Development of the computer-aided process planning (CAPP) system for polymer injection molds manufacturing

Beginning of production and selling of polymer products largely depends on mold manufacturing. The costs of mold manufacturing have significant share in the final price of a product. The best way to improve and rationalize polymer injection molds production process is by doing mold design automation and manufacturing process planning automation. This paper reviews development of a dedicated process planning system for manufacturing of the mold for injection molding, which integrates computer-aided design (CAD), computer-aided process planning (CAPP) and computer-aided manufacturing (CAM) technologies

Customizing Prosthetic Leg Socket by using Rapid Prototype with Reverse Engineering

The demand of using prosthetic leg keeps on increasing due to unpredictable of certain diseases or physical trauma such as accident and war. Prosthetic devices can help, but making a prosthetic leg can be a long and difficult process. Standard made prosthetic leg come ready-made in various standard sizes, though they are often not as realistic as their custom-made counterparts. Custom-made prosthetic legs are generally more expensive which costing thousands of US dollars, depending on the level of detail. This case study describes implementation of rapid prototyping and reverse engineering technology on customizing the prosthetic leg socket. A negative mold was obtained from the amputee stump with plaster of paris. The positive mold is generated from negative mold and taken to the 3D Renishaw Digitizer machine for reverse engineering. 3D Renishaw Digitizer machine will produce 3D point cloud data from the scanning result. Unigraphics is used to fix, repair and customize the 3D point cloud data into 3D solid modeling and convert into STL file format before send to the Rapid Prototype machine to produce the rapid prototype part. Final rapid prototype part is in wax form, therefore Rapid tooling is needed in order to make the socket of the prosthetic leg more realistic by using the thermoplastic or engineering plastic material. For this FYP project, due to the cost budget of a FYP student is limited the real size of the prosthetic leg socket for this project has been scale down into 80mmX50nunX45mm in order to show the rapid tooling process. The different between the fmal part of the prosthetic leg of the rapid tooling with the rapid prototype is plastic material which can sustain high strength compare with wax. Therefore, a scale down of this project is essential to save material cost of the rapid tooling process

Mixed Reality system to study deformable objects: Breast Cancer application

Treballs Finals de Grau d'Enginyeria Biomèdica. Facultat de Medicina i Ciències de la Salut. Universitat de Barcelona. Curs: 2020-2021. Directors: Eduardo Soudah i Óscar de Coss. Tutor: Aida NiñerolaA significant amount of women who go through a breast cancer conservative surgery to treat early stage breast cancer undergo a repeat surgery due to concerns that residual tumor was left behind. To avoid this, tumor localization is needed to assist the surgeon in order to determine tumor extent and also, it is critical to account for tissue deformations. For these reasons, new navigation systems, like the one proposed on this project, are emerging to cover those needs. This project focuses on the use of a Mixed Reality system to improve the accuracy in placing the static hologram of the tumor and, to implement a dynamical hologram when deformation takes place. In order to do so, two different molds with objects inside have been manufactured. Next, two different approaches were considered, a mathematical approach to create a 3D CAD model of the molds and a medical approach, which consisted in performing a CT and then, segment the images. The models were post-processed and imported to the HoloLens head-mounted display. The system was tested on the molds and on a breast phantom provided by the Hospital Clinic. The results obtained were encouraging and although some things need to be improved, this exciting new use for Augmented Reality has the potential to improve the lives of many patients

Casting of topologically optimized components utilizing additive manufacturing

Casting is a widely-used metalworking method that is valued for its benefits in product manufacturability, repeatability, versatility, and low cost. Although casting capabilities are always improving, there are still many limitations in component design due to the constraints of conventional pattern fabrication methods. Topology optimization is an innovative design approach that optimizes the material layout of the designated geometry. Optimized designs are often too complex to manufacture with standard casting, machining, or other fabrication processes, forcing the utility of topology optimization to remain solely in preliminary design. These designs often require alteration to improve manufacturability, therefore diminishing the full potential benefits of the topology optimization. Additive manufacturing (AM) technologies, such as 3D printing, are capable of fabricating topologically optimized components without design alteration. However, the limited material selection offered by 3D printers inhibits the performance of printed components. Combining AM technologies and casting allows the possibility to manufacture topologically optimized components using typical casting alloys. This work looks at current casting and AM technologies, the background of topology optimization, practical work on numerous original optimized designs, the adaption of selected designs to casting methodology, analysis of selected designs using casting simulations, and fabrication of selected designs via investment casting and sand mold casting. Results showed that the collaboration of casting and AM technologies allowed the fabrication of topologically optimized components without the need for significant design alteration. However, defects such as porosity and cracking occurred in both the simulations and physical castings of the components. These complications were likely caused by large variance in the size of adjacent features and by the presence of many flow fronts during pouring. Findings in this work highlight at least the following; optimized components can be produced by casting, although the methods and software need to develop further before the full potential of this approach can be reached. These issues could be mitigated through further study and optimization of the casting processes

Strategic Management Method for the Incubation Process of Industrial Companies: Case Study of the Tooling Industry in Brazil

