Information Technology Journal1812-56381812-5646Asian Network for Scientific Information10.3923/itj.2008.299.305LanTian-Syung ChiuMin-Chie YehLong-Jyi 2200872In this study, not only Taguchi Method but also ANSYS in providing an economical and effective advance to the optimum design of the rib for a plastic injected product are introduced. The analytical model of a rectangular thermoplastic Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene (ABS) plastic cover with rib of given thickness (2.8 mm) was selected and constructed based on design experiences and the dimensions as well as the width of the rib were selected as the control factors for Taguchi Method. The deflection under a constant force of 150 Newton at the back centre of the cover was defined as quality characteristic. Additionally, the deformation experiment on a fixed thin beam was compared with the analytical result from ANSYS to verify the reliability of structure analysis from associated parameter setup and boundary condition operation. The L9(34) orthogonal array from Taguchi Method was moreover arranged to establish nine sets of finite element analysis models. Through Taguchi Method, the optimum design parameters were furthermore received from minimum deformation at back centre of the plastic cover analyzed by ANSYS. It is shown that the optimum structural parameters of a plastic rib can surely be effectively found with the integration of both Taguchi Method and ANSYS. Therefore, an Expert System of optimum design for various shapes of ribs can then be constructed through this study. This study exactly contributes a novel technique to the rib design for plastic injection industry in minimizing the development period of a new product.]]>Beer, F.P. and E.R. Johnston,19991999Chang, J.C.,20002000Chang, Z.C.,19981998Chen, G.I. and G.J. Tsai,2002Chen, W.,20032003Hong, C.J., C.J. Liu and J.U. Gau,2002Kan, U. and S.J. Chen,20042004Li, H.H.,20002000Moaveni, S.,20012001Tsai, C.S.,20032003Wei, H.S.,20022002