ASIAN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY

Introduction to
Manufacturing Processes
(IE201)
Mold Design of Cellphone
SUBMITTED TO: DR. THAN LIN

STUDENT NAME: Sirikit Joshi

ID Number: st20000728
DATE: 29 September 2015

A) Introduction:
Siemens (NX 10) is an advanced high-end CAD, CAM & CAE software
package used for designing, engineering analysis and manufacturing. It is a
powerful and efficient tool in Mold Design as it streamlines the mold design
process from core and cavity creation to product and mold design
validation. It imports a 3D part data of the product model and models and
performs design changes to achieve manufacturability. It automatically
adjusts according to the core/cavity interferences and designs parting
surfaces quickly and associatively. NX 10 enables mold designing to
automate for shrinkage, runner, gates and other additional designs.
Additionally, NX 10 eliminates costly physical rework by design validation,
ensuring parts, tools and manufacturing processes have been properly
defined. The following report depicts a 3D part model of a cellphone cover to
make a mold along with important parts such as gates, runners, patch
surfaces and cavity/core to calculate the manufacturability of the part. The
analysis report completely generated by the Siemens NX 10 is used to
analyze the problems regarding the designing of the mold and solutions to
them.

Fig 1.1: The original 3D part model of the top cover of a cellphone

Fig 1.2: The main file

top_000 containing mold
base and the 4 cavities
within

Fig 1.3: The cellphone part

with its core

Fig 1.4: Four

cavities with
gates and
runners

B) Objective:
The objective of Mold Wizard is to create a mold of an object that is to be
manufactured.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

Create Mold Wizard tooling assemblies

Define cavity, core and workpiece
Use mold parting tools to check and define region
Use inbuilt Mold Wizard Library for mold bases and standard parts
Define gate and runner geometry
Run Analysis and discuss possible issues based on the result

C) Implementation:
In order to create the mold, a series of calculated and complex steps
need to be taken to reach an accurate result. The order of these steps are
important to the assembly of the mold and heavily affects the issues
found at the end of the design analysis.
1. Initialize the mold design project, orientation of assembly:
In order to initialize the project, name, units, material, and template
configuration need to be supplied. The Mold CSYS command is used to
orient and position the product subassembly in the mold so that the
injection direction aligns to the WCS -XY direction. At the end, a
workpiece needs to be defined for the forthcoming cavity and core
regions.
2. Creation of cavity layout:
The cavity layout command decides how many cavities will be places and
their respective positions. A vector axis, layout of cavity, number and
type of cavity are to be defined for the making of a cavity.
3. Mold parting tools:
The check regions command is used to identify the main parting loop,
internal loops and faces of the mold. NX 10 easily calculates the region
data. After setting the regions color, create regions and parting lines
under the Define Regions tab.
4. Patch Open Surfaces:
The cell phone has many open surfaces that needs to be patched to
define the surface where the core and cavity meet. After choosing the

type under the Patch Surfaces tab, the program automatically generates
the loops in the model.
5. Parting Surfaces, cores and cavities:
The program easily auto creates the parting surfaces with the parting
sheet sewn together with the region and patch sheets to trim the cavity
and core inserts. After that, define the cavity and core regions. This
command sews together the copies of the parting surface, the two patch
sheets and the extracted region sheets.
6. Adding a mold base and standard parts:
After making the top_000 file the work part, the in-built Mold Wizard
Mold Base Library is used to generate the DME mold base. The
thicknesses are automatically calculated based on the cavity of each
user. The Standard parts Library contains locating rings, sprue bushings
and core pins from various manufacturers such as DME and HASCO.
After inserting the locating rings and sprue bushings, changes can be
made to the preset dimensions if necessary. The model already possess
ejector pins and hence, it is ignored.
7. Create Pockets:
Pockets need to be made in the top mold plates to make space for
locating ring screws, ejector pins and mold inserts. Choose the
uppermost mold plates and the target objects to create pockets.
8. Addition of Gates and runners:
Under the Gate Library tab, choose the appropriate balance, position and
type options to create gates according to the faces on the model. In
order to guide the runner, sketch a line connecting the center point of
the two gates and the base of the sprue pin. Under the runner tab,
choose the guide line previously created to form the runners on each
cavity.
9. Create Pockets:
Select the core and cavity and choose the Pocket tool to create pockets
for the gates and runners in the mold insert. Use the HD3D tools to
verify whether the pocketing feature passed the check-mate tests.
10. Set Cavity and Runner:
After setting the current folder as the working folder, use the Set Cavity
tab and select the 4 bodies and appropriate materials to confirm your

settings. The Set Runner tool lets you select the parts to be used as
runners.
11. Create Melt Entrance and setting parting direction:
Melt Entrance is essential to the simulation. The melt entrance is the
entry point of the material to be molded. A runner surface or part is
chosen as the melt entrance. The Parting Direction tool decides which
direction the mold separates.
12. Analysis:
Before starting the analysis, one should make sure that all the
components of the injection molding are properly set. There are four
sections in the Analysis Setup Dialog: Analysis Sequence Setting,
Process Condition, Project Setting and Mesh Level. The default process
condition is set by the system based on the cavity dimension and the
selected material. A higher mesh level means a denser and larger
number of elements with better analysis accuracy. However, for this
project a Mesh Level of 1 is enough.

D) Results & Discussion:

After creating the mold design for the cellphone cover using the appropriate
parts and parameters, an analysis was run to check the part validity. The
analysis runs various tests depending on moldability, gate contribution, air
trap, and weld time, etc. and generates a detailed report along with
solutions to counter the problems related to designing.
Summary table Material

Summary table Process Condition

Summary table Filling Result

Among the 30 or so result types,

a few are addressed below.
a. Melt Front Time: It shows
the position of the melt front
with respect to time during the
filling stage.

b. Pressure: it shows the

pressure distribution of the
plastic at the end of filling.

c. Frozen Layer Ratio: A frozen

layer is formed near the cavity
surface because of
solidification, which is caused
by cooling. It affects the
residual stress and the flowinduced orientation.

d. Gate Contribution: The

percentage of each color
indicates its percentage of
volume compared with the
cavity. It helps determine
whether the model was filled
by balanced flow pattern.

The NX 10 also generates history curves depicting pressure or flow rate. The
sprue pressure over time graph helps identify the geometry that causes high
pressure or short shot. The maximum pressure should not exceed the
capability of the machine.

According to the Result advisor, a possible issue found in the Analysis is Air
Trap. An air trap is formed by converging melt fronts trapping a small bubble
of air. It may occur at several locations inside the cavity.

Problem
Description:
Air Traps found
inside the cavity
which may cause
voids or surface
defect.
Solution:
Increase the
filling time.
Change the gate
location.
Reduce the
injection speed.
Modify the size or
location of the vents.

E) Conclusion:
Siemens NX 10 is a powerful tool not only for injection molding, but also
for the creation of various other machinery parts. In this age of
competition, the NX 10 provides a challenging business opportunity to
industries with this skill. It reduces costs by controlling overall design and
manufacturing process. It reduces error and is compatible with various
data formats. It helps in the reduction of cycle times and design time
while increasing production volume. The same data can be reused and
hence effort and manufacturing/machining time are greatly saved. The
NX 10, easily achieves customer requirements and maintains tool design
quality.
Mold design is made easier and accessible through this software.
Using associativity with the design model, NX mold design software
facilitates fast and efficient design change propagation across the entire
process. Mold design makes the manufacturing of molds easier from the
very start with tool design through the very end of machining and has an
additional analysis part for all round success in product accuracy.