The development of a standard component library for plastic injection mould design using an object-oriented approach

摘要

Very often, outsourced components (known as standard components) are used for reducing design effort and product cost in mould design. They are usually manufactured by specialised suppliers. 3D CAD parametric models of these components will significantly reduce mould design lead-time and cost, and enhance design flexibility. This paper presents the detailed object definition, design, and implementation of a Standard Component Library within a mould design software package, QuickMould. With many components from different suppliers implemented, it is believed that the object design has generic nature and can be expanded to include most mechanical components in a collaborative environment. The advantages of this implementation are the compressed data structure, the ease of use and simple customisation.