Warpage of Injection-Moulded Thin Plates: Numerical Evaluation of Simulation Strategies and Experimental Validation

This study presents an experimental and numerical investigation of warpage in injection-moulded ABS plates, with emphasis on the influence of modelling assumptions and residual stress development on warpage prediction. Two sets of processing conditions with different mould-temperature balances were investigated experimentally, and warpage was measured using a coordinate measuring machine (CMM). Filling and packing were simulated using Moldex3D, while warpage was predicted using two integrated Moldex3D solvers and a coupled Moldex3D-Abaqus thermomechanical approach. Although identical thermal input data were used, the three approaches produced noticeably different warpage predictions. The Moldex3D enhanced solver consistently over-predicted warpage magnitude, while the Moldex3D nonlinear solver captured the nonlinear effects but showed unrealistic localised deformation. The thermomechanical approach predicted the warpage shape more accurately for both parameter sets and showed the closest overall agreement with the experimental results.