by Chris Blake
2024-12-02
What if SimForm could recommend where to put water in your mold?
Throughout our numerous interviews with molders and mold makers, a question arose repeatedly: “Can SimForm recommend cooling lines?” Well, we heard you, we put our heads together, and we are excited to announce that this powerful new feature is in the works!
How will channel recommendation help you?
Based on our interviews, having a tool which automatically recommends the location of cooling lines has major benefits:
- Reduced design/engineering effort and cost: mold design teams will spend less time guessing where to put water and instead can very quickly build upon the SimForm recommendations. With senior designers retiring, SimForm compensates for gaps in experience as new hires are onboarded
- Improved mold performance and profitability: getting water to where it is critical improves part quality and reduces cycle time. If the mold designer knows these locations ahead of time, he can trade off the location of ejector pins and mechanisms, and avoid finding cooling problems when it’s too late.
- Applicability to both CNC-machined and 3D printed inserts: knowing the critical locations means the mold designer can route channels, baffles or even thermal pins appropriately. He or she can go one step further by routing conformal cooling channels to determine whether the added cost yields even better performance.
- Accelerated time to market: shifting cooling design earlier in the process means fewer iterations with suppliers and faster mold procurement. Furthermore, a better cooling design means shorter cycle times and a higher production throughput. Ultimately, the product hits the market sooner.
How would channel recommendation work?
The user starts by uploading the plastic part geometry and creating a “Channel Recommender Analysis”. After specifying the mold material, the plastic resin, and some manufacturing constraints, SimForm launches a generative design algorithm to identify the regions through which cooling channels should pass in order to have optimal cooling.
These regions are sent to a “Channel Assessment Analysis”. The user can view the relative importance of each location on cooling time and part quality.
Using the construction tools in SimForm, the user can then build a layout of conventional drilled channels that can be manufactured via CNC machining. Alternatively, automated tools will generate a conformal design to be 3D printed.
Without leaving SimForm, the user simulates the performance of the cooling layout, looking at the evolution of temperatures, gradients and the risk of warpage, and the expected cooling time. Once satisfied, the user then exports the layout to his favourite CAD tool to finalize the design.
How will channel recommendation fit into your workflow?
- Use it during quoting and mold procurement: communicate part design issues to OEM clients, and anticipate cooling challenges that will impact mold costs. Justify heat pins, conformal cooling or MoldMax inserts.
- Use it during preliminary mold design: reserve key locations for the cooling layout and avoid late-stage design changes caused by unforeseen part defects.
- Use it during detailed design: work around the existing constraints of pins and mechanisms, without routing unnecessary channels
How is this different from existing tools and my current way of working?
Typical mold design tools either require manual construction of channels, or automate solely based on geometric shapes. It can take days to arrive at the final design. SimForm bases its recommendations on the physics of the mold, making them much more relevant. Instead of strictly following rules of thumb and company design standards, design a mold that cools where it needs to cool without wasted channels.
What's next?
Contact us today for a sneak peak into this exciting new functionality and the opportunity to try out a pre-release version. Automated channel recommendation and generative design is sure to revolutionize the tooling industry.
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