A control method for an injection moulding system having an extruder, feeding material continuously to an accumulator, portioning material intermittently to an injection device, wherein the control method is configured to drive the extruder at a high speed or at a low speed respectively, the high speed and the low speed defining an extruder speed interval, the method comprising acquiring a value for an actual positional change for the accumulator (POS.sub.ACT), comparing the value for the actual positional change (POS.sub.ACT) with a predicted value for the positional change (POS.sub.PRED), and adjusting a speed of the extruder based on a result of the comparison.

An injection molding apparatus including a mold, an injection device and a specific volume sensing module is provided. The injection device is adapted to inject a material into the mold. At least parts of the specific volume sensing module are disposed at the mold, wherein the specific volume sensing module is adapted to sense an actual specific volume of the material in the mold. In addition, an injection molding method is also provided.

According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, there is provided an injection molding machine including a mold clamping unit that clamps a mold unit, an injection unit that fills the mold unit clamped by the mold clamping unit with a molding material, an ejector unit that takes out a molding product from the mold unit after the molding material filled by the injection unit is cooled and solidified, a plurality of data acquisition units that acquire different types of data from each other, and a data transmission unit that transmits data acquired by the plurality of data acquisition units to a management device in a state where the data are capable of being compared in time-series for each type of data.

A method of classifying a temperature control branch of a molding tool includes producing molded parts in cycles by a portion of the molding tool by introducing heat into the molding tool, and/or cyclically activating a heating device, with introduction of heat into the molding tool, conveying temperature control medium through the temperature control branch of the molding tool to dissipate the introduced heat, measuring a temporal branch temperature profile of the temperature control medium in the temperature control branch over several production cycles, analyzing a curve behavior of the branch temperature profile and/or of a variable derived from the branch temperature profile, in particular of a branch heat flow, over several production cycles, and sorting the temperature control branch into one of at least two categories, according to greater and/or smaller influence on the heat budget of the portion of the molding tool, on the basis of the curve behavior.

A injection molding method involves measuring, using at least one external sensor, a change in a parameter of a mold side of a mold cavity, approximating a condition within the mold cavity based on the change in the parameter, such as pressure within the mold cavity or flow front position, and comparing the approximated condition to a trigger point. If the approximated condition equals or exceeds the trigger point, activating a virtual cavity sensor having an optimal pre-defined pressure-time curve, and upon activation, the virtual cavity sensor tracks an approximated condition calculated from the change in parameter measurements measured by the at least one external sensor over time. In an embodiment, results of the approximated parameter tracking can be used in conjunction with an optimal pre-defined pressure-time curve.

Disclosed herein, amongst other things, is a control structure for a molding system (900). The control structure includes a controller (106, 934) and a valve actuator (104) for positioning a valve member (102) of a valve (101) for regulating flow of molding material in the molding system (900), wherein the controller (106, 934) is configured to monitor an operating parameter of the valve actuator (104) for indirectly appreciating an indication of a molding parameter of the molding system (900).

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.

A method of optimizing a process optimization system for a moulding machine includes setting a setting data by a user on the actual moulding machine, obtaining first values for at least one descriptive variable of the moulding process based on the setting data set and/or on the basis of the cyclically carried out moulding process, and obtaining second values for the at least one descriptive variable based on data from the process optimization system. According to a predetermined differentiating criterion, it is checked whether the first values and the second values differ from each other. If the checking shows that the first values and the second values differ from each other, the process optimization system is modified such that, when applied to the moulding machine and/or the moulding process, the first values for the descriptive variable substantially result instead of the second values for the descriptive variable.

An injection molding machine includes a cylinder; a screw; a rotary driving unit; a reciprocation driving unit; a pressure detector that detects a pressure of a molding material in front of the screw; a control unit that performs a first type of plasticizing process where the screw is moved backward to a predetermined position and rotated at the predetermined position to transfer the molding material forward to reserve the molding material in front of the screw, performs a first type of filling process where the screw is moved forward to inject the molding material reserved in front of the screw in the first type of plasticizing process from the cylinder to be filled in a mold unit, monitors the pressure in the first type of filling process by the pressure detector, and corrects the setting of the first type of filling process based on a monitored result.

A method for operating a molding machine includes steps of specifying a simulating domain corresponding to a genuine domain in a mold disposed on the molding machine; performing a virtual molding by using an initial packing pressure profile to generate an initial state waveform expressing a relationship between an in-mold pressure and an in-mold temperature of the molding resin; obtaining an updated packing pressure profile for applying a molding pressure to at least a portion of the genuine domain while taking into consideration the initial state waveform; repeating the virtual molding while taking into consideration the updated packing pressure profile to generate an updated state waveform of the molding resin; and setting the molding machine taking into consideration the updated packing pressure profile to perform an actual molding by applying an actual molding pressure to the at least a portion of the genuine domain to prepare the molding product.