Fill Time Analysis of 8 Cavities Parison Mould using Taguchi Method

Abstract

In the plastic injection molding process, the optimization of the process parameters is a complex task. This paper presents the optimum conditions of the injection process for 8 cavities mold for 20g parison filled with Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET) by utilizing the Taguchi method. In the Taguchi method, the performance parameter is assumed to be the optimal parameter for injection molding process. An L16 (43) orthogonal array is considered as an experimental plan for the design parameters as suggested in Minitab version. The objective of this study is to propose an approach for efficiently optimizing injection molding parameter, i.e. fill time, with three different outputs, i.e. melting temperature, runner size and mold temperature. The illustrative application and comparison of results show that the proposed methodology outperforms the existing methods and can help injection molding process to efficiently and effectively identify optimal fill time process parameter. The result indicates the best performance for the highest contribution for each respond. This is due to the interaction of factors and it also gives the percentage contribution with 95% confidence level. The analysis using the Taguchi method showed the optimized fill time. The results show that the optimal parameters for the fill time during injection process of 8 cavities mold 20g parison is A1B1C4.