Journal of Materials Processing Technology 72 (1997) 333 – 341

Optimizing flow in plastic injection molding

L.W. Seow, Y.C. Lam *
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Monash Uni6ersity, Wellington Road, Clayton 3168, Victoria, Australia

Received 31 July 1996

Abstract

The mold and part design of plastic parts for injection molding is a complicated process, considerations for producing a part
ranging from cost and speed of production to structural, ergonomics and aesthetic requirements. One of the routines faced by a
designer when designing quality into a part is the process of cavity balancing. This entails controlling the plastic flow in the filling
phase such that the melt front reaches the boundaries of the mold at the same time. This is done by adjusting the thicknesses of
various sections and can be a tedious trial and error process. In this paper, a method is described whereby the thickness-adjust-
ment process can be automated. An optimization routine is used to generate the thicknesses necessary to balance the mold cavity.
The method is implemented on a PC through interfacing of the Fortran code with the commercial software, Moldflow©. Using
the method, good results have been obtained for several basic geometric models. © 1997 Elsevier Science S.A.

Keywords: Injection molding; Flow optimisation; Cavity balancing

1. Introduction
The injection molding process involves the injection
of a polymer melt into a mold where the melt cools and
solidifies to form a plastic product. It is generally a
three phase process comprising filling, packing and
cooling phases. Its popularity is typified by the numer-
ous products produced in this way at the present time.
The introduction of simulation software has made a
significant impact in the industry where in the past,
much was unknown about the injection process itself.
Indeed, it was considered by some to be a ‘black art’
known by only a handful of experts. However, with the
increasing use of computers in design engineering, the
amount of commercially available software on the mar-
ket has also increased [1]. To the versatile user, simula-
tions can produce a variety of results on all aspects of
the injection process. Traditional trial runs on the
factory floor can be replaced by less costly computer
simulations.
Recently, research on plastic injection molding has
included a growing number of papers on optimization
algorithms, the focus being in generating routines to
* Corresponding author. Tel.: + 61 3 99053521; fax: + 61 3
99051825; e-mail: Yee.Cheong.Lam@eng.monash.edu.au
assist the designer in the work of mold and part design.
Lee and Kim [2] used a modified complex method to
reduce warpage by optimizing the thicknesses of differ-
ent surfaces, the warpage being further reduced by
obtaining the optimum processing conditions. Optimal
injection gate locations were studied by Pandelidis and
Zou [3] who defined the optimum location with a
quality function consisting of temperature differences,
overpack and frictional heating terms. A combination
of simulated annealing and the hill-climbing method
was then used to find the optimal node. The process
variables were also optimized in a later paper [4]. Lee
and Kim [5] also investigated optimal gate locations
using evaluation criteria of warpage, weld and meld
lines and izod impact strength. An intensive search
routine was avoided by allowing the designer to first
select some sets of gate locations. A local search was
then conducted on the nodes using the criteria to
determine the quality of the node. Jong and Wang [6]
described the optimal design of runner systems (i.e. the
systems that supply the melt to the injection gates in a
multi-part mold).
In this paper, the method presented focuses on cavity
balancing to reduce distortion. By balancing the flow,
over-packing and residual stresses are decreased. The
presence of weld lines and air-traps may also be elimi-

0924-0136/97/$17.00 © 1997 Elsevier Science S.A. All rights reserved.

