems to consider the new technologies. The databases for the materials and moulding machine also had to be constantly updated and checked to account for the newer materials and machines that are introduced into the industry. If there is a wrong entry in the databases, the results that are obtained can be disastrous. An experienced designer would know at once when the design is not right but to a novice designer, he/she may just accept the design without much thought, believing that the system would always provide the correct solution. The authors are currently researching into improving the system so as to enable an easier approach of customization.6初步實現(xiàn)塑膠射出成型模具快速三維設(shè)計Maria L.H. Low1 and K.S. Lee2摘要塑料射出成型模具設(shè)計的初步任務(wù)是提供給客戶模具裝配設(shè)計最終得到產(chǎn)品的 CAD 數(shù)據(jù)。 傳統(tǒng)上,甚至到現(xiàn)在，這種原始設(shè)計制造總是用 2 維 CAD 進行組件。用于最初設(shè)計的信息是基于技術(shù)討論文件，其中大部分都有模具制造者自己的標(biāo)準(zhǔn)制定模式。 這一技術(shù)討論文件也被用來作為行情表.。本文基于那些起著標(biāo)準(zhǔn)模版作用的技術(shù)討論文件提出了快速實現(xiàn)三維實體初步設(shè)計的方法論。摘自數(shù)據(jù)庫的信息加上顧客的基本資料，這些資料都輸入技術(shù)討論文件。初期的模具設(shè)計中也用到了規(guī)律和直觀推斷。關(guān)鍵研究是圖解和展現(xiàn)標(biāo)準(zhǔn)模板在快速實現(xiàn)塑料射出成型模具初期設(shè)計的真正應(yīng)用。簡介大量生產(chǎn)塑料零件的最現(xiàn)成的方法就是塑料注模。這是一個極具成本效益、準(zhǔn)確的和具有制造能力可以自動化的方法。但是, 這個制造過程需要昂貴的工具和機械。塑料注射模的設(shè)計是塑膠成型的重要部分，因為最終的塑料零件質(zhì)量取決于注射鑄模。塑膠鑄模注射高精密工具正被用來大規(guī)模生產(chǎn)塑料部件。它本身就是一個模槽、基礎(chǔ)模具和標(biāo)準(zhǔn)配件的組裝。多年來,許多研究利用計算機輔助技術(shù)完成特殊模具的設(shè)計的學(xué)習(xí)，以把模具設(shè)計作為一個集成系統(tǒng)來研究。 許多系統(tǒng)的科學(xué)體系像IMOLD、ESMOLD 、IKMOULD 正用于鑄射模具的設(shè)計當(dāng)中。模具制造者同樣可以在市場上買到許多商業(yè)模具設(shè)計軟件像 IMOLD，UG MoldWizard，R&B MoldWorks。 但是，上述軟件和系統(tǒng)不考慮實際模具的初步設(shè)計。這種軟件包協(xié)助制定詳細的模式設(shè)計,包括核心、創(chuàng)建、冷卻、反應(yīng)堆設(shè)計。 因此，模具設(shè)計師做初步設(shè)計時很難用軟件設(shè)計，因為軟件設(shè)計不照顧這個設(shè)計過程。除了 2000 年提出了初步設(shè)計的算法之外，對塑膠射出成型模具的初步設(shè)計沒有太多的研究。因為對槽模數(shù)量的累積需求研究人員首次投入了塑料零件的生產(chǎn)線。模槽的布局是通過輸入的每個模槽的形式和方向創(chuàng)建的。模具坯子將自動適應(yīng)布局。研究人員還提出用最初設(shè)計為行情做導(dǎo)向工具。 然而,正在進行的研究未必適用于大多數(shù)塑膠射出成型澆鑄工業(yè)。槽模數(shù)量的需要是由提供產(chǎn)品的CAD 資料 的客戶決定的，他們很少尋求模具制造者的意見，因此這一步驟可以省略以節(jié)省時間。