Kansei Engineering Applied to the Form Design of Injection Molding Machines

This study investigated the relationship between a subject’s evaluation of injection molding machines (IMMs) and formal design features using Kansei engineering. This investigation used 12 word pairs to evaluate the IMM configurations and employed the semantic differential method to explore the perception of 60 interviewees of 12 examples. The relationship between product feature design and corresponding words was derived by multiple regression analysis. Factor analysis reveals that the 12 examples can be categorized as two styles—advanced style and succinct style. For the advanced style, an IMM should use a rectangular form for the clamping-unit cover and a full-cover for the injection-unit. For the succinct style, the IMM configuration should use a beveled form for the safety cover and a vertical rectangular form for the clamping-unit cover. Quantitative data and suggested guidelines for the relationship between design features and interviewee evaluations are useful to product designers when formulating design strategies.