The main goal of this research was to develop a method of prototyping injection moulded parts which produces a representation of the production part, including not only the part shape and functionality but the process as well. A prototyping method that meets all of these requirements could greatly aid in reducing the time required to bring a new product to the market by using the information gained from this prototype to manufacture a production tool that will be right the first time. Tooling constructed of laminations is appealing for prototyping or production because of the flexibility it affords in terms of rapidly altering mould geometry, gating or cooling passage design. This report summarizes a ‘proof of concept’ project which took a selected part geometry through the entire laminate tool manufacturing process. This report is divided into five sections: (1) introduction to the prototyping process, (2) background of current prototyping processes and description of the laminate tooling method, (3) description of the geometry selected for this work and the manufacturing details, (4) evaluation of the performance of the laminate injection mould and (5) conclusions.

Reducing cycle times in the field of injection moulding demands that parts be ejected as soon as they are dimensionally stable. It is, therefore, imperative that the ejection forces be balanced and adequate so as to reduce the probability of part deformation. In this paper, we estimate ejection forces for moulded parts that have been used by the industry, and compare these models to simulation and experimental results for a simple cylindrical sleeve.

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This paper discusses the pressures predicted by three popular commercial flow packages during the injection phase of a thermoplastic injection moulding operation. The project requireddesigning and buildingan instrumentedmould.The mould geometry and its dimensions were then verified by a coordinate measuring machine. These dimensions were then entered into the three simulation packages. An experiment was designed to collect data on injection pressures at various locations in the flow channels and cavities of the mould during injection. These experimental data were then compared to pressures predicted by the simulations.