盡管外部底切在產(chǎn)品中已被定義，但是在沒有考慮到生產(chǎn)這樣的底切時所需要的部件標(biāo)準(zhǔn)的情況下，使用滑板。研究也沒有考慮到提鉤所需的內(nèi)部底切。所以，推導(dǎo)出的報價表不能正確反映模具的成本，很可能引起誤解。因為這類標(biāo)準(zhǔn)組件可以大幅增加生產(chǎn)成本。7另外,作者提出了規(guī)范的塑膠射出成型系統(tǒng)可以使槽模布置正規(guī)化。只有使用標(biāo)準(zhǔn)設(shè)計、布局結(jié)構(gòu)能容易在數(shù)據(jù)庫檢索后快速儲存。本文中將此研究與塑膠射出成型模具初步設(shè)計的快速實現(xiàn)結(jié)合起來。要加快引進模式設(shè)計方法,因為資深模具設(shè)計師很少，加上今天的在較短的準(zhǔn)備時間提高產(chǎn)品質(zhì)量的市場需求。標(biāo)準(zhǔn)化涉入到模具設(shè)計當(dāng)中實現(xiàn)了這個要求，因為每個模具的設(shè)計過程是重復(fù)的。本文提出了用三維實體標(biāo)準(zhǔn)化方法代替二維的初步圖紙設(shè)計實現(xiàn)快速的方法。三維實體的初步設(shè)計在基于技術(shù)文件基礎(chǔ)上作為標(biāo)準(zhǔn)模板。每個設(shè)計例如模槽布置設(shè)計，系統(tǒng)集成，模具坯子設(shè)計等都有自己的標(biāo)準(zhǔn)模板。這使得在對初始設(shè)計進行幾分鐘的修改就可以得到最終設(shè)計。塑料注射模具的初步設(shè)計客戶和模具設(shè)計師要密切配合,取得最適合的模具。在模具完全加工出來之后糾正錯誤花費是很大的。因此,如何設(shè)計初步規(guī)劃是重要的。當(dāng)客戶想制造特殊的模具時，要提供零件所有的 CAD 文件。然而, 模具制造者愿意接受產(chǎn)品新的 CAD技術(shù)文件因為將不斷對模具作出改變。 壞處是，更換模具的時間還是沒有改變。因此,現(xiàn)在所剩下的完成最后模具設(shè)計和制造的時間也愈來愈短。當(dāng)?shù)谝淮问盏疆a(chǎn)品 CAD 文件時，模具設(shè)計師通過與顧客的交談記錄了產(chǎn)品的技術(shù)要求。記錄了如樹脂材料及其價值萎縮,系統(tǒng)安裝 ,及模具坯子等其他設(shè)計模具時所需的信息。因為一覽表中包含了最基礎(chǔ)的信息, 所以把它作為報價表。這使得客戶決定是否修改其產(chǎn)品 CAD 文件制作簡單便宜的鑄模。之后, 設(shè)計師依據(jù)產(chǎn)品清單上的 CAD 文件編制初步設(shè)計。傳統(tǒng)上,甚至到目前為止, 初期設(shè)計制造仍使用 2 維 CAD,雖然有現(xiàn)成的三維CAD。 模具設(shè)計師只在最后一攬表設(shè)計模式利用三維造型設(shè)計。 當(dāng)初步設(shè)計完成后, 將它提交到下一個技術(shù)性討論。通常通過修改圖紙上的標(biāo)注和草繪對初步設(shè)計進行修改。雖然在這個階段沒有產(chǎn)品最終的 CAD 文件資料，模具制造者經(jīng)過客戶的允許可先采購原料及標(biāo)準(zhǔn)部件。在得到產(chǎn)品的 CAD 文件之后，模具設(shè)計師將展開實際的三維設(shè)計模式。 這是一項費時的工作,因為初期設(shè)計與模具最終設(shè)計無關(guān)。結(jié)構(gòu)設(shè)計規(guī)范的設(shè)計方法是利用基于技術(shù)清單信息的標(biāo)準(zhǔn)模式。這個清單代表模板的整體水平,每個項目必須采用新的模式。每個設(shè)計都有自己的模板。數(shù)據(jù)庫是用來記錄標(biāo)準(zhǔn)組件的類型、設(shè)計類型、立體參數(shù)和數(shù)據(jù)等信息。所提方案適用于模具制造, 因為這些方法能根據(jù)自己的標(biāo)準(zhǔn)制定數(shù)據(jù)庫。標(biāo)準(zhǔn)模具設(shè)計只使用標(biāo)準(zhǔn)組件如模具底座，起模器等。標(biāo)準(zhǔn)模槽設(shè)計布局，通過采用標(biāo)準(zhǔn)模式的均衡布局來生產(chǎn)同類產(chǎn)品。標(biāo)準(zhǔn)模具設(shè)計中的計算普遍適用于其它裝配。