Computer Modeling for Injection Molding: Simulation, Optimization, and Control

Chapter 9: Noniterative Optimization Methods

Peng Zhao

State Key Laboratory of Fluid Power and Mechatronic Systems, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China

Yuehua Gao

School of Traffic & Transportation Engineering, Dalian Jiaotong University, Dalian, Liaoning, China

Huamin Zhou

State Key Laboratory of Materials Processing and Die & Mould Technology, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, Hubei, China

Lih-Sheng Turng

Polymer Engineering Center, Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Madison, Wisconsin, USA

Polymer material, mold design, and process parameters are three major factors affecting the quality of an injection molded part. During the production process, the polymer and the mold are usually predetermined, so optimizing the process parameters is the most convenient approach to improve the quality of molded parts. However, the optimization of process parameters for injection molding is a complex and difficult task. This is because there are over a dozen process parameters involved in the molding process, and the relationships between the process parameters and the part quality are difficult to express explicitly. Moreover, injection molding belongs to the category of a complicated large-scale system involving many fields of science and engineering, such as rheology, heat transfer, fluid dynamics, friction, polymer science, and control therory. Traditionally, the optimization of parameters for injection molding was considered ...