Advances in injection molding process/quality control

Injection molding process/quality control has been an active research area for many years, especially when part quality requirement is becoming more stringent due to increasing applications of plastics. This paper reviews the state-of-the-art research and developments in injection molding control. It has been found that all the prior studies can be organized into a multiple-level structure system, which consists of one feedforward loop (process setup) and three feedback loops (machine control, process control, and quality control). The three feedback loops are cascaded so that the output from the previous controller becomes the command to the next controller. Numerous variables, models, and control methods have been proposed and employed for different levels of control. However, the real online quality control without human's intervention has not been realized primarily due to lack of thorough understanding of the relationship among machine, process, and quality variables and lack of transducers for on-line quality measurement. Based on the research progress to date, it has been concluded that process/quality model and quality sensors are the two most important areas for further advancement in injection molding control.