PII S 0 9 2 4 - 0 1 3 6 ( 9 7 ) 0 0 1 8 8 - X
334 L.W. Seow, Y.C. Lam / Journal of Materials Processing Technology 72 (1997) 333–341
Fig. 1. Fill pattern of a rectangular mold.
nated, in addition to material savings and the reduction
of cycle time.
1.1. Ca6ity balancing
Cavity balancing is still one area that depends heavily
on human interaction and input. The primary aim of
cavity balancing is to fulfil the design criteria whereby
the flow front of the plastic melt reaches the boundary
or extremities of the mold at about the same time, with
equal pressure.
Balanced flow is critical to the quality of the final
product, as unbalanced flow during filling often leads to
warping. Consider a centre gated rectangular cavity
with uniform thicknesses as shown in Fig. 1.
During the filling phase when the molten plastic is
injected into the mold, the expanding circular flow
front will fill the top and bottom edges first. These
edges will continue to fill and pack whilst the material
fills the corner and side edges. As a result, over-packing
occurs and high pressure differentials occur between the
edges, which leads to distortion of the end product
which is undesirable.
2. Current approach
To achieve balanced flow and thus satisfy the design
criteria, the circular flow front in Fig. 1 would have to
be changed to a rectangular flow front (Fig. 2).
Fig. 2. Rectangular flow front.
Fig. 3. Flow leaders to optimize flow.
The flow to the corners and the shorter edges (i.e. the
edges further away from the gate) has to be accelerated.
This is currently carried out by the introduction of flow
leaders or flow deflectors. A flow leader encourages
flow in a particular direction by using local increases in
the mold thickness. Conversely, a flow deflector is a
local reduction in mold thickness to resist the flow in a
particular direction. A possible solution to the flow in
Fig. 1 would be the use of flow leaders to the corners,
as shown in Fig. 3.
Clearly the process of cavity balancing can be an
involved process. To the less experienced designer, it is
very much a trial and error approach. Much depends
on the part designer in recognizing where to place flow
leaders or deflectors. The physical dimensions such as
width, length and the changes in thicknesses are also
required. Use of commercial software such as
Moldflow© provides invaluable assistance to the de-
signer in determining the effects of such changes with-
out the need for costly trials. However, human expertise
is still required in cavity balancing, as existing software
cannot as yet determine the necessary modifications
required to optimize the flow.
3. Review of flow governing equations
Plastic flow in the filling phase is like flow between
two plates separated by a small distance. This is well
modelled by the Hele-Shaw approximation in general.
Assuming an incompressible, generalized, non-Newto-
nian fluid, the equations for the filling phase can be
written as:
Fig. 4. Cross-sectional view of the flow front.
 L.W. Seow, Y.C. Lam / Journal of Materials Processing Technology 72 (1997) 333–341 335

Fig. 5. Flow paths in unbalanced flow.

Continuity equation:
(u (6 (w

&
+ + =0 (1) Fig. 7. Plot of fill times at different thicknesses.
(x (y (z h
z2
S= dz (8)

 
Momentum equations: h
0
(p ( (u
= h (2) is the flow conductance, often called the fluidity term
(x (z (z
(p (
= h
(6  (3)
and h denotes the half-gap thickness.
Eqs. (5)–(8) represent the simplified governing equa-
(y (z (z tions applicable to the modelling of the filling phase.
(p The solution of these equations by Hieber and Shen
=0 (4) [8,9] used a finite element/finite difference approach
(z
combined with a control volume method for automatic

 
Energy equation: flow front advancement: Most commercial software
(T (T (T ( 2T uses this method. Since then, post-filling stages have
rCp +u +6 =hg 2 +k 2 (5) also been added, for instance by Chiang et al. [10,11].
(t (x (y (z
where (x, y, z) are the Cartesian coordinates and
(u, 6, w) are the velocity components, respectively. T is 3.1. Effect of thickness 6ariations on the flow-rate
the temperature, p the pressure, r is the density, Cp is
the specific heat and k is the thermal conductivity of the During filling, two assumptions can be made about
material whilst h is the shear viscosity where the shear the flow of the melt. Firstly, there is a frozen layer
rate g is: along the mold wall where the velocities u, 6 and w are

g=
'   
(u 2
+
(6 2
(6)
zero. Secondly, the flow field is assumed to be symmet-
rical about the cavity centre line (Fig. 4). Following on,
(z (z the applicable boundary conditions are as follows:
Following the treatment by Kennedy [7], the continuity
(u, 6, w)= 0 at z= h (9)
   
and momentum equations can be combined to yield:
( (p ( (p
S + S =0 (7)
(x (x (y (y
where

Fig. 6. Flow paths in balanced flow. Fig. 8. Elements associated with a flow path.
336 L.W. Seow, Y.C. Lam / Journal of Materials Processing Technology 72 (1997) 333–341

Fig. 10. Fill patterns for an ellipsoidal shaped cavity with an interior

&
gate: (a) Before balancing; (b) after balancing.
h
my = 2 6̄ dz (16)
0

then combining with Eqs. (13) and (14) will give:

