Optimization of hole-making operations for injection mould using particle swarm optimization algorithm

Optimization of hole-making operations plays a crucial role in which tool travel and tool switch scheduling are the two major issues. Industrial applications such as moulds, dies, engine block etc. consist of large number of holes having different diameters, depths and surface finish. This results into to a large number of machining operations like drilling, reaming or tapping to achieve the final size of individual hole. Optimal sequence of operations and associated cutting speeds, which reduce the overall processing cost of these hole-making operations are essential to reach desirable products. In order to achieve this, an attempt is made by developing an effective methodology. An example of the injection mould is considered to demonstrate the proposed approach. The optimization of this example is carried out using recently developed particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm. The results obtained using PSO are compared with those obtained using tabu search method. It is observed that results obtained using PSO are slightly better than those obtained using tabu search method.