Intelligent ejection direction determination for injection mold design

Abstract

A computing system (100, 700) may include an ejection direction determination engine (110) configured to determine an ejection direction of an injection mold design, including by: determining a set of candidate ejection directions (210) of the injection mold design, including bounding box candidate ejection directions (231, 232, 233) determined based on a minimum bounding box (230) representing an object (220) of a product to be manufactured by the injection mold design; and selecting an ejection direction (520) of the injection mold design from the set of candidate ejection directions (210) based on an ejection direction determination criterion (510, 606). The computing system (100, 700) may also include an ejection direction application engine (112) configured to set an ejection direction (520) of the determined injection mold design such that physical mold pieces constructed according to the injection mold design are configured to be separated from each other in the determined ejection direction during the injection molding production process to manufacture the product (608).

Description

Background Art

[0001] Computer systems can be used to create, use, and manage data for products, articles, and other objects. Examples of computer systems include computer-aided design (CAD) systems (which may include computer-aided engineering (CAE) systems), visualization and manufacturing systems, product data management (PDM) systems, product lifecycle management (PLM) systems, and the like. These systems may include components that facilitate the design, visualization, and simulation testing of product structures and product manufacturing. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0002] Certain examples are described in the following detailed description and with reference to the accompanying drawings.

[0003] Figure 1 An example of a computing system that supports ejection direction determination for injection mold design is shown.

[0004] Figure 2 An example of determining the candidate ejection directions of a bounding box by the ejection direction determination engine is shown.

[0005] Figure 3 An example of determining a candidate ejection direction of a cylinder axis by an ejection direction determination engine is shown.

[0006] Figure 4 An example of determining candidate ejection directions for bisecting a plane is shown.

[0007] Figure 5 An example of determining an ejection direction of an injection mold design from a group of candidate ejection directions by using an ejection direction determination criterion is shown.

[0008] Figure 6 An example of logic that the system may implement to support ejection direction determination for injection mold designs is shown.

[0009] Figure 7 An example of a computing system that supports ejection direction determination for injection mold design is shown. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0010] Injection molding production may include such a process: a product is manufactured by injecting a liquid (e.g., molten liquid plastic or molten plastic) into an injection mold 15, and then the liquid cools into the form of a solid product such as formed by the injection mold. In this regard, the injection mold may define or include a cavity that sets the shape, topology, structure, or various other physical characteristics of the product constructed by injection molding production. In some embodiments, the injection mold is formed by a plurality of mold pieces, sometimes referred to as (or including) a design core, cavity, or insert. When these multiple mold pieces are aligned or combined together, an internal space (e.g., a cavity) of the injection mold is formed, which thus defines the solid shape that the injected liquid plastic will cool into. It can be seen that the injection mold (and the mold piece including the injection mold) may include an inner surface that actually defines the mold cavity and product shape for the injection molding production process.

[0011] Modern injection molding production can be an efficient mechanism for constructing products quickly and in customized shapes, sizes, and properties defined by the injection mold through a mold cavity formed by multiple mold pieces. One aspect that affects the cost, effectiveness, and product quality of the injection molding production process is the ejection direction of the mold pieces of the injection mold design. The ejection direction of the injection mold design can specify the direction in which the solid mold pieces forming the mold cavity are separated from each other after the mold cavity is filled with injected material to form the solid product.

[0012] When the mold cavity formed by the mold pieces sets the shape of the constructed 3D product, the ejection direction of the injection mold design can drive the actual shape of the different mold pieces. The 3D space of the mold cavity (and therefore the product shape) can be spliced ​​along any 2D plane in the 3D space, which can form the boundary of two mold pieces, and the ejection direction of the injection mold design can be normal to (e.g., perpendicular to) the 2D splicing plane. Therefore, the ejection direction of the injection mold design can be a configurable design parameter of the injection mold design, which can greatly affect the manufacturing cost of the physical mold pieces, the manufacturing efficiency of the injection molded product constructed via a specific injection mold design, and even affect the product quality of the injection molding production process, for example through undercuts, which prevent certain parts of the product from being ejected from the mold after being constructed in a configuration-specific ejection direction.

[0013] Typically, ejection direction determination is performed manually, relying on the expertise and experience of the mold designer. Inexperienced designers may select a non-optimal ejection direction, resulting in undercuts and increased complexity in the manufacture of the physical mold. Less-than-ideal ejection directions may also increase manufacturing costs, requiring additional time, effort, and resources to resolve undercuts. Furthermore, improved ejection direction determination can be a time-consuming process, and even the mental capacity of the most experienced designer is not capable of considering the nearly infinite number of potential ejection directions in 3D space in order to determine the ideal ejection direction for an injection mold design of a given product to be manufactured.

[0014] The disclosure herein may provide systems, methods, devices, and logic for ejection direction determination for injection mold design. The intelligent ejection direction determination technology described herein may provide the ability to algorithmically determine the ejection direction for an injection mold design by determining multiple candidate ejection directions based on different techniques. The candidate ejection directions supported by the intelligent ejection direction determination technology of the present disclosure may take into account various factors when evaluating an injection molded product (e.g., a digital representation thereof), thereby allowing the ejection direction for an injection mold design to be determined with increased efficiency and effectiveness. For example, the intelligent ejection direction determination technology may determine the candidate ejection direction based on a minimum bounding box of a CAD object representing an injection molded product (which may therefore form the shape of a mold cavity for an injection mold design), a cylindrical axis based on a cylindrical or conical CAD face of a CAD object, a bisecting plane based on a selected CAD face in a CAD object, determined by a 3-point processing technique for a selected face of a CAD object, or more.

