1、ORIGINAL ARTICLEModular design applied to beverage-containerinjection moldsMing-Shyan Huang&Ming-Kai HsuReceived:16 March 2010/Accepted:15 June 2010/Published online:25 June 2010#Springer-Verlag London Limited 2010Abstract This work applies modular design concepts todesignating beverage-container in
2、jection molds.This studyaims to develop a method of controlling costs and time inrelation to mold development,and also to improve productdesign.This investigation comprises two parts:functional-ity coding,and establishing a standard operation procedure,specifically designed for beverage-container in
3、jection molddesign and manufacturing.First,the injection mold isdivided into several modules,each with a specific function.Each module is further divided into several structural unitspossessing sub-function or sub-sub-function.Next,dimen-sions and specifications of each unit are standardized and aco
4、mpatible interface is constructed linking relevant units.This work employs a cup-shaped beverage container toexperimentally assess the performance of the modulardesign approach.The experimental results indicate thatthe modular design approach to manufacturing injectionmolds shortens development time
5、 by 36%and reducescosts by 1923%compared with the conventional ap-proach.Meanwhile,the information on modularity helpsdesigners in diverse products design.Additionally,thefunctionality code helps effectively manage and maintainproducts and molds.Keywords Beverage container.Injection mold.Modulardesi
6、gn.Product family1 IntroductionRecently,growing market competition and increasinglydiverse customer demand has forced competitors toincrease the speed at which they deliver new products tothe market.However,developing a mold for mass produc-tion requires considering numerous factors,includingproduct
7、 geometry,dimensions,and accuracy,leading tolong product development time.Introducing modulardesign concepts into product design appears a key meanof facilitating product development,since it increasesdesign flexibility and shortens delivery time 14.Mean-while,a high level of product modularity enha
8、nces productinnovativeness,flexibility,and customer services 5.Modularity is to subdivide a complex product intomodules that can be independently created and then areeasily used interchangeably 6,7.There are three generalfields where modularity could be implemented includingmodularity in design(MID)
9、,modularity in use(MIU),andmodularity in production(MIP)8.MID involves stan-dardizing basic structural units which perform specificfunctions,thus facilitating flexible assembly of variousproducts 9,10.MID can reveal product structure,namelythe relationship among different products.Related productsar
10、e termed product family and include both basic andspecific functions.Developing product families offersbenefits in terms of multi-purpose design and thus reducesproduction costs 11,12.MIU is consumer-driven decom-position of a product with a view to satisfying the ease ofuse and individually.MIP ena
11、bles the factory floor to pre-combine a large number of components into modules andthese modules to be assembled off-line and then broughtonto the main assembly line to be incorporated into a smalland simple series of tasks.M.-S.Huang(*):M.-K.HsuDepartment of Mechanical and Automation Engineering an
12、dGraduate Institute of Industrial Design,National Kaohsiung First University of Science and Technology,2 Jhuoyue Road,Nanzih,Kaohsiung City 811,Taiwan,Republic of Chinae-mail:mshuangccms.nkfust.edu.twInt J Adv Manuf Technol(2011)53:110DOI 10.1007/s00170-010-2796-yMID has been broadly applied to nume
13、rous areas andhas exerted significant effects in terms of cost reduction anddesign diversity 13,14.However,there is limitedempirical research that has applied modular design tomolds 1518.This study thus aims to reduce molddevelopment time by applying modular design and developa standard operation pr
14、ocedure for designing beverage-container injection molds,which are characterized byscores or even hundreds of components.2 General procedures of designing injection moldsBasically,an injection mold set consists of two primarycomponents,the female mold and the male mold.Themolten plastic enters the c
15、avity through a sprue in thefemale mold.The sprue directs the molten plastic flowingthrough runners and entering gates and into the cavitygeometry to form the desired part.Sides of the part thatappear parallel with the direction of the mold opening aretypically angled slightly to ease rejection of t
16、he part fromthe mold.The draft angle required for mold release isprimarily dependent on the depth of the cavity and theshrinkage rate of plastic materials.The mold is usuallydesigned so that the molded part reliably remains on themale mold when it opens.Ejector pins or ejector plate isplaced in either half of the mold,which pushes the finishedmolded product or runner system out of a mold.Thestandard method of cooling is passing a coolant through aseries of holes drilled through the mold plates a
