Bio Inspired Algorithms for Injection Moulding Optimization

Social behaviors of living organisms found in nature, like food searching, environment fitness and survival are inspiration for meta-heuristic mathematical models. Replicating these natural organism behaviors, several optimization algorithms have been developed and applied to technological processes. In this work, some nature inspired algorithms are applied to the injection problem in order to optimize the injection runners’ geometry, so that the overall cycle time is minimized. A key issue is the injection moulding process, as it strongly determines the cost per part. A global optimization strategy was implemented for the injection moulding cycle time, covering the main steps of process, filling time, cooling time, packing time and opening time. To achieve the optimum solution for each design variable and obtain the best time solution overall, it will enable to evaluate optimality, robustness, convergence, and variables dispersion for each used algorithm.