An interactive computer-based design system is developed to eliminate the need for costly iterations of protype tooling in injection molding. A knowledge-based synthesis system is constructed to embody the principle of a rational design strategy for injection molding by combining a rule-based expert system with process analysis programs. The thermomechanical properties of a molded part are pred...

Fiber ferrule is a crucial part for manufacturing fiber connectors. It is fairly difficult to produce fiber ferrule because that it requires high dimension accuracy. Currently, YTZ ceramic powder is the main material used to produce fiber ferrule and Ceramic Injection Molding (CIM) is a new fabricating method capable of producing ZrO2 fiber ferrule (Fig. 1(a), Fig. 1(b)) with complex geometry a...

Powder Injection Molding (PIM) is a precision manufacturing process used for production of advanced composites. Mixing of polymeric binder with metal powders, molding of feedstock, de-binding of brown parts and sintering of green samples are four main steps of this process. In the present study, the compounds containing multi-component binder system and aluminum/ nano-alumina (0-9 wt.%) powders...

Side actions contribute to mold cost by resulting in an additional manufacturing and assembly cost as well as by increasing the molding cycle time. Therefore, generating shapes of side actions requires solving a complex geometric optimization problem. Different objective functions may be needed depending upon different molding scenarios (e.g., prototyping versus large production runs). Manually...

A cost reduced method of producing injection molding tools is reported and demonstrated for the fabrication of optical microlens arrays. A standard computer-numerical-control (CNC) milling machine was used to make a rough mold in steel. Surface treatment of the steel mold by spray coating with photoresist is used to smooth the mold surface providing good optical quality. The tool and process ar...

Plastics is one of the world’s largest and fastest growing industries, ranked as one of the few multi-billion dollar industries. Due to the vast improvements in polymers and production processes, plastics are now amongst the world’s most widely used materials, with the world consumption of polymers surpassing steel in volume and weight. Injection molding represents approximately 32% (by weight)...