[0015] The intelligent ejection direction determination technology disclosed herein may also provide an ejection direction determination criterion by which an ejection direction may be selected from a determined set of candidate ejection directions. Such an ejection direction determination criterion may take into account the undercut area of ​​the candidate ejection directions, which may improve the efficiency of the injection molding production process by reducing (and in some cases eliminating) the amount of undercuts of the injection molded products manufactured according to the determined ejection direction. The ejection direction determination criterion may also flexibly take into account the cylindrical axis, thereby allowing selection of a specific candidate ejection direction determined based on the cylindrical axis (even when another candidate ejection direction has a smaller undercut area). Thus, the ejection direction determination criterion disclosed herein may provide increased flexibility and optimization for ejection direction determination for injection mold design.

[0016] These and other intelligent ejection direction determination features and technical benefits are described in greater detail herein.

[0017] Figure 1An example of a computing system 100 that supports ejection direction determination of an injection mold design is shown. The computing system 100 can take the form of a single or multiple computing devices, such as an application server, a computing node, a desktop or laptop computer, a smart phone or other mobile device, a tablet device, an embedded controller, etc. In some embodiments, the computing system 100 hosts, supports, executes, or implements a CAD application that supports the generation of an injection mold design, including by determining the ejection direction of the injection mold design.

[0018] As an example implementation supporting any combination of the intelligent ejection direction determination features described herein, Figure 1 The computing system 100 shown in FIG. 1 includes an ejection direction determination engine 110 and an ejection direction application engine 112. The computing system 100 can implement the engines 110 and 112 (including their components) in various ways, such as hardware and programming. The programming for the engines 110 and 112 can take the form of processor-executable instructions stored on a non-transitory machine-readable storage medium, and the hardware for the engines 110 and 112 can include a processor for executing those instructions. The processor can take the form of a single processor or a multi-processor system, and in some examples, the computing system 100 implements multiple engines using the same computing system features or hardware components (e.g., a common processor or a common storage medium).

[0019] In operation, the ejection direction determination engine 110 can determine the ejection direction of the injection mold design, including determining the ejection direction of the injection mold design by determining a candidate ejection direction group for the injection mold design. The candidate ejection direction group may include a bounding box candidate ejection direction determined based on a minimum bounding box of an object representing a product to be manufactured by the injection mold design. The ejection direction determination engine 110 can further determine the ejection direction of the injection mold design by selecting the ejection direction of the injection mold design from the candidate ejection direction group based on an ejection direction determination criterion. In operation, the ejection direction application engine 112 can set the ejection direction of the determined injection mold design so that the physical mold pieces constructed according to the injection mold design are configured to separate from each other in the determined ejection direction during the injection molding production process to manufacture the product.

[0020] These and other intelligent ejection direction determination features and technical benefits are described in more detail below. Various examples of candidate ejection directions are described in turn herein, including bounding box candidate ejection directions, cylindrical axis candidate ejection directions, bisecting plane candidate ejection directions, three-point candidate ejection directions, and any other suitable candidate ejection directions.

[0021] Figure 2An example of bounding box candidate ejection direction determination by the ejection direction determination engine 110 is shown. The ejection direction determination engine 110 can process an object representing a product to be manufactured by an injection molding production process. The object can be any digital representation of a physical product, such as a CAD object representing a physical injection molded product. The injection mold design may include a mold cavity having a 3D geometry that matches the outer surface of the object (and therefore the product). In this way, the object can define the 3D geometry of the mold cavity of the injection mold design, and therefore define the 3D geometry of multiple mold pieces that form the injection mold design. By processing the CAD object representing the injection molded product, the ejection direction determination engine 110 can determine candidate ejection directions for the injection mold design for the injection molded product.

[0022] exist Figure 2 In the example of , the ejection direction determination engine 110 processes a CAD object 220 to determine a candidate ejection direction set 210 for an injection mold design of the CAD object 220. Since the surface geometry of the CAD object 220 can define a mold cavity of the injection mold design, the ejection direction determination engine 110 can consider any direction (e.g., represented as a 3D vector) in the 3D space of the CAD object 220 as a potential ejection direction for the injection mold design. However, such an almost infinite number of ejection direction possibilities would be almost impossible to quantitatively evaluate one by one, and it would not make sense to do so from an efficiency point of view. The ejection direction determination engine 110 can determine specific types of candidate ejection directions to include in the candidate ejection direction set 210.

[0023] As an example, the ejection direction determination engine 110 may determine a candidate ejection direction for a bounding box of a face that is normal to the bounding box of the CAD object 220. In particular, the ejection direction determination engine 110 may determine a candidate ejection direction for a bounding box of a face that is normal to the minimum bounding box of the CAD object 220. For a given CAD object 220, there may be multiple different bounding boxes that enclose the CAD object 220. The minimum bounding box of the CAD object may be a bounding box with a minimum volume that encloses the CAD object 220. That is, no other bounding box of the CAD object 220 may have a smaller volume than the minimum bounding box of the CAD object 220. The ejection direction determination engine 110 may employ and perform any suitable geometric processing, technique, algorithm, or calculation to determine the minimum bounding box of the CAD object 220, wherein a variety of modern techniques are possible and available. In Figure 2 In the example of FIG. 1 , the ejection direction determination engine 110 determines a minimum bounding box 230 of the CAD object 220 .

