A Low-Carbon Design Method Integrating Structure Design and Injection Process Design for Injection Molding Machines

In the past decades, environmental problems are widely concerned and solved. However, as most solutions, they are methods of “end-of-pipe” treatment which are inefficient and of high cost. Low-carbon design (LCD) is a novel way to solve the problem of pollution emissions at source. Injection molding machine (IMM) as important manufacturing equipment has been widely used in many industries. In the pursuit of high-quality plastic products, the environmental qualities of IMM are often neglected. To achieve low carbon of IMM at source, a LCD method is proposed combining the structure design and injection process design for IMM. At first, LCD decision variables are determined based on interval number theory. Subsequently, the IMM structural carbon emissions and injection molding process carbon emissions are calculated, respectively. Based on this architecture, the carbon emission mathematical model is constructed. To solve the multiobjective optimization problem, the improved strength Pareto evolutionary algorithm based on epsilon dominance (E-SPEA-II) is used, and the design result schemes are sorted using the multiattribute decision-making method for intervals. Finally, the validity of this method is demonstrated by an IMM injection component-integrated low carbon design (ILCD) example.