A Step Towards Automated Design of Rotary-Platen Multi-Shot Molds

This paper describes an improved algorithm for automated design of rotary-platen type of multi-shot molds for manufacturing multi-material objects. The algorithm described in this paper accounts for geometric constraints resulting from the rotary-platen process and it can handle significantly more complex interfaces. Our algorithm works in the following manner. First, we classify the multi-material object into several basic types based on the relationships among different single material components in the object. For every basic type, we find a manufacturing sequence based on the precedence constraints resulting due to accessibility and disassembly requirements. Then, starting from the last mold stage, we generate the mold pieces for every mold stage based on the manufacturing sequence. We expect that the algorithm described in this paper will provide the necessary foundations for automating the design of rotary-platen molds and therefore will help in significantly reducing the mold manufacturing lead-time associated with these types of molds.