AbstractIndustrial competitiveness has required from companies elevated quality standards, cost reduction and a high capacity of delivery. Within this scenario, an important industrial segment has a fundamental role: the tool and die industry. Tools and dies are resources that are fit to a specific task and are either produced as a single-unit batch or intermittently according to demand. Generally, this industrial segment has demonstrated low competitiveness, which in turn affects the performance of other production chains that rely on it. This is the case of the plastic transformation and metalworking industry, especially when forged and stamped parts are considered. This low competitiveness is a consequence of the deficient corporate structure found in these companies, which results in lack of compliance to quality standards, high costs and long delivery times. Besides the support given to current tool-and-die making clusters, a decentralization structuring project of this industry to other regions of Brazil is necessary. This need is illustrated by new automotive and other consumer goods production plants that have recently started operating in the northeast and central regions of Brazil. In order to contribute to this issue, this article proposes a strategic management model for the incubation process of industrial companies that comply with competitiveness standards required by current market demands. Besides the usual difficulties related to incubation and the creation of any enterprise, the tooling industry faces an additional obstacle related to investment in assets (buildings, machinery, and software). Therefore, a nucleation process based on an existing structure that will be shared by several companies is proposed (IDS – Industrial Development Structure). This structure shall be preferably established on an ICT (Brazilian denomination for Science and Technology Institutes) that shall contribute with professional training (tool and die making) and specialized services (e.g. metrology and tool tryouts)

Study on Gun Drilling Technology in CNC Machining

This document is the internship report of the Master in Product Design Engineering carried out at Tecnimoplás Lda. The company Tecnimoplás Lda is dedicated to manufacture of molds. They have an ability to make a small, medium and large size molds. Tecnimoplás is a company started in 1971 based in Marinha Grande, specialized in the service of mold. With this internship it was possible to get the industrial immersion that was the one of the objectives of the student for this stage. In the company after an initial inclosing, it was possible to develop work in the different equipment’s with different materials for mold in the company machines. This statement is a detailed description and analytical analysis with various processes to make a mold. In this process one of the main process is Deep Hole Drilling. It is also talking about the various types of tools used in deep hole drilling machines and also discuss about the various types of fixing system in deep hole drilling machines. This deep hole drilling is mainly used for Water and Oil circuit in the mold. This report also comprises of case study of Deep hole drilling process and the void formation in the parts of Deep hole drilling machines. This work also concluded that it is fundamental that the tools used in Deep Hole drilling, are used within the ranges of operation recommended by the tool’s manufacturers

Procedimiento para el análisis automatizado de la manufactura de la pieza de plástico y del molde de inyección

El proceso de manufactura mediante moldes de inyección de plástico es uno de los métodos de producción más versátiles y extendidos para la fabricación de piezas de plástico. Actualmente, existe una amplia variedad de software tipo CAD/CAE/CAM para el análisis y diseño asistido de piezas de plástico y moldes de inyección. Sin embargo, estas herramientas comerciales aún requieren de interacción humana y acceso a información geométrica interna de la pieza de plástico vinculada a su modelo CAD. La presente tesis doctoral propone una metodología universal basada en algoritmos automatizados de tipo geométrico – experto que, mediante el análisis de la geometría discreta de la pieza de plástico (malla en formato discreto definida por los elementos notables nodos y facetas), mejore y optimice el proceso actual de análisis, diseño y dimensionamiento del molde de inyección, sin recurrir a técnicas heurísticas e interacción manual por parte del usuario.Plastic injection molding is one of the most versatile and widespread manufacturing process for the plastic parts manufacture. Nowadays, there is a wide variety of CAD/CAE/CAM type software for the analysis and aided design of plastic parts and injection molds. However, these commercial tools still require human interaction and access to internal geometric information (geometric features) of the plastic part linked to their CAD model. The present PhD thesis proposes a universal methodology based on automated geometrical - expert algorithms that, by means of the analysis of the plastic part discrete geometry (mesh in discrete format defined by notable elements nodes and facets), improve and optimize the current analysis, design and dimensioning process of the injection mold, without resorting to heuristic techniques and manual interaction by the user.Tesis Univ. Jaén. Departamento Ingeniería Gráfica, Diseño y Proyectos. Leída el 3 de mayo de 2019

Textile injection process characterisation by means of a spiral mould

New developments are being carried out within the injection moulding field, such as gas injection, bi-injection, co-injection, sequential injection, compression injection or textile injection processes. These techniques require new developments as they highly modify design and process conditions. In this work, the influence over the plastic material flow of the introduction of different film textiles into the mould is measured. A specific measurement system consisting of a monitorised spiral mould with pressure sensors has been used to measure the influence of different tissues over the mould pressures. As an application of this measurement system, a viscous model is generated to characterise the rheological behaviour of the thermoplastic and textile joint. The viscous model obtained is applied on a conventional CAE tool for the simulation of textile injection pressure results for the different film textiles analysed

Applications of AM

In this chapter, three strategic domains of Additive Manufacturing application are presented: tool making, medicine and transportation, with main benefits and results obtained by application of AM. Chapter presents some of on-going or already finished project from mentioned AM application fields

Aplicaciones de las tecnologías aditivas en las diferentes disciplinas educativas de la Universidad de Savonia

El objeto del trabajo es el de entender el funcionamiento de las tecnologías aditivas y sus actuales usos en la industria y centros educativos para encontrar y proponer diferentes aplicaciones de uso y conocimiento de la fabricación aditivas y más concretamente de la impresión 3D.<br /