[0024] Since the minimum bounding box 230 may be in the form of a 3D rectangular volume, the minimum bounding box 230 may include six (6) faces. The ejection direction determination engine 110 may determine the bounding box candidate ejection direction from the minimum bounding box 230 as a vector normal to any number of faces of the minimum bounding box 230. Thus, the ejection direction determination engine 110 may determine a plurality of bounding box candidate ejection directions from the minimum bounding box 230, such as Figure 2 Each of the bounding box candidate ejection directions 231 , 232 , and 233 is normal to a different face of the minimum bounding box 230 of the CAD object 220 .

[0025] In some embodiments, the ejection direction determination engine 110 may group candidate ejection direction pairs together when the direction vectors are in opposite directions to each other. Such vectors or ejection directions may also be referred to as mutually opposite vectors or opposite vectors. An illustrative example of opposite vectors is a bounding box candidate ejection direction pair normal to opposite faces of the minimum bounding box 230, such as a bounding box candidate ejection direction 231 and another bounding box candidate direction normal to opposite faces of the minimum bounding box 230 of the CAD object 220. In some embodiments, the ejection direction determination engine 110 may include three (3) pairs of bounding box candidate ejection directions determined from the minimum bounding box 230 in the candidate ejection direction group 210.

[0026] As another example feature, the ejection direction determination engine 110 may selectively include some (but not all) of the determined bounding box candidate ejection directions in the candidate ejection direction set 210. In some cases, the ejection direction determination engine 110 may include only the bounding box candidate ejection directions that are normal to (e.g., perpendicular to) the face with the largest area of ​​the minimum bounding box 230 as part of the candidate ejection direction set 210. Since the minimum bounding box 230 may include opposing faces that each have the same area, the ejection direction determination engine 110 may include a pair of bounding box candidate ejection directions for the opposing faces with the largest area of ​​the minimum bounding box 230. Such bounding box candidate ejection directions may be paired together because their vector directions are opposite to each other due to being normal to the opposing faces of the minimum bounding box 230.

[0027] In any manner described herein, the ejection direction determination engine 110 can determine a bounding box candidate ejection direction from a minimum bounding box of a CAD object representing a product to be manufactured by the injection mold design. The ejection direction determination engine 110 can include any number of determined bounding box candidate ejection directions in the set of candidate ejection directions from which to select the ejection direction of the injection mold design. Another type of candidate ejection direction supported by the intelligent ejection direction determination technique of the present disclosure is a cylindrical axis candidate ejection direction, which is described below with reference to Figure 3 Describe its example features.

[0028] Figure 3 An example of determining a candidate ejection direction for a cylindrical axis by the ejection direction determination engine 110 is shown. Many types of physical products produced via an injection molding production process may include holes or cylindrical surfaces. If the ejection direction of the injection mold design for such a product is not aligned along the hole of the product (e.g., normal to the hole of the product), such holes and cylindrical surfaces will become undercuts in the injection mold. As used herein, an undercut may refer to any part of a product that prevents ejection from an injection mold after construction. Understood in another way, an undercut may refer to a feature, part, or element of an injection molded product that prevents the product from being ejected from the mold. Examples of undercuts may include protrusions, holes, cavities, and recessed partial areas that are stuck or otherwise blocked by the injection mold during ejection in the injection molding production process.

[0029] Since part ejection is performed along a given ejection direction, it can be appreciated that different ejection directions for an injection mold design can result in different undercut portions of the same injection molded product. Therefore, different candidate ejection directions determined for an injection mold design for an injection molded product will each be characterized by a different undercut area because a changed ejection direction may result in some portions of the product now being undercut compared to other ejection directions, and vice versa. This can be relevant because any candidate ejection direction determined by the ejection direction determination engine 110 that is not normal (e.g., not perpendicular) to a hole or cylindrical opening in the injection molded product will result in the hole or cylindrical opening becoming undercut because it will be obscured and prevent the injection molded product from being ejected along the ejection direction that is not normal to the hole or cylindrical opening.

[0030] Therefore, the ejection direction determination engine 110 can determine a cylindrical axis candidate ejection direction and include the determined cylindrical axis candidate ejection direction as part of a candidate ejection direction group for the injection mold design. To this end, the ejection direction determination engine 110 can identify cylindrical surfaces in a CAD object used for the injection mold design and extract the cylindrical axis of any identified cylindrical surface in the CAD object. The cylindrical surface can be a specific type of surface supported by many CAD design applications, and the cylindrical axis of such a cylindrical surface can be user-specified or otherwise designed by the CAD application. Such a CAD surface can be characterized as a cylinder, a cone, or in any other consistent manner, and include the cylindrical axis as a defining attribute of the CAD surface.

[0031] exist Figure 3 In the embodiment of the present invention, the ejection direction determination engine 110 identifies a plurality of different cylindrical surfaces in the CAD object 220, and can extract the corresponding cylindrical axis of each of the identified cylindrical surfaces. Figure 3In the particular example shown, various cylindrical faces are visually emphasized in the shown CAD object 220. In this example, the cylindrical faces of the CAD object 220 each have holes that open in the same orientation, and therefore the cylindrical axis of each of the cylindrical faces of the CAD object 220 is the same in direction. In this way, the ejection direction determination engine 110 can determine a single cylindrical axis candidate ejection direction 331 of the CAD object 220 in the directions of the cylindrical axes of the multiple cylindrical faces of the CAD object 220. The ejection direction determination engine 110 can then include the cylindrical axis candidate ejection direction 331 as part of the candidate ejection direction group 210 for the injection mold design of the CAD object 220.

