Filling balance optimization by best gate location

The quality of an injection molded part is strongly influenced by the filling balance of the mould cavity. This paper presents a method and the relevant software application to determine the best gate location for an injection molded part. The proposed optimization method automatically and iteratively calculates the gate position that maximizes the melt flows balance during the filling phase. The software is based on the Moldflow Plastics Insight®/Microsoft Visual Basic® interface and uses a non-linear optimization algorithm based on the Gauss-Newton and Conjugated Gradient techniques. The effectiveness of the developed method is demonstrated through some significant case studies.