Method for checking the suitability of a moulding tool for a defined moulding process includes providing an electronic dataset in which each of different features of a moulding tool has a range of possible values; selecting a feature of the electronic dataset as a characterizing feature; establishing an identity of the moulding tool by at least one value of the value range of the characterizing feature, wherein a moulding tool to be checked is regarded as identical to the moulding tool precisely when the established value is present in relation to the characterizing feature; providing an electronic tool dataset including a plurality of different features; allocating the electronic tool dataset to the moulding tool with the established identity by a computing unit; and checking the electronic tool dataset with the computing unit in relation to the suitability of a moulding tool with the established identity in the defined moulding process.

A molding machine is provided with a basic information setting function unit for setting basic information including resin data relating to pellet material, screw data relating to screw, and molding condition data relating to molding conditions, computation processing function unit comprising a provisional plastication time computation processing unit for calculating a provisional plastication time from the basic information, a melt film heating amount computation processing unit for calculating a heating amount of a melt film from the provisional plastication time obtained from the provisional plastication time computation processing unit, and a plastication delay time conversion processing unit for converting the heating amount of the melt film obtained from the melt film heating amount computation processing unit into a plastication delay time, and an output function unit for outputting plastication delay time or plastication information obtained based on the plastication delay time.

A method of simulating a shaping process involves calculating states of objects involved in the shaping process in discrete and successive time steps with presetting of conditions, and the conditions represent input parameters of the shaping process. After a time step which is before the end of the simulated shaping process, (a) a check on the calculated states of the objects involved in the shaping process is carried out based on a quality criterion. If the check in step (a) shows that the quality criterion is not met, then (b) at least one of the following is carried out: resumption of the simulation with repeated calculation of the time step and/or a preceding time step, and continuation of the simulation with calculation of a time step following the time step. When method step (b) is carried out, the conditions are at least partially altered.

The invention describes a method of determining a number of process parameter values within an injection mould (1F) during an injection moulding process, which method comprises the steps of determining geometric data of the injection mould (1F) and/or of a form part (1, 1, 1) to be manufactured, determining a virtual part-specific pressure curve (p.sub.S) of an injection moulding process, determining a part-specific event pattern (M.sub.S) on the basis of the virtual part-specific pressure curve (p.sub.S), carrying out an injection moulding process using the injection mould (1F) and determining a measured pressure curve (p.sub.m) during the injection moulding process and determining a measurement event pattern (M.sub.m) on the basis of the measured pressure curve (p.sub.m). Process parameter values are derived on the basis of the virtual event pattern and the measurement event pattern. The invention further describes a corresponding process parameter value determining apparatus and an injection mould arrangement.

An injection molding machine uses a controller to effectively control its operation. The controller may determine and/or receive information regarding the machine's maximum load capacity, and may also determine a current operational load value of the machine. The controller may cause the machine to operate at any number of combinations of settings of operational parameters which result in the machine operating at or below the maximum load value by adjusting any number of machine parameters associated with the injection molding machine based on feedback sensors measuring real-time operating conditions of the machine.

A production management system includes: an injection molding unit producing a molded product; and a control device. The injection molding unit includes: an injection molding machine molding the molded product by injection molding; a determination unit determining whether a number of the molded products to be produced is equivalent to a predetermined unit of production or not; and an operation information transmitting unit transmitting operation information of the injection molding unit when it is determined that the number of the molded products to be produced is equivalent to the predetermined unit of production. The control device includes an operation information receiving unit receiving the operation information transmitted from the operation information transmitting unit.

An injection foam molding machine of the invention includes: a movable mold platen; a fixed mold platen; a mold fastening hydraulic cylinder that is provided at each of four corners of both mold platens; a tie bar that is driven by the hydraulic cylinder to fasten the molds; two sets of mold opening and closing actuators that drive the movable mold platen to move close to or away from the fixed mold platen; two sets of dedicated core back devices; and a control device that controls the two sets of mold opening and closing actuators and the two sets of dedicated core back devices, wherein the control device includes a dedicated core back program that simultaneously controls the two sets of mold opening and closing actuators and the two sets of dedicated core back devices during a foaming core back operation of moving the movable mold platen away from the fixed mold platen.

An injection molding support device including a setting unit that sets basic information such as resin material data, screw data, and heating cylinder data, and sets constraint information such as a constraint condition for obtaining an optimum condition, a computation unit that computes an estimated solid phase rate of the resin material on the basis of the basic information and the constraint information by a high-speed computation method using an optimum mathematical processing system, and a display unit that displays a decision index in accordance with a value of the estimated solid phase rate. The estimated solid phase rate is the estimated solid phase rate of the resin material at the screw tip end.

An information processing system includes: a first estimation unit that uses a simulation model of a first movable portion, which is a portion among movable portions of a control target device and whose operation is not affected by a usage mode, to perform estimation related to an operation of the first movable portion based on a command for controlling an operation of the control target device; and a second estimation unit that receives an estimation result of the first estimation unit and that uses a simulation model of a second movable portion, which is a portion among the movable portions of the control target device and whose operation is affected by the usage mode, to perform estimation related to an operation of the second movable portion.

In a molding management system that manages production of a product in a production process including an injection molding process of the product performed by an injection molding apparatus, an information processing device acquires, for each cycle of executing injection molding, cycle data including one or more pieces of cycle-related information obtained in response to execution of the cycle by the injection molding apparatus and first date-and-time information, acquires injection molding condition data including one or more pieces of injection molding condition information each indicating an injection molding condition set in the injection molding apparatus and second date-and-time information, every time the injection molding condition is set in the injection molding apparatus, and outputs, to another device, a combination of first cycle data and first injection molding condition data associated with the first cycle data.