The Design and Implementation of a CAD/CAE Integrated System for Plastic Injection Molding

Abstract

In the plastic injection molding process, interaction between design and analysis is very intensive. However, current computer-aided systems (CAD and CAE) are realized as isolated modules. Thus, designers need to transform data models between CAD and CAE systems. Defects of many data errors and duplicated work are inevitable. This paper presents a CAD/CAE integrated system, building on top of existing CAD and CAE systems. The framework of the system is designed. A parametric integration model is established to achieve bidirectional association between the two systems. Details of key technologies in pre- and post- processing are discussed, such as mesh generation, feature recognition, and automatic evaluation of analysis results. A practical engineering case is studied to illustrate that the system can effectively avoid mesh repair and remodeling in pre-processing, reduce the dependency on experience in analysis result evaluation, and greatly improve the efficiency of iterative design-analysis-optimization process.