by Kristina Drake
In this third installment of our series of interviews with experts, we speak with Chris Blake, simulation expert and Director of New Product Development at Maya HTT.
Missed our previous conversations? You can still listen to our interviews with Scott Peters and with John Bozzelli.
Chris led the team of developers and engineers that brought SimForm to market. In this conversation, he gives a brief overview of how SimForm Feasibility Analysis works, explains the motivation for developing this new tool, and explores the industry challenges it was designed to address.
A scientific approach to cooling simulation
Feasibility analysis is SimForm's newest capability. With it, you can pinpoint which areas of a plastic part will be difficult to cool, and estimate the cooling cycle time. As Chris explains, it's a very fast analysis to run: all you need is the CAD of the plastic part, its material, and the material of the mold -- that's it.
SimForm Feasibility essentially emulates a well-designed cooling channel network. Rather than modeling the plastic rejecting heat to a constant mold temperature, it generates a metal skin around the plastic, at the distance a typical channel would be drilled, and simulates the heat rejection through that metal to the cooling water. This accounts for the difficulty in cooling small recesses and the thermal inertia of the mold.
The challenges behind the idea for SimForm Feasibility
Feasibility analysis is part of the SimForm team's efforts to make easy yet actionable simulation results available to more people within the plastic injection industry.
Once the team realized that there was an opportunity to offer a real additional value to molders and part designers early in the process, before the mold is even designed, they set to work developing SimForm Feasibility.
Giving molders a competitive edge
Molders who are faced with production throughput requirements often build buffers into their quotes. For example, to be on the safe side, they might report higher cycle times, even though this might make their quotes less attractive. Giving molders the ability to predict cycle times using science-based simulation would make it possible for them to prepare more competitive bids with confidence.
Furthermore, when the OEM and the mold maker have different objectives, efficiency is lost and time-to-market compromised with lots of back-and-forth and multiple iterations. But with simulation, the results provide concrete numbers that can be used as the basis for discussion and decision making.
Streamlining part designers' workflows
Complex part designs make it difficult to discern, based on intuition alone, the features that will lead to longer cycle times and more expensive mold tooling.
There is constant pressure to be the first to market, but when multiple design iterations are needed to incorporate feedback from the manufacturing supply chain, the time to market increases.
Designers may not have the time or expertise to conduct complex and expensive simulations: they need a front-end simulation tool.
Building on the benefits: SimForm Design
SimForm Design builds on the savings offered by SimForm Feasibility. Mold designers can simulate the efficiency of the cooling layout as they design, making suitable trade-offs between ejectors, actions, and water lines. They can also use simulation results to assess the benefits of certain cooling features, like Beryllium Copper inserts or conformal cooling.
SimForm Design is also useful when troubleshooting issues on the production line, especially with retrofit molds, or when trying to achieve cycle time reduction targets. Understanding through simulation where hotspots manifest in the mold allows Tooling Engineers to request updates to the mold design.
Easy, actionable simulation results
Everyone involved in plastic injection molding stands to benefit by incorporating SimForm's Feasibility analysis in their workflows and processes:
- Part designers and tooling engineers at a plastic part OEMs
- Cost estimators and project managers at injection molders
- Tooling managers at a mold maker
SimForm Feasibility enhances design-for-manufacturing practices by anticipating cooling challenges introduced by a plastic part design.
SimForm Feasibility increases confidence in production run quotes and accelerates the time to market by reducing the back-and-forth between OEMs and their supply chain.
Try SimForm for yourself. Request a free trial today.