[0032] In some cases, a CAD object may include cylindrical faces aligned in different orientations in 3D space, and therefore have cylindrical axes that are different in direction. In this case, the ejection direction determination engine 110 may determine a plurality of different cylindrical axis candidate ejection directions for the CAD object, for example, one cylindrical axis candidate ejection direction for each unique direction of the cylindrical axis of the face of the CAD object. The ejection direction determination engine 110 may include any number of the determined cylindrical axis candidate ejection directions in the candidate ejection direction group. In some embodiments, the ejection direction determination engine 110 may evaluate a plurality of cylindrical axis candidate ejection directions based on the undercut area, for example, by summing the areas of any one or more cylindrical faces aligned with each given cylindrical axis candidate ejection direction. For any cylindrical faces of the CAD object having cylindrical axes in the same direction (or within a threshold difference, such as within a 1° difference or any suitable or configurable difference), the ejection direction determination engine 110 may group such cylindrical faces together for the same cylindrical axis candidate ejection direction.

[0033] The area of ​​all cylindrical surfaces grouped together for a particular cylindrical axis candidate ejection direction may be referred to as the cylindrical surface area or undercut area for the particular cylindrical axis candidate ejection direction. For a given cylindrical axis candidate ejection direction, the larger the cylindrical surface area of ​​the grouped cylindrical surfaces, the larger the amount of undercut area that can be eliminated by selecting the given cylindrical axis candidate ejection direction as the ejection direction for the injection mold design. Thus, in some embodiments, the ejection direction determination engine 110 may determine to include the cylindrical axis candidate ejection direction with the largest cylindrical surface area in the candidate ejection direction group, and exclude any other cylindrical axis candidate ejection directions from the candidate ejection direction group for the injection mold design.

[0034] In any manner described herein, the ejection direction determination engine 110 can determine a cylindrical axis candidate ejection direction from a CAD object representing a product to be manufactured by the injection mold design. The ejection direction determination engine 110 can include any number of the determined cylindrical axis candidate ejection directions in a candidate ejection direction group from which to select the ejection direction of the injection mold design. As yet another type of candidate ejection direction, the ejection direction determination engine 110 can determine a bisecting plane candidate ejection direction, which is described below with reference to Figure 4 Example features describing candidate ejection directions for a bisecting plane.

[0035] Figure 4 An example of determining candidate ejection directions for a bisecting plane is shown. Candidate ejection directions for a bisecting plane may be determined via algorithmic analysis or by user specification, the latter of which may allow the user to override or control the candidate ejection direction determination through specific inputs and selections. In the case of candidate ejection directions for a bisecting plane, multiple faces of a CAD object may be selected, from which candidate ejection directions for an injection mold design may be determined.

[0036] In order to pass Figure 4 To illustrate, the ejection direction determination engine 110 identifies a first facing surface 410 of a CAD object representing a product to be manufactured by an injection mold design and a second facing surface 420 of the CAD object. Pairs of faces 410 and 420 may be specified via user input. As another implementation example, the ejection direction determination engine 110 may algorithmically determine pairs of faces 410 and 420 by processing the CAD object, for example, to determine faces of the CAD object that meet a pairing criterion. As an illustrative example, the pairing criterion may specify identifying faces that are parallel to each other and whose areas are within a size threshold of each other. The pairing criterion may further specify that different pairs of faces are orthogonal to each other. The intelligent ejection direction determination technology disclosed herein supports any suitable pairing criterion.

[0037] Based on the specified face in the CAD object, the ejection direction determination engine 110 can determine the bisecting plane. Figure 4 , the ejection direction determination engine 110 determines a first bisecting plane 431 of a first pair of faces 410 of the CAD object, doing so according to any suitable algorithm, 3D processing, or computational process to determine the equal division of the two faces. For two parallel faces, the ejection direction determination engine 110 may determine the bisecting plane to also be parallel to the two parallel faces and equidistant from each of the parallel faces, thereby bisecting the space between the parallel faces (e.g., equally in half). Figure 4 , the ejection direction determination engine 110 further determines a second bisecting plane 432 of the second opposite face 420 of the CAD object.

[0038] Then, the ejection direction determination engine 110 can determine the bisecting plane candidate ejection direction 433 from the intersection of the first bisecting plane 431 and the second bisecting plane 432. Since the intersection between the planes can be in the form of a line or a line segment, the ejection direction determination engine 110 can determine the bisecting plane candidate ejection direction 433 as a vector along any direction of the line segment (or, in some cases, two directions, in which case the ejection direction determination engine 110 determines a pair of bisecting plane candidate ejection directions whose vectors are opposite to each other). Therefore, the ejection direction determination engine 110 can determine the bisecting plane candidate ejection direction 433 of the CAD object. In some embodiments, the ejection direction determination engine 110 can include the bisecting plane candidate ejection direction 433 in the candidate ejection direction group 210 of the injection mold design.

