In the design of an injection mould

In the design of an injection mould, the main information flow and processing steps begin with the input of a product model from CAD systems. The product CAD model can be a solid, surface or wife-frame model. If the CAD systems used in product design are different from those used in mould design, it is necessary to convert the product CAD model into standard data exchange formats such as IGES or STEP. After inputting the product CAD model into a mould design system, conversion of surface and wireframe models into solid models is needed because most design activities in a computer-aided mould system are 3-D based. Considering the complete mould production process, there are several stages includ- ing product model input, product manufacturing evaluation and mould structure predesign consideration, detailed CAD, CAM Programming, machining, assembly and QA testing. The main information flow and processing steps in mould produc- tion are shown in figure 1.