Specification Model: A First Step Towards Automatic Interpretation of Injection Moulding CAE Results

The use of CAE software, such as Moldflow

®, in the plastic industry is well established. The software is useful in simulating and visualising the performance of the injection moulding process. Nevertheless, the high level of expertise needed to use it has been one of the major obstacles in its further application. One obstacle is in interpreting analysis results. The facilities for the designers to specify verification and evaluation criteria or to interpret analysis results in terms of specified information are yet to be developed. As a first step to tackle this problem, this paper proposes a specification model approach. The model integrates analysis and evaluation information with a CAD model of a plastic part. It allows designers to specify their intended verification and evaluation criteria directly for the CAD design model. The same model is used to activate Mold flow to conduct the relevant analyses, and to extract data automaticaly from the analysis results to verify and evaluate the designs. A software prototype has been developed and a design case study is presented to illustrate the proposed approach.