Moldflow simulations

Do you want to optimise a product for quality and producibility against minimal costs? BPO uses moldflow simulations to analyse injection moulded parts.

Quality and producibility

BPO uses moldflow simulations to analyse and optimise the manufacturability of injection moulded parts against minimal costs (weight and cycle time) and required quality. This can offer valuable insights in the following situations:

• Weight reduction of an existing solution and existing mould or concept design.
• Reduction of the cycle time of your product, even after mould making is finished.
• Advice on which production parameters to use and required clamp force of the injection moulding machine.
• Optimisation of first-of-tools with logical settings and process window.

Moldflow for analysis and optimisation

With our simulations we can analyse and optimise the injection moulding process on different levels of detail:

• Quick feasibility study of a part or mould concept.
• Detailed analysis and optimisation of a part and its quality, whereby the filling, packing and cooling phases are analysed in detail. We analyse and optimise the number and position of injection points, clamp force, air traps, weld lines, shrinkage, filling pattern and cooling time.
• Warpage: analysis of the deformation of a part that occurs after ejection as a result of non-isotropic shrinkage. The geometry of the part and the cooling of the mould can be adjusted to minimise this deformation.
• Flowleaders: the design of a certain wall thickness variation that facilitates a balanced and equal filling. These flowleaders can then be modelled “invisibly” in 3D CAD by our engineers.
• Fibers: analysis of the fiber orientation in the material and its influence on the warping and strength of the part. We then optimise the product for minimal deformation and optimal strength.
• Cooling: we analyse the configuration of the cooling channels and mould materials and we optimise them for the shortest possible cooling time and overall cycle time.
• We balance hot or cold runners for an equal and balanced filling of the cavity.
• Core bending: especially in relatively high and narrow parts the core part of the mould can deform under the influence of the injection pressure. This can result in incorrect wall thicknesses or even damage to the mould. This effect can be analysed and, if required, optimised using core bending simulations.

Flow simulations

Using CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) simulations we analyse gas and liquid flow patterns and we optimise them where possible. This way the performance of ventilators, mixers, vacuum cleaners, ventilations systems, mixing taps, pumps and comparable products can be improved. Aspects that can be charted are pressures and pressure drops, air speeds, speed concentrations and temperature gradients. Using CFD simulation a larger output can be realised while using less energy.