【正文】 while the latter involves numerical (or mathematical ) modelling and analysis. However, in design problem, especially in mould design which involves a substantial practical knowledge ponent about functions and structure of a mould, human heuristic knowledge and empirical type of knowledge are needed in addition to the informationintensive and formulationintensive knowledge. Therefore, conventional puter aided design technology is unsuitable for processing heuristic and empirical type of knowledge which is critical in the mould design problems. In general , the major advantage of the KB system for mould design over conventional puteraided design systems is the explicit representation and manipulation of a body of knowledge, representing the hum an expertise. An Interbased mould design system using Inter technology and knowledgebased approach can provide an effective and feasible tool to aid the collaborative development of injection moulds in the small and mediumsized enterprises to satisfy the stringent requirements of nowadays petitive global market. Moreover, there is a consistent need to check and update the information to ensure that the data is accurate and updated as mould manufacturers and standard ponents suppliers continually improve and upgrade their equipments and processes. By taking full advantage of the fast evolving puter work and information technologies, an Interbased mould design system could have the ability to continually update and upgrade the large amount of information related to injection mould design in a prompt and convenient manner. . System architecture Based on the practical mould design procedures and the issues to be considered in this stage , the architecture of an Interbased intelligent injection mould design system is proposed as shown in Fig. 2 . It consists of a knowledgebased mould design system embedded in an Interbased environment. Mould design generally involves plex and multirelated design problems and thus lacks a plete quantitative and structured approach. The present methodology has involved breaking down the plete design problem into a number of subproblems (functional designs , . feed system, cooling system, etc. ) and developing a knowledge base of solutions for the various subproblems. All design activities are organized in seven functional modules , namely , cavity layout design, feed design, cooling design, ejection — 11 — design, mould construction, mould base selection and standard ponents selection. These modules are used to generate the functional designs including cavity layout , feed design, cooling circuit, ejection devices , mould construction and to select the standard mould base and ancillary ponents including register rings, guide bushes, guide pillars, fasteners , etc. The development of a prototype Interbased intelligent system for injection mould design has been described in this paper. The architecture of the system consists of an interactive KB mould design system embedded in an Inter environment. A Javaenabled solution together with artificial intelligence techniques is employed to develop such a worked interactive CAD system. Mould design generally involves plex and multirelated design problems and thus lacks a plete quantitative and structured approach. The present methodology has involved breaking down the plete design problem into a number of sub problems (functional designs, . Feed system, cooling system, etc.) and developing a knowledge base of solutions for the various subproblems. By using a coding system as the mechanism of inference engine, the knowledge base is accessed from independent interactive program , which aids the designer to select a number of remended solutions to the particular functional design under consideration. The selection of the actual solutions and their final development into a finished design is left to the mould designer so that their own intelligence and experience could also be incorporated with the total mould design. In the implementation of the methodology, the program was written in modular structure to facilitate access to the knowledge base and to ensure its further development and extension. The approach adopted both speeds up the design process