Injection molding system

Abstract

Injection molding system comprising an injection molding machine (10) comprising a mold, a heating cylinder (16), a nozzle (18) and a control unit adapted to control the injection molding machine (10), wherein the heating cylinder (16) and the nozzle (18) are adapted to inject a molding compound into the mold, wherein the injection molding system is configured to automatically perform a draining operation to empty and replace the molding compound inside the heating cylinder (16); wherein the injection molding system comprises the following: a sensor configured to detect the condition of the molding compound being emptied by the emptying process; a motion unit configured to move the sensor; a unit for analyzing an emptied mass, configured to obtain a sensor detection signal and to perform an analysis of the emptied molding compound; and a unit for determining the termination of an emptying process, configured to determine whether the emptying process has ended or not, based on a result of the analysis by the unit for analyzing an emptied mass, and configured to output a result of the determination to the control unit of the injection molding machine (10), wherein the injection molding system is configured to terminate the emptying process based on the result of the determination by the unit for determining the termination of an emptying process, wherein the sensor is an imaging device configured to capture an image of the mass being emptied by the emptying process, and the unit for analyzing an emptied mass is configured to perform an analysis of the data of the image captured by the imaging device, where at least one of the hue, saturation, and brightness of the image data is used in the analysis, and wherein the unit for determining the termination of a discharge determines whether the discharge operation is complete or not, based on changes in the image data of the mass being discharged when the discharge operation begins and the image data of the mass when the discharge operation is in progress, or based on a value of the image data of the mass exceeding a preset reference value and subsequently stabilizing.