Traditional splitter plate design relies on engineers’ experience combined with repeated CFD iterations, resulting in long development cycles and significant human error. In 2024, Ewikon, in collaboration with the simulation company Ianus, launched a “one-click” AI design platform that ushers splitter plate development into the “zeroth trial mold” era. The platform’s workflow consists of four steps: ① Using Moldex3D to perform initial flow channel balancing calculations, the AI automatically identifies regions with abnormal melt front temperatures and provides optimal solutions for the number of heaters, power density, and installation angles; ② Employing a genetic algorithm to run parallel simulations on 300,000 candidate geometries, scoring them against a multi-objective function that considers “natural balance, temperature uniformity, and energy consumption,” and achieving convergence to the Pareto-optimal solution within 5 minutes; ③ Automatically generating the number, dimensions, and placement of pressure pads to ensure that thermal expansion of the splitter plate under 200°C conditions is ≤0.04 mm, thereby preventing nozzle misalignment; ④ Outputting STEP files and BOMs directly suitable for five-axis machining, with an accuracy error of less than 0.02 mm.
In the validation of a certain 64-cavity HDPE medical pipette tip project, the AI solution reduced the number of partitioned zones on the distribution plate from 8 to 5, lowered the total power consumption from 9.2 kW to 5.7 kW, and shortened the heating time by 40%. Meanwhile, temperature fluctuations were reduced from ±3℃ to ±1℃, and the coefficient of variation (CV) for product weight dropped from 1.8% to 0.7%. More importantly, the entire design cycle was compressed from 7 days to just 4 hours, and the number of prototype mold trials was reduced from the original 3–4 times to zero, directly saving 120 kg of prototype mold materials. In the future, this platform will offer an open API that can integrate with ERP and MES systems, enabling a full-process digital twin—from order placement through design to manufacturing—and providing zero-defect delivery capabilities for high-cavity molds used in industries such as medical devices, packaging, and 3C electronics.