An investigation of injection pressure predictions in flow simulation packages

This paper discusses the pressures predicted by three popular commercial flow packages during the injection phase of a thermoplastic injection moulding operation. The project required designing and building an instrumented mould. The mould geometry and its dimensions were then verified by a coordinate measuring machine. These dimensions were then entered into the three simulation packages. An experiment was designed to collect data on injection pressures at various locations in the flow channels and cavities of the mould during injection. These experimental data were then compared to pressures predicted by the simulations.