Creating Custom Materials in SimForm

by Sarra Zoghlami

For mold designers who want to use custom materials in SimForm.

Introduction

Selecting the right material is critical to the success of the plastic molding process, where material properties play a key role in determining the quality and efficiency of the final product.

In this article, we provide a step-by-step video demonstration on how to create custom materials for mold and plastic part components in SimForm. Using SimForm, you can conduct multiple simulations to evaluate the thermal efficiency of various mold materials, and build business cases to select the best material for your project needs, and optimize the mold cooling process.

Content

In SimForm, you can choose the material from a list of widely used materials for plastic injection molds and for plastic parts or define a new material that helps you to meet the specific needs of any plastic molding project. The new custom materials you create in one job are added to the material list and become available for use in all your projects. You won’t have to define the same material every time you need it, which saves time.

Your custom materials are private and only accessible to you, ensuring the confidentiality of your work.

This video shows an example of how to create a new custom material for the mold and plastic part components:

Creating Custom Materials for Mold Groups

In SimForm, you can use different materials for Mold Group 1 and Mold Group 2. This gives you the flexibility to include inserts with different materials than your mold and ensures that the results of the thermal analysis are based on the specific material properties of each component.

To create a new material for your mold components, in one of the Mold Group panels, expand the Select Material list and click Add material.

In the Custom mold material window, you must define the new material properties using the predefined units. The following table summarizes the required material properties to define a new material for the mold groups.

The material thermal properties are usually provided by the material supplier. You can find the physical properties of widely used materials online, for example, on the MatWeb material property data website.

Note:

To accurately define the properties of the new material, you must convert the units of the properties if necessary, so that they match the predefined units in SimForm.

Creating Custom Materials for Plastic Parts

To create a new material for the plastic part, in the Plastic Part panel, expand the Select Material list and select Add material.

In the Custom part material window, you need to enter the same physical properties of the new plastic material as described in the table above, and specify the following temperatures in °C:

The material thermal properties are usually provided by the material supplier. You can find the physical properties of widely used materials online, for example, on the campusplastics website. You can also contact the SimForm support team at simform_support@mayahtt.com if you need assistance gathering material properties.

SimForm uses the plastic physical properties to calculate the heat flow from the plastic part through the mold components and cooling channels.

Conclusion

The success of the molten plastic molding process depends on the material properties used for the mold and plastic part components. By following the step-by-step video demonstration, you can easily create custom materials for mold groups and plastic parts by defining the necessary physical properties and temperatures.

Use SimForm to define, evaluate, and select the most suitable thermal properties of different materials. This can lead to cost savings, reduced cycle times, and improved product quality.