(p
mx = − 2S (17)
(x
(p
my = − 2S (18)
(y
It is clear that the fluidity, S, is an important term in
dictating the flow and filling characteristics: high values
imply low resistance to flow and similarly, low values
suggest high resistance to flow. It is important to note
that the fluidity is not a material characteristic although
it is related to viscosity which in turn depends on
temperature and shear rate. From Eq. (8), the fluidity
also depends on a geometrical property, the thickness.
By varying the thickness, the fluidity and hence the
flow-rate during filling, can be changed.
As the solution of the governing equations is solved
Fig. 9. The structure of the optimization routine. using the finite element method, it is here that a charac-
teristic of the method can be exploited. Since the entire
(u (6 model is discretized into elements, thicknesses need not
= =0 at z=0 (10)
(z (z be constrained to surfaces and regions, but instead each
Integrating Eqs. (2) and (3) in the z direction with the element can have a separate thickness value. The fluid-
boundary conditions will result in: ity across the entire mesh can be controlled by the
thicknesses of the elements. As such, the task would be
(p (u to ascertain at the elemental level whether the flow-rate
z=h (11)
(x (z within each element is satisfactory to achieve optimal
(p (6 flow. The routine will then generate a thickness distri-
z =h (12) bution that will satisfy the criteria.
(y (z
From the integration of Eq. (11) and Eq. (12), and
taking average velocities, it follows that:
S (p
ū = − (13)
h (x
S (p
6̄ = − (14)
h (y
If the mass flow rate per unit length in the x and y

