| Abstract | Today's ubiquitous use of plastics in product designand manufacturing presents significant environmental and
human health challenges. Injection molding, one of the most
commonly used processes for making plastic products,
consumes a significant amount of energy. A methodology for
accurately estimating the energy consumed to injection-mold a
part would enable environmentally conscious decision making
during the product design. Unfortunately, only limited
information is available at the design stage. Therefore,
accurately estimating energy consumption before the part has
gone into production can be challenging. In this paper, we
describe a methodology for energy estimation that works with
the limited amount of data available during the design stage,
namely the CAD model of the part, the material name, and the
production requirements. This methodology uses this data to
estimate the parameters of the runner system and an
appropriately sized molding machine. It then uses these
estimates to compute the machine setup time and the cycle time
required for the injection molding operation. This is done by
appropriately abstracting information available from the mold
flow simulation tools and analytical models that are
traditionally used during the manufacturing stage. These times
are then multiplied by the power consumed by the
appropriately sized machine during each stage of the molding
cycle to compute the estimated energy consumption per part.
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