[0039] By bisecting the ejection direction candidate planes, the ejection direction determination engine 110 can ensure that a given candidate ejection direction is orthogonal to at least a plurality of specified faces in the CAD object. In this regard, the ejection direction determination engine 110 can prioritize specific CAD faces when determining the ejection direction candidate, which can allow for customizable weighting of specific portions of the CAD object in the ejection direction determination. For injection molded products with rib structures, such bisecting the ejection direction plane candidate planes can be particularly useful to ensure that specific ribs of the CAD object are considered in the ejection direction determination to improve the efficiency and product quality of the ribbed injection molded products.

[0040] As another type of candidate ejection direction supported by the present disclosure, the ejection direction determination engine 110 can determine a three-point candidate ejection direction for an injection mold design. For some representations of CAD objects designed to represent injection molded products, specific surface features cannot be easily defined or specified. For example, faces in B-spline surfaces, boundary representations (BREPs, B-spline surfaces, boundary representations) and various other representations of CAD objects may not support or allow different definitions of cylindrical axes for surface elements, and therefore it is considered difficult to determine cylindrical axis candidate ejection directions for cylindrical shapes and holes of CAD objects.

[0041] The ejection direction determination engine 110 can implement three-point candidate ejection direction determination to computationally determine an ejection direction that corresponds to, approximates, or otherwise aligns with a cylindrical axis candidate ejection direction, even when the cylindrical axis is not readily available. To this end, the ejection direction determination engine 110 can identify a selected face of a CAD object representing an injection molded product to be manufactured by the injection mold design. The selected face can be user-selected, for example, a user-selected hole, cone, or cylindrical structure in the CAD object.

[0042] From the selected face, the ejection direction determination engine 110 may determine three points on the selected face of the CAD object, for example, by random selection. The ejection direction determination engine 110 may then determine three tangent planes, each tangent plane being tangent to one of the three points on the selected face. The ejection direction determination engine 110 may then determine a first bisecting plane for a first pair of tangent planes among the three tangent planes and a second bisecting plane for a second pair of tangent planes among the three tangent planes, the first pair of tangent planes being different from the second pair of tangent planes (e.g., not the same pair). Using the three different pairs of tangent planes that may be from the three tangent planes, the ejection direction determination engine 110 may determine (any) two pairs of bisecting planes among the three different pairs of tangent planes.

[0043] Then, the ejection direction determination engine 110 can determine the three-point candidate ejection direction from the intersection of the first bisecting plane and the second bisecting plane, for example, as a vector along either direction (or both directions) of the intersection of the line segment between the two bisecting planes. Therefore, the three-point candidate ejection direction can be used as a direction axis specific to a selected face of the CAD object, and the ejection direction determination engine 110 can flexibly support specific ejection direction candidates for specific faces of the CAD object.

[0044] Although some examples of candidate ejection directions are described herein, including bounding box candidate ejection directions, cylindrical axis candidate ejection directions, bisecting plane candidate ejection directions, and three-point candidate ejection directions, the ejection direction determination engine 110 can determine any suitable candidate ejection direction for consideration in the injection mold design. The various candidate ejection directions described herein can provide a limited set of candidates for consideration, each having a particular benefit as a possible ejection direction for the injection mold design. Determining the ejection direction from the candidate ejection directions can be performed via an ejection direction determination criterion, as described below with reference to Figure 5 as described.

[0045] Figure 5 An example of determining the ejection direction of an injection mold design from a set of candidate ejection directions by an ejection direction determination criterion is shown. The ejection direction determination engine 110 may apply the ejection direction determination criterion 510 to determine an ejection direction 520 of an injection mold design for a CAD object representing an injection molded product. The ejection direction determination engine 110 may apply the ejection direction determination criterion 510 to the set of candidate ejection directions 210 determined for the CAD object. Figure 5 In the example of , the set of candidate ejection directions may include a bounding box candidate direction labeled “A” and two cylinder axis candidate ejection directions labeled “B” and “C”.

[0046] The ejection direction determination criteria 510 may specify any criteria, conditions, or metrics by which to compare a plurality of candidate ejection directions and select an ejection direction 520 for an injection mold design from the plurality of candidate ejection directions. As an example, the ejection direction determination criteria 510 may specify that a candidate ejection direction having a minimum undercut area is selected from the candidate ejection direction group 210 as the ejection direction 520 for the injection mold design. The determination of the undercut area of ​​the candidate ejection directions may be performed in any suitable manner, such as by any modern processing technique performed along each of the candidate ejection directions to calculate a corresponding undercut area for each of the candidate ejection directions. By minimizing the undercut area, the ejection direction determination criteria 510 may improve the efficiency of the injection molding production process for the injection mold design.

[0047] As another example, the ejection direction determination criteria 510 may weight the cylindrical axis candidate ejection direction with increasing priority. In doing so, the ejection direction determination criteria 510 may specify that the cylindrical axis candidate ejection direction is selected for the injection mold design (even when the cylindrical axis candidate ejection direction does not have the smallest undercut area in the candidate ejection direction group 210). Such a condition may be triggered when the undercut area of ​​the cylindrical axis candidate ejection direction differs from the undercut area of ​​the candidate ejection direction with the smallest undercut area within a threshold value (e.g., within 10%).

