Timeless Moldflow® Cost Saving Automation in Injection Molding

TAGS:  Machinery    Part Design & Manufacturing    Cost Efficiency    Automotive    

Every plastic manufacturing process has its own process controls whose common purpose is to produce products that meet performance requirements at the lowest cost and scrap rates. The plastics Injection Molding (IM) process is an integral part of today’s mainstream manufacturing systems. Demand for IM plastic parts is ever increasing.

However, hand in hand, the challenges associated with the IM process often can cause significant time delays and cost increases. This is primarily due to the fact that the IM process embodies a complex range of machine variables, mold complexity, operator skill, and plastic material properties.

Benefits of Injection Molding Manufacturing Operations

In IM manufacturing operations, there are constant pressures to:

• Reduce mold setup times
• Minimize finished part scrap
• Improve part quality, and
• Maximize the productivity of all IM machines

Stated simply, IM always focuses on selling the least amount of machine time to meet the customer finished part specification performance level. As a result of all these preceding IM variables, it is becoming increasingly important to have systems in place to allow the IM process to be scheduled, set up, optimized, controlled, and monitored with an intuitive, systematic, documentable, and globally supported method.

Limitations of Current Injection Molding Practices

Specifically, existing IM practices have often resulted in the following limitations:

• Inefficient scheduling of molds, machines, and labor resources
• Long process setup times and preliminary related scrap
• Non-optimized cycle times
• Unacceptable IM part quality
• Undesirable finished production scrap rates
• Inconsistent control of the molding process
• Lack of IM part traceability, and
• Absence of, or limited manufacturing management information

Injection Molding Manufacturing Systems – Basic Requirements

To reemphasize, it has become critically important that such a system must be intuitive, so machine operators can maximize productivity by not having to be experts on every machine/mold combination they are responsible for running in an actual production environment.

• It must also be systematic so that the process of setting up and optimizing the IM process can be done with a scientific method that does not rely solely on the skills or strictly “art” of the machine operator.
• It must be repeatable, consistent, and documentable in order to meet the strict quality control reporting requirements that are commonplace in today’s IM plant.
• Finally, the system must be globally supported with ease of facilitating so that large, multinational corporations can source these solutions from one supplier and implement companywide standards across their businesses

In response to market feedback regarding existing plastic manufacturing practices, Moldflow® developed a complete suite of manufacturing software simulation solutions for the automation, control, and monitoring of the IM process. Custom and captive injection molders alike have always wanted a suite of products from one global supplier like Autodesk that would provide IM manufacturing personnel with all the tools necessary for the scheduling, setup, optimization, control, and reporting of the IM process.

Let’s understand the basics, benefits and applications of Moldflow® simulation software for high-end plastic injection molding.

What is Moldflow® Simulation Software?

Moldflow® simulation, the timeless industry-standard software from Autodesk, lets you troubleshoot IM challenges and opportunities. Moldflow® has developed an array of IM user interfaces, for example:

• Decreased IM cycle times
• Efficient IM mold cooling channel layout options, and
• Accurate definition of warping in IM parts

Optimize Part, Mold, and Process to Reduce Delays

Let’s start by saying that Moldflow® is targeted at the IM process to replicate and continually improve it in terms of IM part production. To attain this goal, it uses the following features, namely:

• Autodesk Drive and Shared View features enable content collaboration
• In-product Fusion 360 quick geometry changes are expedited, and
• Automation tools reduce setup and post-processing time and function

Expand Solver Flexibility to Improve Capacity

Next, Moldflow® increases part design solving to enhance IM production throughput with the following features namely:

• Simultaneous and seamless interface between defined solver software results with multiple server options
• Many simultaneous IM mold/part designs achievable via remote cloud server capacity, and
• Rapid cloud IM problem solving increase readily available

Which Moldflow® Product Program is Right for You?

Adviser Product Enhances IM Part Production

Moldflow® Adviser software has been developed over the last forty-plus years as an IM replication tool. It is utilized by industrial designers and tooling engineers to enhance IM part production.

Insight Product Reduces Production Delays

Moldflow® Insight is an advanced IM software program that focuses on automated capabilities targeted at reducing production delays by plastics engineers.

Companies Using Moldflow® to Produce Different Applications

Asahi Kasei Plastics Uses Moldflow® to Determine the Material Performance Before Finalizing a Production Part Tool

Asahi Kasei Plastics, a major global specialty supplier of engineering and high-performance plastic compounds, uses Moldflow® to show plastics end-users mold analysis of how a material will perform before finalizing a production part tool, for example, in the following automotive headlight system.

DME Milacron Employs Moldflow® to Define and Check Temperature Uniformity Across Mold Surfaces

Next, DME Milacron, a high-tech mold technologies supplier, employs Moldflow® to define and check the temperature uniformity across mold surfaces, which in turn reduces cycle time while improving finished part quality as shown in the following conformal cooling graphic.

3D Services Group Uses Moldflow® to Produce Specialty PPE Masks & Eyeglass Frames

Finally, the 3-Dimensional Services Group, prototyping, and injection molding manufacturer, quickly repositioned themselves during the recent Covid-19 pandemic using Moldflow® to produce the following specialty Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) mask and eyeglass frame.

Suitable Grades that Undergo Injection Molding

Cost Saving Automation in Injection Molding – Read More