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Gate design optimization in the injection molding of the optical lens

CHAO-MING LIN1,* , CHUNG-MING TAN2, CHIH-KUN WANG2

Affiliation

  1. Department of Mechanical and Energy Engineering, National Chiayi University, Chia-Yi, 600, Taiwan, R.O.C.
  2. Graduate School of Opto-Mechatronics and Materials, WuFeng University, Chia-Yi, 621, Taiwan. R.O.C.

Abstract

Injection molding processing is used widely in the manufacturing of precision optical lens, and the gate design is an important factor to dominate the optical lens performances. In this paper, the mold flow technology combined with the Taguchi method used to analyze the geometrical parameters optimization about the gate design on the injection molding of the optical lens. To design the optimum gate parameters, the Taguchi method (including the orthogonal array L934, the Signal-to-Noise ratio S/N, and the Analysis of Means-ANOM) is employed to analyze the affect factors of the gate shape and to determine the optimum gate geometrical parameters. The analyzed model including the gate and lens are used to process the injection molding simulation of the Taguchi method, and then to analyze and calculate the average residual stress in a fixed plane of the lens. The major objective is to elevate the lens performance by means of reducing average residual stress. The results show the average residual stress is decreasing with S/N increasing, and the smaller residual stress distribution lead to the lens performance is elevated. The optimal combination of control factor (level) is A(3), B(3), C(3), and D(2), and the combination parameters of the optimum process with S/N=48.438dB can reduce the average residual stress to 0.002753MPa. The control factors with their importance about the improving average residual stress in the injection molding processing are (A)- gate thickness, (C)- gate inlet width, (B)- gate length, and (D)- gate outlet width..

Keywords

Gate optimization, Lens, Residual stress, Injection molding, Taguchi method, Mold flow analysis.

Citation

CHAO-MING LIN, CHUNG-MING TAN, CHIH-KUN WANG, Gate design optimization in the injection molding of the optical lens, Optoelectronics and Advanced Materials - Rapid Communications, 7, 7-8, July-August 2013, pp.580-584 (2013).

Submitted at: Aug. 2, 2012

Accepted at: July 11, 2013