The European Union has been undertaking research involving Artificial Intelligence (AI) and its use in the injection moulding industry – to be known as the Des-MOLD System. Integrating AI is hoped to cut costs by reducing running costs and wastage, whilst increasing capacity and, therefore, reducing time to market.
They are hoping that all of these benefits will be achieved by running new tool designs and parameters through AI software prior to use, ironing out any flaws and ensuring that the first shot a tool produces will be as good as the rest. AI will also control the CNC manufacturing process of the tool, as well as the injection moulding machine itself, allowing minute adjustments to be made in flow rate in order to improve the final product and ensure that it is as specified in the original CAD design.
Des-MOLD is hoped to lower set-up times by up to around 25% and reduce the amount of scrap that is generated at the testing stage of the moulding process. It will also improve the overall quality of the manufactured part and could be rolled out to other manufacturing sectors if successful.