Moldflow Plastics Insight incorporates new technologies of injection

(Signature Moldflow, which develops applications for processes of design and manufacture of plastic products, presented at the Plast in Milan the latest that had already made progress in its International Moldflow User Conference of 2003). Basically, it was the application Moldflow Plastics Insight (MPI) 4.1, an improved version that incorporates more functions of pre-and post-processing, new simulation tools, collaboration of technology partners and a new hardware support. He also presented a solution for collaborative production management for plastics and metals sector called Moldflow Manufacturing Solutions 1.0.

The new version 4.1 of MPI will incorporate a more precise three-dimensional generator, simulation capabilities that include new methods of injection, a new hardware and interface. the firm believes the MPI 4.1 com functional package better equipped with the history of Moldflow. The application will start to be distributed in June 2003.

MPI uses a three-dimensional generator (MPI/Flow3D) more precise and efficient that it incorporates the ability to predict the orientation of the fiber and its impact on the deformation and the future mechanical properties of the piece. This analytical tool is important to model parts that tend to have thicker wall thicknesses or sudden changes in them.

In the new version, the increase in productivity has predominated. This has introduced the ability to specify localized so the density of the mesh, allowing to better calculate the speed of cooling. Other features that improve productivity are post-processing, such as the automatic creation of AVI files, multiple levels of anchorage, the display of the results of the deformation in cylindrical coordinates and the cutting geometry-dependent XY-plane.

The application has functions of simulation that incorporate new methods of injection as Synventive Molding Solutions Dynamic Feed system and the injection process Trexel MuCell.

The first allows to control mold injection depending on the pressure grout for grout for up to 32 nozzles and simulate pressure of injection of each of these profiles. In predicting the injection and compaction of a dynamic food system profiles this advantage allows to increase the productivity and the quality of the molds of families of parts, precision molds and the moulds for large pieces.

Trexel MuCell Microcellular foam injection process uses supercritical fluids of inert gases that create microscopic cells of uniform size distributed evenly in the polymer. Thanks to them the piece tends to be lighter, flat and straight than with conventional procedures. MPI 4.1 allows to simulate the filling pattern, injection pressure and the size of the cell, are the critical factors of the piece and the MuCell process.

For the Vice President of casting MuCell of Trexel, Levi Kishbaugh, new features of the MuCell process simulation "are amazing," because in his opinion, "Allow to optimize the design of the piece or the MuCell mold before investing in the mold"", changes to the machine or injection test".

This view is shared by the Vice President of Marketing and engineering of Synventive Molding Solutions, Mark Moss, who also adds that it is "a new phase of the joint work that Dynamic Feed and Moldflow began to develop in 2002." "Already we are putting in place other integration initiatives between solutions of DF and ours."

There are also developments in hardware. MPI 4.1 supports the Itanium processor 64 bit Intel platforms HP UX and the 3D Connexion Spaceball and Spacemouse 3D motion controllers.

It has also designed a new programming interface (API) that allows to extrapolate data scalar, vector and tension to create custom, static prototypes from the custom animations from a sequence of personalized data and customized XY cuts, and extract data diagnostic of each one of them.

Moldflow also presented a solution for collaborative production management for plastics and metals sector called Moldflow Manufacturing Solutions 1.0.