Mold Flow Analysis- Free Mold Flow Service for Molding Orders
Mold flow analysis is a software simulation which show how the resin fill in the mold in injection molding process. With the help of mold flow analysis and mold flow service, mold designers understand how the material fill to position gates better, anticipate where the knit line will appear and locate difficult to fill spots in the injection mold. Understanding the material fill also help mold designer to choose the material as fill will vary by resin. Mold flow analysis text how resins flow under temperature and injection pressures. The gate pressure increases as the material cools and begins to harden. The higher the pressure, the harder the fill. This will lead to issues of weak knit lines, flash, sink and shorts.
Why Mold Flow Analysis?
By applying mold flow analysis, we can stimulate an injection molding cycle with specified plastic and get the results. Mold Flow Analysis should start at the mold design stage before tool building. Through this analysis, we anticipate potential issues on the mold design and shoot down most defects by optimizing the product and mold structure.
By using a specialized software, we can stimulate the liquid material flows on the mold, and include heating/cooling, fill pattern, injection pressure, potential air traps, shear stress, fiber orientation properties and more. We understand the details by the software analysis.
Benefits of Mold Flow Services?
1, Resolution of wall thickness complications
2, Optimize gate location
3, Ensure mold cavities fill consistently and uniformly
4, Find mistakes in design geometry
5, Avoid expensive mold or tool mistake and rework.
6, Enhance manufacturability
7, Shorten time to market
8, Improve efficiency and quality
9, Find potential defects which include air bubble, sink marks and weld lines
10, Help to choose correct materials
11, Offer data to support design changes
Both tooling and injection are the 2 most key factors bear on your products. Without the proper tool structure and corrected injection parameter, products usually come out with defects. This is the reason why TEAM Rapid keeps doing mold flow analysis internally not only for the mass production molding but also for the rapid manufacturing projects. Through our rich tooling experiences, we know how to build molds in good quality at low cost and short lead-time. Assist with mold flow analysis at mold design stage, we cut down the manufacturing defects at maximum during injection molding.
What Mold Flow Services we offer at TEAM Rapid?
1, Cooling analysis
One of the main parts to keep your molding process optimized, control the cost within budget and maintain profitable cycle times is to ensure your parts cool efficiently. It is important to conduct a cooling analysis before starting your mold. Here at TEAM Rapid, our cooling analysis simulate cooling designs accurately to get the uniform part cooling and eliminate potential problems of warpage.
What factors can cooling analysis determine?
1, Cooling design which include cooling circuits, steel types, inserts and more.
2, Recommended cooling modifications
3, Correct coolant temperature
4, Flow rate to make sure coolant turbulence
5, Cycle time according to a certain ejection temperature
2, Warpage analysis
Warpage is one of designer and molder’s nightmares. To find out the part which is warped, we have to go through the whole design and molding process. This will waste time and money significantly. Conducting warpage analysis and simulation is an important part of part design process which help to optimize parts design, choose material, design mold and reduce the part warpage.
What factors can warpage analysis determine?
1, The warped shape of the part as ejected from the mold
2, The effects of filling, packing and cooling
3, The X, Y and Z-axis displacements to show the deflection in every direction
4, The shrinkage to which a mold should be cut
3, Windage/CAD morphing
Windage allow to bias the mold. As we do some guess work with bringing the mold back to the center, we need to adjust the time to accommodate the mold. In injection molding industry, we use windage to describe adjustments which are made to a mold to account for warpage in an injection molded part.
Below is the way work for molding:
1, Mold parts
2, Settle the mold parts one or two days.
3, Measure the warpage in important areas
4, Reverse-bias the mold in those important areas
5, Step # 1 is repeated until dimensions are within tolerances.
It a warpage issue cannot be solved by simulation to improve the mold design and process. Windage is the last resort. If warpage simulation is conducted correctly by simulation engineers, it can be leveraged to take the guesswork out of windage and reduce the tuning loops which are needed to create parts into tolerance.
4, Flow and pack analysis
It is expensive and time consuming to mold the parts. Here at TEAM Rapid, our plastic injection molding service includes flow and pack analysis, we can calculate the melt front advancement in the part from injection location to packing. Our team of engineers can identify and optimize the process to avoid uncertain molding or to resolve existing issues.
TEAM Rapid Mold Flow Services evaluates or determine
1, Uniformity of fill
2, Number of gates
3, Gate size and location
4, Weld line location
5, Air entrapment
6, Pressure and temperature
7, Shear rate and shear stress
8, Part design
9, Processing conditions
10, Hot running sizing
11, Sequential valve gating
12, Runner balancing
5, Packing analysis
When we finish mold flow services analysis, we conduct packing analysis. Additional material is injected into the cavity to compensate the loss as the material shrinks. The part is held under pressure when it solidifies.
What factors will packing analysis determine?
1, Time of gate freeze
2, Profile of packing pressure
3, Volumetric shrinkage
4, Sink location
5, Clamp tonnage and machine sizing
When to use Mold Flow Services?
Mold flow analysis should be conducted before tooling production launches especially for the plastic multi-cavity moulds. It does not make sense if using after tooling production launches. The mold flow analysis software can predict how the part fill in molding process. Different data points which include pressure, fill time and melt temperature can be assessed. With mold flow analysis, it allows to optimize the process before tooling creation begins.
Is mold flow analysis necessary for each application?
Mold flow analysis is not necessary for each application. When you are wondering if you need mold flow analysis, consider the following factors:
1, Product geometry
If your parts have complex geometry, you will benefit more from mold flow analysis. Because if your part design is more intricate, the mold flow is less predictable.
2, Tolerance requirements
Tight tolerances are a difficult part to injection mold designer. Software can analyse and demonstrate if a part can meet requirements before cutting a tool is a godsend.
3, Unusual materials
Here at TEAM Rapid, engineers know the fill pattens of standard material. Especially materials which include filler which benefit from up-front analysis.
Why choose TEAM Rapid for Injection Molding and Mold Flow Services?
Here at TEAM Rapid, we will conduct an initial mold flow analysis with our default material if a material is not listed. As it is a difficult resin, a successful mold flow analysis means any other selected resin will work also. The analysis as well as DFM can be free for the tooling and injection molding orders.
How about if the part is not filling correctly? Our engineer can offer solution like increasing the wall thickness of the part, adding multiple gates or recommending other material options. If the material is not what you intend to use, our engineers can correct and conduct another simulation.
Our mold flow services are automatically applied to a small percentage of parts such as insert molding where moldability problems are present, but flow analysis is available when request. Our mold flow services help to design better parts and complete them as soon as possible.
If you have question on your injection molding projects or our injection molding capabilities, contact our engineers today. You can also try the mold flow services; we offer free mold flow service for injection molding orders. For additional resources like molding and prototyping process, resin option and more, contact us today at [email protected] for to request a rapid manufacturing quote.
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