Abstract
Polymethyl methacrylate is commonly used in the outer lens of automotive rear lamps. However, if the lens warps above the allowable limit, it may lead to faulty connection with the housing, and failure of the assembly. This study investigated the effects of gate diameter and cooling line distance in the mold design for automotive outer lens. The optimal gate diameter and cooling line distance to minimize the warp of the outer lens were derived as 3.0 mm and 50-60 mm respectively, and the cooling temperature to minimize warp was shown to be $60-80^{\circ}C$ (mold surface temperature $48-67^{\circ}C$). A higher cooling temperature may somewhat mitigate the warp, but is undesirable because it may cause injection molding problems, such as sinks. A mold was constructed matching the optimal design and the produced lens properties, particularly the degree of warp, were comparable with the CAE predictions.