規(guī)則及直接推斷是模具設(shè)計中的重要組成部分,因為造型設(shè)計目的是設(shè)計出能夠適應(yīng)特定機器或可批量8生產(chǎn)的產(chǎn)品，不會因為不良設(shè)計而出現(xiàn)任何問題。標(biāo)準(zhǔn)模式設(shè)計只采用單一結(jié)構(gòu)模式。型芯、腔、滑板、釣勾已經(jīng)作為塊存在初期設(shè)計中。當(dāng)最終確定產(chǎn)品 CAD文件后，這些塊能夠被編輯成剖面圖。在初始的設(shè)計中，起模釘和冷卻管道不包括在內(nèi)，因為這些模塊是從最終的產(chǎn)品 CAD 文件中生成的。從而本論文主要論述初始設(shè)計的快速變現(xiàn)，型心和型腔的分界模，加上起模釘與冷卻管道將不在此討論。應(yīng)用三維實體造型是因為它有自己的優(yōu)勢。實體模型的優(yōu)點是可視化比較強，簡化模擬仿真過程，提高生產(chǎn)率，加快產(chǎn)品造型和綜合設(shè)計過程。標(biāo)準(zhǔn)化法標(biāo)準(zhǔn)化法是采用標(biāo)準(zhǔn)模具設(shè)計設(shè)計、標(biāo)準(zhǔn)件、和模具設(shè)計的標(biāo)準(zhǔn)工作方法。這就意味著每一個模具設(shè)計者設(shè)計模具時都將采用相同的方法，使用相同的模具裝配模型樹，和從精確得到產(chǎn)品文件中調(diào)入標(biāo)準(zhǔn)件。這就使得在模具設(shè)計工程中不同的工作組可以使用相同的語言。優(yōu)點：a）容易跟進模具設(shè)計工程，b ）低成本和快速取模，c）便捷的模具工程管理器。數(shù)據(jù)庫系統(tǒng)中使用了四個不同的數(shù)據(jù)庫：a）圖書數(shù)據(jù)庫 時模具制造工業(yè)中常用的所以通用部件的集合，B）裝配數(shù)據(jù)庫是用于所有的標(biāo)準(zhǔn)件和型腔設(shè)計。所有不同的裝配都已在三維實體中事先定義好了，只需把裝配激活就可以。C）工程數(shù)據(jù)庫是所有輸入技術(shù)討論檢測表、從屬設(shè)計的交換界面的數(shù)據(jù)的集合，因此對于特殊的工程增強了跟蹤和交換信息的能力。不同組件的質(zhì)量和類型能夠被應(yīng)用在工程中，同樣的也能重新錄入，從而當(dāng)設(shè)計時很容易生成數(shù)據(jù)表(BOMs)。D）幾何參數(shù)數(shù)據(jù)庫應(yīng)用在需要改變幾何參數(shù)的地方，例如兩個不同模腔之間的距離和標(biāo)準(zhǔn)件的位置等。系統(tǒng)實施塑料注射模具快速實現(xiàn)原始設(shè)計的系統(tǒng)模型作為電腦兼容的硬件已經(jīng)被應(yīng)用。這個模型系統(tǒng)在 Windows 環(huán)境下可以作為 CAD 軟件安裝在 SolidWorks 2001，作為程序語言應(yīng)用在 Microsoft Visual C+ V6.0 和 SolidWorks API。這種方法，模型系統(tǒng)中的啟發(fā)式和公式化是基于新加坡的模具制造業(yè)。總結(jié)本文主要介紹的是塑料注射器模具原始設(shè)計快速成型的標(biāo)準(zhǔn)方法。對于每一個模具設(shè)計工程，設(shè)計方法都是相同的，并在標(biāo)準(zhǔn)的模板中。當(dāng)從屬設(shè)計時有自己的子設(shè)計模板時，技術(shù)討論檢測表模板就成為總的標(biāo)準(zhǔn)模板。數(shù)據(jù)庫的應(yīng)用允許用戶靈活變化。模具鑄模成本在檢查表中也可以自動生成。其他優(yōu)點還有快速設(shè)計方法、模具設(shè)計功能和可視化。然而，這種快速成形設(shè)計有其自身的局限性。配合模具設(shè)計系統(tǒng)需建立技術(shù)優(yōu)勢、更多的數(shù)據(jù)，規(guī)則方法和啟動方式，例如混合模具和薄壁模具等塑料注射9器模具新型成模方法。消費者投資機構(gòu)需要投入更多的努力和財力來考慮新的技術(shù)。材料和模具機器數(shù)據(jù)庫必須定時更新升級，并及時加入工業(yè)上所采用新型材料和模具機器的最新數(shù)據(jù)。假如在數(shù)據(jù)庫中有一個錯誤的輸入，那所得到的數(shù)據(jù)將是災(zāi)難性的。當(dāng)設(shè)計不對時，一個有經(jīng)驗的設(shè)計者能夠及時發(fā)現(xiàn)，而一個初學(xué)者會不加思考的接受，相信系統(tǒng)總會提供正確的解決方法。作者正在研究改進系統(tǒng)的方法，以便增加定制方法的實用化程度。