Optimization Process Parameters of Flat Plastic Part Having Side Gate System Using Flow Analysis Software

Injection moulding process is one of the most important process in manufacturing plastic part. However, during injection process, many parameters are required to set-up at the injection machine monitor. Long time is needed to adjust the parameters in order to get high quality of product. Therefore, simulation software is essential to speed-up the setting process especially for producing new product. The objective of this research is to optimize the injection process parameters of melt temperature, mould temperature, injection time and cooling time. The responses of fill time and time to freeze are set the lowest the better meanwhile total part weight is set the higher the better. Taguchi method and analysis of variance (ANOVA) were performed to optimize all parameters. The plastic material used in this simulation analysis was polypropylene. The flat plastic part was designed using CATIA software and the design was transferred to the Moldflow simulation software. It found that, the lowest value for fill time and time to freeze is 0.2099 s and 12.21 s respectively. Meanwhile, the highest value of part weight is 4.5565 g. After optimization process, fill time shows no change. However, freeze time decreases for 0.4% to 12.16 s then total part weight increases for 0.12% to 4.620 g. ANOVA result shows that injection time was the most significant parameter for fill time meanwhile melt temperature was the most significant parameter for time to freeze and total part weight. Thus, these optimization parameters result can be used for future experimental work.