MECHANICAL DESIGN OF PLASTICS INJECTION MOULDS BY MEANS OF FEA

Companies in the plastics sector currently are subject to considerable time and costs pressure. Products have to be brought on to the market at a faster pace and lower cost to remain competitive. Only by employing innovative technologies and the latest development methods are companies currently able to meet these demands. A research project founded by the European Community had the objective to restructure the development process of injection moulds according to the "Concurrent Engineering" principle and to support the mould development by a new integrated software environment. This paper describes the objectives of the COSMOS-Project in general and presents an approach in detail, which makes it possible to conduct the mechanical design of injection moulds with the aid of finite element analysis. By linking the injection moulding simulation to a standard FEA package for structural analysis, it is possible to perform an iterative calculation of mould filling and mould deformation. By this means a reliable design can be achieved for highly complex moulds, in particular. This paper presents the calculation process and initial results on the basis of demonstration geometry.