by Sarra Zoghlami
For mold designers who would like to use SimForm to compare different cooling designs.
Introduction
SimForm is a web-based application that allows mold designers to simulate the thermal behavior of a plastic injection molding process using a straightforward and easy-to-use workflow. You can use SimForm to simulate and analyze different mold cooling designs without the need for expensive and time-consuming prototyping and mold flow simulation, resulting in cost savings and increased competitiveness.
In this article, we provide a step-by-step video demonstration on how to use SimForm to run thermal analysis on various mold designs and optimize the cooling process for maximum productivity.
Content
In the demonstration video, we show you how to use SimForm to run a mold cooling simulation and optimize the cooling process for your mold design. First, we use SimForm to run a channel planner analysis without cooling channels to identify high temperature areas and critical components that need to be efficiently cooled. This analysis helps us to identify the specific areas with high temperatures, allowing to determine the best positions for cooling channels, and decide where to place thermal components such as inserts, baffles, bubblers, or pins.
Next, we evaluate conventional and conformal cooling designs for the same plastic part to compare the temperature results and analyze the efficiency of the two approaches. Baffles and conformal channels locations were determined according to the mold temperature distribution and the local safe ejection time from the channel planner results. Baffles are added only in the areas of the mold that cannot be cooled effectively by basic cooling channels to avoid overcooling and additional manufacturing cost of adding unnecessary baffles.
Conclusion
SimForm helps optimize mold cooling designs and reduce manufacturing costs and the injection molding cycle times by allowing designers to simulate and analyze different designs before committing to physical prototypes. This helps improve the efficiency and quality of the molded parts and allows mold designers to meet specific requirements and reach target cooling times. Use SimForm to optimize your mold cooling system and improve the efficiency and profitability of your molding operation.