&
direction are defined to be:
h
mx =2 ū dz (15)
0 Fig. 11. Selected distribution of thicknesses.
 L.W. Seow, Y.C. Lam / Journal of Materials Processing Technology 72 (1997) 333–341
Fig. 12. Fill patterns of a quarter model of a centre gated square
cavity: (a) Before balancing; (b) after balancing.
4. Optimization routine
4.1. Flow path concept
A flow path is simply the path traced by, say, a
particle when injected through the gate until the mold
has been filled. For simple geometries without inserts,
unbalanced flow would indicate that the flow path
changes direction once a boundary is encountered. The
flow paths may look something like those shown in Fig.
5.
For balanced flow, the melt front reaches the
boundary at the same time for all paths. A possible
solution to achieve this is to have a constant flow
direction during filling and to adjust the flow rates by
adjusting the thicknesses of the part. As such, the flow
rates along these paths are not constant, but instead
vary, depending on the distance travelled by the melt.
Thus, any flow path traced from the injection node
would be a straight line to the boundary (Fig. 6).
In reality, this may not be the actual flow path, but a
good approximation. The melt can then be assumed to
flow along these straight flow paths to the boundaries
in balanced flow. By changing the thicknesses along
these flow paths and therefore their flow-rates, cavity
balancing can be achieved.
Fig. 13. Thickness distribution.
337
4.2. Updating parameter
To adjust the thicknesses along the flow paths, a
direct linear relationship is assumed between the flow-
rates and the thicknesses. This is based on the plot
below showing the fill times at various thicknesses
obtained from a centre gated, disc shaped cavity (Fig.
7). The analyses were performed using the material
polypropylene (PP) under constant injection pressure.
Clearly, a degree of linearity is observed with the fill
time of the cavity varying inversely proportional to the
thickness: As the thickness increases, the fill time de-
creases and vice versa. Hence, using polypropylene (PP)
in the filling analyses, the updating equation can be
stated as follows:
tnode
Znew = Z (19)
tshort old
where Znew is the updated thickness, Zold is the current
thickness, tnode is the time when the melt front fills the
node and tshort is the time when the melt front fills the
reference boundary node.
The fill time of the shortest flow path, tshort , is used as
a reference time to which all other fill times can be
compared. Conversely, the fill time for the longest flow
path can be used or, where applicable, some desired fill
time can act as the reference time instead.
4.3. Correlating elements to the flow path
To effect the thickness changes of Eq. (19), all of the
elements within the discretized cavity are associated
with the flow paths via their nodes. This is achieved by
assigning each node to the closest flow path, wherein
the node assumes the thickness of the flow path, the
elemental thicknesses then being the average of its
nodal thickness (Fig. 8).
4.4. Optimality criterion
One characteristic of flow during injection molding is
that the pressure at the advancing melt front is equal to
zero. In unbalanced flow, pressure builds up on the
edges because the melt fills these edges first and con-
tinue to pack them as depicted in Fig. 1. However, in
balanced flow this is not the case. As the flow front
reaches the boundaries at the same time, no over-pack-
ing occurs. In addition, the pressure at the boundary
nodes is the pressure on the flow front. Thus, the
pressure of the boundary nodes in a balanced cavity
should be equal to zero.
As such, the above condition can be used as a
criterion to terminate the optimization routine. Obvi-
ously, in reality it is impossible to generate a flow front
that will reach each boundary node at exactly the same
time and some over-packing will occur. In this case, a
338 L.W. Seow, Y.C. Lam / Journal of Materials Processing Technology 72 (1997) 333–341
Fig. 14. Fill patterns of a non-centrally gated square cavity: (a) Before balancing; (b) after balancing.
tolerance is set whereby if the pressure at the boundary
node is less than 1% of the maximum pressure of the
cavity then the pressure at the boundary node is as-
sumed to be zero. The condition for convergence is
100% optimality where the optimality is given by,
N
Optimally= 100
Ntotal
where N is the number of zero pressure boundary nodes
and Ntotal is the total number of boundary nodes.
4.5. Assumptions
In the interests of determining a starting point, some
assumptions have to be applied. These assumptions are
not seen to be necessary conditions and their form may
be modified wherever suitable. The assumptions for the
current studies are: (1) The initial thickness of all
elements are 1 mm; (2) the reference node is the short-
est flow path; (3) the same reference node is used
throughout the optimization process; (4) nodes along
the same flow path have a thickness equal to that of
boundary node thickness; (5) the thickness of the injec-
tion node is constant; and (6) the thickness of each
element is the average of its nodal thicknesses.
4.6. Methodology
The method has been implemented on a computer
and acts as an outer loop to the main filling analysis of
Fig. 15. Thickness distribution.
Moldflow©. The structure of the routine is shown in
Fig. 9.
5. Results
(20) The following are some models optimized using the
above method. The fill patterns are shown before and
after balancing. The fill patterns are simply lines of
iso-fill times at constant time increments and depict the
advancing melt front of the plastic during injection.
5.1. Model 1
The first model is a simple ellipsoidal shaped cavity
with an interior injection node depicted by the black
square. Fig. 10(a) shows the fill pattern of the cavity
with uniform thickness distribution; this being the ini-
tial condition before optimization, whilst Fig. 10(b) is
the final pattern achieved after optimization.
Fig. 11 shows the thickness distribution after opti-
mization. For the sake of clarity, only the higher range
of thicknesses are displayed using a grey level scale. In
this model, only the thicknesses of more than 64% of
the maximum thickness are shown. The darker sections
indicate thicker sections.
5.2. Model 2
This model is a quarter plate model of a centrally
gated square cavity. The injection node is at the lower
left-hand corner of the model. Fig. 12(a) shows the fill
pattern with uniform thickness distribution whilst Fig.
Table 1
Number of iterations to achieve optimality
Model No. of Itera- Increase in vol-
tions ume (%)
1. Ellipsoidal shaped cavity 6 58.7
2. Quarter plate model of 14 24.3
square plate (centre-gated)
3. Rectangular cavity 6 40.1
 L.W. Seow, Y.C. Lam / Journal of Materials Processing Technology 72 (1997) 333–341
Fig. 16. Fill pattern of a cavity with an insert using uniform thickness
distribution.
12(b) is the pattern of the balanced cavity after opti-
mization.
The same criteria for Fig. 11 are used to display the
final thickness distribution in Fig. 13. As can be seen,
the thicker elements form a flow leader to the corner of
the model, which is an expected solution to a problem
of this kind.
5.3. Model 3
The third model is a rectangular cavity gated at the
bottom edge. The initial fill pattern is depicted in Fig.
14(a) whilst the final optimized fill pattern is shown in
Fig. 14(b).
In Fig. 15, the thickness distribution is shown. The
flow leaders are clearly evident in the model, extending
from the injection node to the two corners, as would be
expected to balance the cavity.
The results of the three models indicate the effective-
ness of the method in obtaining an optimal solution.
Since the reference flow path was constrained to be the
shortest, Eq. (19) results in an overall thickening of the
elements. This essentially leads to the formation of flow
leaders. The number of iterations taken to achieve
optimality is tabulated in Table 1.
Fig. 17. Fill pattern obtained using the straight flow paths assump-
tion.
339
Fig. 18. Flow paths around an insert for part of the model in Fig. 16.
6. Observations
When an insert is present, it is not clear if the
algorithm could achieve balanced flow. The reason is
that an insert is not considered explicitly in the original
formulation of the problem. To illustrate this and the
method used to overcome it, Fig. 16 depicts the fill
pattern of a cavity with an insert. The pattern shown is
the initial fill pattern resulting from a uniform thickness
distribution. The injection node is indicated by the
black square.
From Fig. 16, point A is the last node to fill. In the
same cavity but without the insert, point A would also
have been the last point to fill due to being the furthest
boundary node from the injection node. However, the
presence of the insert exacerbates the situation because
of two consequences, one being that the distance trav-
elled by the melt is increased, and the second that the
direction of the flow is altered completely. The insert
effectively forces the melt to diverge and flow around it.
In this case, the assumptions of straight flow paths will
not hold.
Fig. 17 shows the result of an optimization run using
the straight flow paths assumption. An optimality of
87.8% was achieved after 37 iterations. Further itera-
tions did not improve the optimality and the method
Fig. 19. Fill pattern obtained using the modification.
340 L.W. Seow, Y.C. Lam / Journal of Materials Processing Technology 72 (1997) 333–341