[0048] In order to pass Figure 5 For illustration, the bounding box candidate ejection direction "A" may have an undercut area of ​​"342", and the cylindrical axis candidate ejection direction "B" may have an undercut area of ​​"350". In this case, the ejection direction determination criteria 510 may specify that the cylindrical axis candidate ejection direction "B" is selected as the ejection direction 520 for the injection mold design because the undercut area of ​​the cylindrical axis candidate ejection direction "B" differs from the undercut area of ​​the bounding box candidate ejection direction "A" by a threshold of 10%. In such an example, the ejection direction determination criteria 510 may specify that the cylindrical axis candidate ejection direction whose undercut area differs from the undercut area of ​​the candidate ejection direction with the smallest undercut area in the candidate ejection direction group 210 is selected as the ejection direction 520 for the injection mold design.

[0049] As yet another example feature, the ejection direction determination criteria 510 may set an override scenario in which a particular candidate ejection direction is selected as the ejection direction 520 for the injection mold design. For example, the ejection direction determination criteria 510 may set the user input to override and specify that any candidate ejection direction determined based on the user input is selected as the ejection direction 520 for the injection mold design. For a bisecting plane candidate ejection direction for multiple faces of a user-selected CAD object, the ejection direction determination criteria 510 specifies that the bisecting plane candidate ejection direction is determined as the ejection direction 520 for the injection mold design, without considering any other candidate ejection directions (and in some embodiments, without even determining any other candidate ejection directions). In a consistent manner, the ejection direction determination criteria 510 may specify that a three-point candidate ejection direction for a user-selected face of a CAD object is selected as the ejection direction 520 for the injection mold design, overriding any other candidate ejection directions based on the user selection of the CAD face for the three-point ejection direction determination.

[0050] In some embodiments, the ejection direction determination criteria 510 can evaluate multiple candidate ejection directions of the same type differently, such as when multiple candidate ejection directions of the same type have the same undercut area. As an example, two different cylindrical axis candidate ejection directions have the same amount of undercut area, which is the minimum undercut area in the candidate ejection direction group 210. The ejection direction determination criteria 510 can select between the two cylindrical axis candidate ejection directions via a second criterion regarding which cylindrical axis candidate ejection direction has a smaller number of corresponding cylindrical surfaces that form a cylindrical surface area (and therefore an undercut area). In this example, the cylindrical axis candidate ejection direction that meets the second criterion will be selected as the ejection direction 520 for the injection mold design.

[0051] The ejection direction determination criteria 510 can support selecting an ejection direction 520 from candidate ejection directions and their opposite directions. For example, the candidate ejection direction group 210 can include a pair of candidate ejection directions that are vectors opposite to each other and satisfy the ejection direction determination criteria 510 for minimum undercut area. The undercut areas of the pair of candidate ejection directions can be the same because the undercut areas along a particular vector direction will be the same for opposite vector directions. The selection of a particular direction (or its opposite direction) can be relevant because an injection mold design can include a fixed mold piece that remains in place during part ejection and a moving mold piece that moves along the ejection direction during part ejection during the injection molding production process. In some instances, the ejection direction 520 determined by the ejection direction determination engine 110 is directed toward the fixed mold piece, and in other instances is opposite.

[0052] The ejection direction determination criteria 510 may specify the evaluation of the opposite vector based on the angle between the faces of the CAD object representing the injection molded product. As an illustrative example, by Figure 5 , the ejection direction determination criteria 510 can select between the cylindrical axis candidate ejection direction "B" and its opposite vector. To support this comparison, the ejection direction determination engine 110 can identify the faces of the CAD object and group the faces into two different groups based on the angle between the faces and the cylindrical axis candidate ejection direction "B". If the angle between the given face of the CAD object and the cylindrical axis candidate ejection direction "B" is >90°, the ejection direction determination engine 110 can assign the given face to the first group, otherwise if the angle condition is not met, assign it to the second group. The comparison of the angle between the face and the candidate ejection direction can be performed based on any suitable vector representing the face (e.g., the cylindrical axis, other specified face axis, normal vector, etc.).

[0053] Then, the ejection direction determination engine 110 may sum the areas of the faces in the first group and the faces in the second group. If the summed area of ​​the second group is greater than the summed area of ​​the first group, the ejection direction determination engine 110 may select the cylindrical axis candidate ejection direction "B" as the ejection direction 520 of the injection mold design. If not, the ejection direction determination engine 110 may select the opposite vector of the cylindrical axis candidate ejection direction "B" as the ejection direction 520 of the injection mold design. In this way, the ejection direction determination engine 110 may select between opposite vectors to determine the ejection direction of the injection mold design.

[0054] In any of the various ways described herein, the ejection direction determination engine 110 can apply the ejection direction determination criteria 510 to select an ejection direction 520 for the injection mold design. Although a number of intelligent ejection direction determination features have been described herein through illustrative examples presented through various figures, the ejection direction determination engine 110 or the ejection direction application engine 112 can implement any combination of the intelligent ejection direction determination techniques described herein.

[0055] Figure 6An example of logic 600 that the system may implement to support ejection direction determination for injection mold design is shown. For example, the computing system 100 may implement the logic 600 as hardware, executable instructions stored on a machine-readable medium, or a combination of both. The computing system 100 may implement the logic 600 via an ejection direction determination engine 110 and an ejection direction application engine 112, which the computing system 100 may execute or implement as a method of supporting intelligent ejection direction determination. The following description of the logic 600 is provided using the ejection direction determination engine 110 and the ejection direction application engine 112 as examples. However, various other implementation options of the computing system are possible.

