A New Smart Web Platform for Plastic Injection Molds in Industry 4.0 Environments

Abstract

This paper presents a new smart web platform for plastic injection molds for use in industry 4.0 environments. The new platform requires as its only input the CAD model of the plastic part in a discrete format, the accuracy of the analysis, the thermoplastic material of which the part will be manufactured and the number of parts to manufacture per year. Using this information and through a fully automated process based on hybrid algorithms developed by the authors the smart platform generates an extended CAD model of the mold with additional expert information useful for industry 4.0 environments. In this way, it is possible to design a mold with uniform heat transfer, balanced ejection and a uniform filling phase of the mold cavity. The presented platform differ from other applications for mold designing in that the resulting mold meets all the geometric, functional and technological requirements of mold designing without needing CAE simulation software for its validation. The presented platform is considered as the first smart platform that does not require the interaction of the designer in the process of dimensioning and designing the different subsystems that compound the mold, being a tool to reduce time and costs in the initial phases of plastic part design and with the ability to integrate into a flexible manufacturing environment 4.0.