Improvement in productionrate for 3 phase energy meter terminal block by choosing an optimum gate location and reducing the defects of the tool

Due to heavy demand in plastic products, plastic industries are growing in a fastest rate. Plastic injection moulding begins with mould making and in manufacturing of critical shapes. The optimum gate location is one of the most important criterions in mould design. Mould Flow analysis is a powerful simulation tool to optimize the best gate location and to predict the production time required at the lowest possible cost. Verification using simulation requires much less time to achieve a quality result, and with no material costs, as compared with the conventional trial-and-error methods on the production floor. In this paper, an attempt has been made in analysis by taking four gate locations for a rectangular - shaped plastic component. Mould Flow Plastic simulation software is used for the analysis and the optimum gate location is found with least defects. The placement of a gate in an injection mould is one of the most important variables of the total mould design. The tool is of single cavity mould. The component has got 12 circular holes, rectangular slots, flat openings which requires two side cores and two core inserts. This asks for a finger cam in tool construction. Analysis for filling, flow, best gate location and cooling is carried out using mould flow software.The quality of the moulded part is greatly affected by the gate location, because it influences the manner in which the plastic flows into the mould cavity. The mould flow analysis helps in reducing costs and time and also prevents other defects occurring in the process.