[0056] In implementing the logic 600, the ejection direction determination engine 110 may determine an ejection direction for an injection mold design (602), including determining the ejection direction for the injection mold design (602) by determining a set of candidate ejection directions for the injection mold design (604). In doing so, the ejection direction determination engine 110 may determine that the set of candidate ejection directions includes a bounding box candidate ejection direction determined based on a minimum bounding box of an object representing a product to be manufactured by the injection mold design. Any additional or alternative candidate ejection directions as described herein may be determined by the ejection direction determination engine 110, such as a cylindrical axis candidate ejection direction, a bisecting plane candidate ejection direction, a three-point candidate ejection direction, etc. In determining the ejection direction, the ejection direction determination engine 110 may select an ejection direction for the injection mold design from the set of candidate ejection directions (606) based on an ejection direction determination criterion, including according to any of the various features of the ejection direction direct determination criterion as described herein. When implementing logic 600, the ejection direction application engine 112 can set the determined ejection direction of the injection mold design so that the physical mold pieces constructed according to the injection mold design are configured to be separated from each other in the determined ejection direction during the injection molding production process to manufacture the product (608).

[0057] Figure 6 The logic 600 shown in provides an illustrative example by which the computing system 100 can support ejection direction determination for injection mold design. Additional or alternative steps in the logic 600 are contemplated herein, including any of the various features described herein for the ejection direction determination engine 110, the ejection direction application engine 112, or any combination thereof.

[0058] Figure 7An example of a computing system 700 that supports ejection direction determination for an injection mold design is shown. The computing system 700 may include a processor 710, which may take the form of a single processor or multiple processors. The processor 710 may include a central processing unit (CPU), a microprocessor, or any hardware device suitable for executing instructions stored on a machine-readable medium. The computing system 700 may include a machine-readable medium 720. The machine-readable medium 720 may take the form of a computer program product that stores executable instructions (such as Figure 7 The machine-readable medium 720 may be in the form of any non-transitory electronic, magnetic, optical, or other physical storage device that stores the ejection direction determination instructions 722 and the ejection direction application instructions 724 shown in FIG. Thus, the machine-readable medium 720 may be, for example, a random access memory (RAM) such as a dynamic RAM (DRAM), a flash memory, a spin transfer torque memory, an electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), a storage drive, an optical disk, or the like.

[0059] The computing system 700 may execute instructions stored on the machine-readable medium 720 via the processor 710. Executing the instructions (e.g., ejection direction determination instructions 722 and / or ejection direction application instructions 724) may cause the computing system 700 to perform any of the intelligent ejection direction determination features described herein, including any features according to the ejection direction determination engine 110, the ejection direction application engine 112, or a combination of both.

[0060] For example, execution of ejection direction determination instructions 722 by processor 710 may cause computing system 700 to determine an ejection direction for an injection mold design, including determining the ejection direction for the injection mold design by: determining a candidate ejection direction group for the injection mold design (in any manner described herein), and selecting an ejection direction for the injection mold design from the candidate ejection direction group based on an ejection direction determination criterion. Execution of ejection direction application instructions 724 by processor 710 may cause computing system 700 to set the determined ejection direction for the injection mold design so that physical mold pieces constructed according to the injection mold design are configured to separate from each other in the determined ejection direction during an injection molding production process to manufacture a product.

[0061] Any additional or alternative intelligent ejection direction determination features as described herein may be implemented via ejection direction determination instructions 722 , ejection direction application instructions 724 , or a combination of both.

[0062] The above-described systems, methods, devices, and logic, including the ejection direction determination engine 110 and the ejection direction application engine 112, can be implemented in many different ways in many different combinations of hardware, logic, circuits, and executable instructions stored on machine-readable media. For example, the ejection direction determination engine 110, the ejection direction application engine 112, or a combination thereof can include circuits in a controller, microprocessor, or application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC), or can be implemented with a combination of discrete logic or components or other types of analog or digital circuits combined on a single integrated circuit or distributed across multiple integrated circuits. A product such as a computer program product can include a storage medium and machine-readable instructions stored on the medium, which, when executed in an endpoint, a computer system, or other device, causes the device to perform operations according to any of the above descriptions (including according to any of the features of the ejection direction determination engine 110, the ejection direction application engine 112, or a combination thereof).

[0063] The processing capabilities of the systems, devices, and engines described herein (including the ejection direction determination engine 110 and the ejection direction application engine 112) can be distributed among multiple system components (optionally including multiple distributed processing systems or cloud / network elements), such as between multiple processors and memories. Parameters, databases, and other data structures can be stored and managed separately, can be incorporated into a single memory or database, can be logically and physically organized in many different ways, and can be implemented in many ways (including data structures such as linked lists, hash tables, or implicit storage mechanisms). Programs can be parts of a single program (e.g., subroutines), separate programs, distributed across several memories and processors, or implemented in many different ways, such as in a library (e.g., a shared library).

[0064] While various examples have been described above, many more implementations are possible.

Claims

1. A method comprising: By computing system (100, 700): Determining the ejection direction (602) of the injection mold design includes: determining (604) a set of candidate ejection directions (210) for the injection mold design, including bounding box candidate ejection directions (231, 232, 233) determined based on a minimum bounding box (230) of an object (220) representing a product to be manufactured by the injection mold design; as well as selecting the ejection direction (604) of the injection mold design from the candidate ejection direction group (210) based on an ejection direction determination criterion (510); as well as The determined ejection direction of the injection mold design is set (606) so that solid mold pieces constructed according to the injection mold design are configured to separate from each other in the determined ejection direction during an injection molding production process to manufacture the product.