Table 2
Comparsions with the basic method without modifications

Method No. of iterations Optimality (%) Increase in volume (%)

1. Basic straight flow path assumption 52 87.8 154.7

2. Modified straight flow path assumption 24 100.0 49.5

failed to achieve the desired optimality of 100%. The fill model increases, this limitation may become more sig-
pattern shown is the result obtained at the end of 52 nificant. The simple assumptions used may or may not
iterations with an optimality of 87.8%. suffice, research currently being focused on this aspect.
The solution is unsatisfactory and clearly some im-
provement to the method is required. One possible
modification to overcome this shortcoming is to assume 7. Conclusions
that the flow paths travel around the insert but subse-
quently branch out to become straight flow paths again. Balancing the flow in a cavity is an essential design
This is shown in Fig. 18 for the part with an insert. step in product development as it can improve the
Flow path b is shared jointly by the straight flow paths quality of the final product. The optimization routine
1 and 2. Flow paths a and c belong to the straight flow described in this paper has shown its effectiveness in
path 1 which curves around the insert. optimizing the thickness distribution to achieve bal-
In this instance, for the portions of the flow shared anced flow. Although simple, its robustness is indicated
by two or more flow paths, the assumption is made that by its ability to overcome the presence of an insert. The
the thickness of the shared portions is simply the aver- method can be implemented easily and adapted to
age of the flow paths. In Fig. 18, the thickness of flow commercial software. Further improvements to the
path b will be the average thickness of paths 1 and 2. method are currently being investigated.
Other criteria can be used, but it was considered suffi-
cient for this preliminary investigation.
Fig. 19 is the result obtained for the same cavity but
Acknowledgements
implementing the modification to the straight flow
paths discussed above. Comparisons with the basic
The authors would like to acknowledge the support
method without modifications is tabulated in Table 2.
of Moldflow© Pty. Limited, in particular that of Mr
As observed in Table 2, the modified method per-
Peter Kennedy, Director, who provided valuable assis-
formed considerably better, overcoming the complexity
tance and stimulating discussions. This project is sup-
introduced by the insert and converging to 100% opti-
ported by an ARC Collaborative Research Grant and
mality in 24 iterations. The final thickness distribution
the first author gratefully acknowledges the financial
is shown in Fig. 20 using a grey level scale as before. As
support of Monash University in the form of a Monash
with the earlier models, flow leaders can be seen to
Graduate Scholarship and the Australian Government
form and as expected, the flow is encouraged to flow in
in the form of the Overseas Postgraduate Research
the direction of the insert.
Scholarship.
Despite the improvement obtained with the modifica-
tion, it can be expected that as the complexity of the

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