DISCRETIZATION APPROACH USING RAY-TESTING MODEL IN PARTING LINE AND PARTING SURFACE GENERATION

Surface classification, 3D parting line, parting surface generation and demoldability analysis which is helpful to select optimal parting direction and optimal parting line are involved in auto-matic cavity design based on the my-testing model. A new ray-testing approach is presented to classify the part surfaces to core/cavity surfaces and undercut surfaces by automatic identifying the visibility of surfaces. A simple, direct and efficient algorithm to identify surface visibility is developed. The algorithm is robust and adapted to rather complicated geometry, so it is valuable in computer-aided mold design systems. To validate the efficiency of the approach, an experimental program is implemented. Case studies show that the approach is practical and valuable in automatic parting line and parting surface generation.