An effective method for multi-material part design

Injection moulding is the most commercially important of all plastic processing methods. In recent years, multi-material over-moulding has become one of the fastest growing sectors of the injection moulding industry mainly due to its in-mould assembly and in-mould decoration features. Unlike the rapid development of multi-material over-moulding technologies, research in computer-aided design of multi-material parts lags far behind. This paper reports initial thoughts and preliminary results about a computer-aided design method for multi-material parts. Haptic modelling has been developed into the computer-aided design system for quick and intuitive design concepts generation and evaluation. Some of the tedious and difficult tasks such as free-form surface painting, part decompositions, and stiffness evaluation can now be done in the proposed system. Copyright © 2008 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.link_to_subscribed_fulltex