Abstract
Weld line is one of serious troubles which are observed in a plastic part manufactured by a injection molding process. This is caused by many process factors, which are molding pressure, temperature, velocity, location of a injection gate, mold geometry and material properties. investigation on the effects of these process factors to the appearance of a weld line was carried out using a finite element method. Filling and packing analyses were carried out by modifying both the configuration of the injection gates and cavity thickness. Proper locations of the injection gates could be determined by considering molding pressure, temperature, velocity and frozen layer, and whereby the weld line was controled. In order to make a weak appearance of the weld line, flow velocity and flow front in a cavity were also investigated by modifying a cavity thickness. As a result, flow front was extended around the corner in the cavity by changing the flow velocity and hence the appearance of the weld line was much weakened.