2. The method of claim 1 , comprising determining a plurality of bounding box candidate ejection directions (231, 232, 233), wherein each of the plurality of bounding box candidate ejection directions (231, 232, 233) is normal to a different face of a minimum bounding box (230) of the object (220) representing the product to be manufactured by the injection mold design.

3. The method of claim 1 or 2, comprising determining that the candidate ejection direction group (210) further comprises a cylindrical axis candidate ejection direction (331), wherein the cylindrical axis candidate ejection direction (331) is aligned with a cylindrical axis of a cylindrical surface of an object (220) representing the product to be manufactured by the injection mold design.

4. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein: The ejection direction determination criteria (510) specify selecting a candidate ejection direction having a minimum undercut area.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein: The ejection direction determination standard (510) specifies the selection of a cylindrical axis candidate ejection direction (331) whose undercut area differs from the undercut area of ​​the candidate ejection direction with the smallest undercut area in the candidate ejection direction group (210) within a threshold.

6. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 5, comprising determining that the set of candidate ejection directions (210) includes candidate ejection directions (433) of a bisecting plane determined by: Determining a first bisecting plane (431) of a first opposite face (410) of the object (220) representing the product to be manufactured by the injection mold design; determining a second bisecting plane (432) representing a second opposite face (420) of the object (220) of the product to be manufactured by the injection mold design; as well as The candidate ejection direction (433) of the bisecting plane is determined from the intersection of the first bisecting plane (431) and the second bisecting plane (432).

7. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein determining the set of candidate ejection directions (210) comprises determining three-point candidate ejection directions by: determining three points on a selected face of the object (220) representing the product to be manufactured by the injection mold design; determining three tangent planes, each of the tangent planes being tangent to one of the three points on the selected face; determining a first bisecting plane for a first pair of tangential planes of the three tangential planes and a second bisecting plane for a second pair of tangential planes of the three tangential planes, the first pair of tangential planes being different from the second pair of tangential planes; as well as The three-point candidate ejection directions are determined from the intersection of the first bisecting plane and the second bisecting plane.

8. A system (100), comprising: An ejection direction determination engine (110) is configured to determine an ejection direction of an injection mold design, including by: determining a set of candidate ejection directions (210) for the injection mold design, including bounding box candidate ejection directions (231, 232, 233) determined based on a minimum bounding box (230) of an object (220) representing a product to be manufactured by the injection mold design; as well as selecting the ejection direction of the injection mold design from the candidate ejection direction group (210) based on an ejection direction determination criterion (510); as well as An ejection direction application engine (112) is configured to set the determined ejection direction of the injection mold design so that solid mold pieces constructed according to the injection mold design are configured to be separated from each other in the determined ejection direction during an injection molding production process to manufacture the product.

9. The system (100) of claim 8, wherein: The ejection direction determination engine (110) is configured to determine a plurality of bounding box candidate ejection directions (231, 232, 233), wherein each of the plurality of bounding box candidate ejection directions (231, 232, 233) is normal to a different face of a minimum bounding box (230) of the object (220) representing the product to be manufactured by the injection mold design.

10. The system (100) of claim 8 or 9, wherein the ejection direction determination engine (110) is configured to determine that the candidate ejection direction group (210) further includes a cylindrical axis candidate ejection direction (331), and the cylindrical axis candidate ejection direction (331) is aligned with a cylindrical axis of a cylindrical surface of the object (220) representing the product to be manufactured by the injection mold design.

11. The system (100) according to any one of claims 8 to 10, wherein: The ejection direction determination criteria (510) specify selecting a candidate ejection direction having a minimum undercut area.

12. The system (100) of claim 10, wherein the ejection direction determination criterion (510) specifies selecting a cylindrical axis candidate ejection direction (331) whose undercut area differs from the undercut area of ​​the candidate ejection direction with the smallest undercut area in the candidate ejection direction group (210) within a threshold.

13. The system (100) according to any one of claims 8 to 12, wherein: The ejection direction determination engine (110) is configured to determine that the candidate ejection direction group (210) includes a candidate ejection direction (433) of a bisecting plane determined by: Determining a first bisecting plane (431) of a first opposite face (410) of the object (220) representing the product to be manufactured by the injection mold design; determining a second bisecting plane (432) representing a second opposite face (420) of the object (220) of the product to be manufactured by the injection mold design; as well as The candidate ejection direction (433) of the bisecting plane is determined from the intersection of the first bisecting plane (431) and the second bisecting plane (432).

14. The system (100) according to any one of claims 8 to 12, wherein: The ejection direction determination engine (110) is configured to determine that the candidate ejection direction group (210) includes three-point candidate ejection directions determined by: determining three points on a selected face of the object (220) representing the product to be manufactured by the injection mold design; determining three tangent planes, each of the tangent planes being tangent to one of the three points on the selected face; determining a first bisecting plane for a first pair of tangential planes of the three tangential planes and a second bisecting plane for a second pair of tangential planes of the three tangential planes, the first pair of tangential planes being different from the second pair of tangential planes; as well as The three-point candidate ejection directions are determined from the intersection of the first bisecting plane and the second bisecting plane.

15. A non-transitory machine-readable medium (720) comprising instructions (722, 724) that, when executed by a processor (710), cause a computing system (700) to perform the method of any one of claims 1 to 7.

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