AWANG BIN ABU

Bachelor of Engineering (Hons) Mechanical (EM220)

Faculty of Mechanical Engineering
2005644074
Advisor: PROF. XAVIER

APPLICATION OF CAD-CAE ON MOLD DESIGN FOR

AUTOMOTIVE PART
ABSTRACT
Computer-Aided Design (CAD) and Computer-Aided Engineering (CAE) are the usage of computer technology to help in design and simulation process of any part or products in
engineering field. This combination technology of CAD-CAE is very helpful and beneficial in engineering field. Quality plastic injection product can be achieved by the advantages
of CAD and CAE software. This project is basically about designing plastic injection mold for automotive parts named Timing Belt Cover. CATIA is used for developing the
modeling, detailing and the mold design part, while Moldflow software is used to analyze the gating position for the part. The research is focused into two sections; discovery the
best gate position and designing the mold. Filling analysis in Moldflow is used to find the best gating position on the part, based on several options proposed to be used as a
gating position. The best gating location with the optimum result from the moldflow analysis will be used to proceed with mold design by using CATIA module named Core and
Cavity Design and Mold Tooling Design. The process cycle of mold development was tremendously shortened by these applications of CAD and CAE. Cost for producing mold
also can be minimized when comparing with the conventional trial and error method.

INTRODUCTION

RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS

The design of plastic injection mold nowadays depend

immensely on CAD and CAE applications. The computeraided engineering (CAE) application has become useful
for plastic product development, molding tool design to
achieve quality result of products. In designing an
optimize plastic injection mold, there are several tasks
needed to be performed and conducted. These include
part modeling and run the analysis to determine the best
gate locations on the part which eventually shows the
best design for the mold. In this project, the application
of CAD and CAE tools are fully implemented in designing
the plastic injection mold for the selected part.

Moldflow Analysis

(a) Case 1
Figure 2: Gate Location
Analysis
(a)

1. To identify the best gating location for automotive

plastic part (Timing Belt Cover-Upper) using CAE
software.
2. To design a Plastic Injection Mold for above part
using CAD software.

(b)

1. Fill time

1.480 s

1.999 s

1.883 s

1.547 s

2. Time to

201.6 s

206.3 s

200.8 s

204.0 s
(d)

(c)

3. Max.

20.99

34.79

34.05

21.10

Pressure in

MPa

MPa

MPa

MPa

4. Shear

0.4330

0.4214

0.4230

0.4199

stress at

MPa

MPa

MPa

MPa

High

Low

Low

Lowest

6. Weld line Lowest Low

Low

High

7. Clamping 25.11

30.94

25.96

14.61

force

Tonne

Tonne

Tonne

(f)

(e)

cavity
(g)

Figure 4: (a) Fill time, (b) Freeze time,

(c) Pressure,
(d) Shear stress at wall, (e) Air traps, (f)
Weld lines,
(g) Clamp force

wall

PROJECT METHODOLOGY

(d) Case 4

Case 4

freeze

The objectives of this project are:

(c) Case 3

Figure 3: Gate Location

Table 1: Analysis results

Case 1 Case 2 Case 3

OBJECTIVES

(b) Case 2

5. Air traps

Tonne

Figure 5: Runner Design

Core and Cavity Design
(a)

(b)

(c)

(d)

Figure 6: (a) Core and Cavity Design, (b) Parting Body, (c) Inner Skin,( d) Upper Skin
Mold Tooling Design
(a)
(c)

(b)

Mold Tooling Design application is the last

process in mold design. In this application, the
mold size is based on the standard mold size
having in Faculty of Mechanical Engineering
(FKM) UiTM. The gate location, size and
dimension are set based on the results which
obtained in the Moldflow analysis. The finished
design of the mold complete with all the
components is shows in Figure 7.

Figure 7: (a) Core plate (b) Cavity plate (c) Completed plastic injection mold design

SELECTED PART

(a)

CONCLUSIONS

(b)

Objectives of project were achieved which is to determine the best gate position on the automotive part (Timing Belt
Cover) and to design the mold using CATIA for the part according the optimize condition obtained from Moldfow. The
first task of this project is to model part in CATIA then the model of the part was simulated in Moldflow to determine
the best gating position of the part. The result of analysis showed that the best gating position was on the top of the
part. Since the gating system that needed for that case is direct gate which required Three Plate Mold system and
higher cost of the production the alternative 4 gating positions were simulated. After completed analyses process
the side gate was chosen which was placed at two sides of the part. Then, the complete mold was design based on
the simulation result obtained.

Figure 1: (a) Picture of Timing Belt Cover

(b) Part modeling by using CATIA Part Design

Mech Eng MAY 2010