Warpage analysis of thick shell part (thickness above 2mm) by using response surface methodology (RSM)

Injection molding is the advance technologies in manufacturing plastic parts in modern industries nowadays. The quality of the moulded parts are highly depends on parameter settings of injection moulding process. In this research, there are 4 process parameter used which are melt temperature, mould temperature, cooling time and packing time. By using Autodesk Moldflow Insight (AMI) 2012, the recommended process parameter settings are melt temperature of 230 °C, mould temperature of 60°C, cooling time of 15.60s and packing time of 31.34s. These settings yield warpage value of 0.4295mm. From Response Surface Methodology (RSM), the warpage value optimised to 0.412728mm with melt temperature increases to 230.32 °C, mould temperature increases to 63.04 °C, cooling time increases to 15.77s and packing time decreases to 28.25s. From the validation test, the percentage error obtained is 0.0075%, which is very little different with RSM value. So, the results of process parameter settings in RSM is valid.