Research on Injection Mould Intelligent Cost Estimation System and Key Technologies

The manufacturing cost of injection-moulded parts is mainly decided by the cost of the injection mould. Thus if we can ascertain the cost of the injection mould as early as possible, it will be a great contribution to an injection mould cost evaluation system and research on the economics of injected part manufacture. In this paper, related work on injection mould cost estimation has been discussed. A case-based reasoning (CBR) approach is used for evaluating the manufacturing cost of injection moulds. Case indexing, neural network-based case retrieval, knowledge-abundant case-adaptation and knowledge-absent case-adaptation strategies, and case learning are all considered. A comprehensive cost model including mould manufacturing costs, tax costs and general administrative costs is also discussed. The model is valuable for the price estimation of injection moulds. The application of the system is illustrated with an example.