Abstract For the last couple of decades, researchers have been trying to explore eco-friendly materials which would significantly reduce dependency on synthetic fibers and their composites. Natural fiber-based composites possess several excellent properties. They are biodegradable, non-abrasive, low cost, lower density, led growing interest in using these industrial applications. However, prope...

The presence of an already molded component during the second and subsequent molding stages makes multi-material injection molding different from traditional injection molding process. Therefore, designing multi-material molded objects requires addressing many additional manufacturability considerations. In this paper, we first present an approach to systematically identifying potential manufac...

This paper describes algorithms for generating shapes of side actions to minimize a customizable injection molding cost function. Given a set of undercut facets on a polyhedral part and the main mold opening directions, our approach works in the following manner. First, we compute candidate retraction space for every undercut facet. This space represents the set of candidate translation vectors...

The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the easy manufacturing and quick characterization several microtextured functional surfaces on two transparent thermoplastics general interest for industrial sectors. Microtextured polymeric with special optical, tribological easy-cleaning properties were manufactured via isothermal injection-molding using laser-microtextured steel mold inserts. For t...

Rapid heat cycle molding (RHCM) is a special molding process capable of producing molded plastic parts with high surface quality and improved weldline strength and appearance. This study investigated the influence of the weldline on the tensile strength of RHCM and conventional injection molded (CIM) components. The test specimens with and without a weldline were cut from RHCM and CIM parts for...

This paper proposes a neuro-fuzzy approach for optimizing injection molding parameter settings. The approach consists of design of experiments and neuro-fuzzy systems. Experimental data shows that the proposed approach performs better than the traditional trial and error practices usually involved in the injection molding process.

Recent developments in Computer Aided Design (CAD) have drastically reduced overall design cycle time and cost. In this paper, wirePATH, a new method for rapid direct tooling, is presented. By using specialized interactive segmentation computer software and wire electrical discharge machining (wire EDM), wirePATH can reduce manufacturing time and cost for injection molds, casting patterns, and ...