Abstract
Determination of the number of gates and their locations is an important issue in injection mould design. An optimisation strategy based on a genetic algorithm was developed to deal with this problem. The objective function was expressed as the sum of the injection pressure at the end of filling stage and a penalty term, and the constraint was to limit the injection pressure to remain below a reference value. The coordinates of the gates were chosen as design variables. The penalty term of the objective function was to reduce the number of gates. The number of gates was modified according to their distance when a mould filling process was simulated to evaluate the required injection pressure and the objective function. Through optimisation, the minimum number of gates which satisfies the limit of injection pressure and their optimum locations leading to balanced flow could be obtained simultaneously. Examples are given to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed scheme.
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