A Variable Search Technique for Multiple Control Valves Used in Melt Modulation During Injection Molding

A variable search technique was investigated for use with a melt modulation system with multiple control valves. The method was developed in order to obtain an optimum solution which determines the positions of all valves. It was shown that not all valve angles in the system had to be determined, as only certain significant valves needed to be fine tuned during the searching process. It was also shown that the valve position and location were greatly dependent on the cavity and runner configurations. Once the valve control variable search method had been established, a series of family mold models was created and analyzed using MoldFlow. Instead of using the default runner from the software, a modification of the 3D models was made in order to embed melt modulation valves. The result showed that within a limited number of trials, an optimum solution can be obtained. The number of searching trials can also be reduced by applying different search gains and changing certain appropriate initial values.