The Effect of Parameter Setting Towards the Processing of Hinges Test Samples through Cadmould 3D-F Injection Moulding Simulation

摘要

The objective of this study is to analyze the main parameter setting in injection moulding that influenced the processing of selected thermoplastics components. The test sample used for this project was a hinge made from Polypropylene (PP). This sample was being utilised to analyse the parameters affecting the quality of plastic products, which were warpage and shrinkage. Computer-Aided Engineering (CAE) was applied through CadMould 3D-F simulation software. The processing parameters such as filling time, melt temperature, wall temperature and cooling time were selected to determine the quality of the product. By adopting Taguchi Method, the orthogonal array, Signal-to-Noise (S/N) ratio and Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) were used to find the optimum levels as well as to indicate the impact of the process parameters on warpage and shrinkage. The verification test was also performed to prove the effectiveness of Taguchi technique after the optimum levels of process parameters. The ANOVA results show that cooling time and wall temperature are found to be the most significant factors for shrinkage and warpage, with the contribution of 66.96% and 56.82% respectively. The verification test with the optimal settings shows that warpage were improved by about 0.4% and shrinkage with 4.2% improvement. These findings are useful for production engineer to determine optimal parameter during performing injection moulding on hinges products.