Modelling functional design information for injection mould design

Injection mould design is a complex process incorporating various aspects of design information and a variety of design activities. Specific requirements such as undercut mould design add difficulties to the problem because they often require innovation, which involves the conceptual stage of design problem solving. Modelling injection mould design from a functional perspective enables a higher level of design abstraction, thus facilitating a wider range of conceptual variants selection. In this paper, the authors discuss the essential aspects of functional design information in injection mould design and how they can be modelled. Functional design knowledge supporting the modelling process is also discussed and formalized, and a number of knowledge libraries are implemented. A side core mechanism design is used as an example to illustrate the proposed method and its usefulness.