PME fluidtec is an experienced specialist precision engineering company in the field of fluid injection (Water Injection Technology/Gas Injection Technology), dedicating to the development, process support and production of components and installations for fluid assisted injection molding using water or gas cavity pressure technology for over 10 years.

“Fluid injection molding technologies have received extensive attention in recent years as it enables greater freedom of design, faster cycle time, material savings, weight reduction, and cost savings,” said Friedrich Westphal, President of PME fluidtec. “We firmly believe CAE simulation technology for fluid-assisted injection molding can help our customers avoid undesirable developments at the product and mold design stages, reduce development time and cost, as well as optimize the process and mold design by visualizing 3D flow behavior. We are very pleased about this collaboration with CoreTech System (Moldex3D) to develop a truly representative CAE simulation tool for fluid injection molding process.”

Dr. Venny Yang, President of CoreTech System (Moldex3D) noted “We are excited to be working with our new partner in fluid injection molding filed for further enhancing fluid injection molding process predictability and productivity. We firmly believe that a precise 3D CAE simulation tool can allow our users investigate the real production process and increase manufacturability.

CoreTech System (Moldex3D) and PME fluidtec are jointly establishing a detailed plan and specifications for following development and validations. The enhanced capabilities are expected to be available soon.

About CoreTech System (Moldex3D) Co., Ltd.

CoreTech System (Moldex3D) Co., Ltd. has been providing the professional CAE analysis solution “Moldex” series for the plastic injection molding industry since 1995, and the current product “Moldex3D” is marketed worldwide. Committed to provide the advanced technologies and solutions for industrial demands, CoreTech System (Moldex3D) has extended the worldwide sales and service network to provide local, immediate and professional service. Nowadays, CoreTech System (Moldex3D) presents the innovation technology, which helps customers troubleshoot from product design to development, optimize design patterns, shorten time-to-market, and maximize product ROI. For more information about CoreTech System (Moldex3D) Co., Ltd., please visit www.moldex3d.com or write to mail@moldex3D.com.

About PME fluidtec

PME fluidtec is considered as a pioneer in the area of the fluid injection technology, delivering hardware components, like process and injection units, and offering a customer application technology services up to the start of mass production. The manufacturer’s project management can support at the tool design stage, with filling simulation, choice of material and automation. As well as continual high quality standards, environment protection practices always play a central role at PME. PME was founded in 2001 and originally established to provide automation solutions, today with a decade of success in the field of fluid injection (WIT/GIT) PME is undoubtedly an experienced specialist precision engineering company. Find more information at http://www.pme-fluidtec.de/en.

Injection molding is favored by many industries because it can satisfy various design needs with the unique manufacturing method to mass produce complex structured products. For instance, plastic products, glass fiber composites, and metal castings can all be mass-produced using the injection molding process. Metal materials, which are difficult-to-process, are usually manufactured with lost-wax casting (or investment casting) process to meet the requirements for precision and surface finish. Investment casting process is widely used in manufacturing various products, such as golf heads, artificial joints, and a variety of mechanical hardware; especially for the valve products, aerospace, marine, and automotive turbine components, which have higher standards for strength and corrosion resistance. This special process can also greatly reduce the cost of secondary process.

The investment casting process mainly consists of six steps: 1) Wax injection 2) Assembly of wax tree 3) Shell building 4) Dewaxing 5) Casting 6) Knockout. The appearance and the size of wax patterns will have a direct impact on whether the shells can produce castings that meet the specifications, and the production efficiency of the wax patterns will directly correspond to the mass production capability. There are many unsolved problems in wax pattern manufacturing, such as short shots, flow lines, sink marks, warpage, etc, which usually require secondary process to fix and therefore increase the production time and the costs.

The nature of wax is different from the plastics of injection molding process and the metals of casting process. With larger volumetric shrinkage, wax shrinkage is one of the most vexing problems of investment casting process. Due to the low thermal conductivity, wax patterns often encounter improper solidification and sink mark problems. Moldex3D has extended its simulation capabilities from plastics injection molding process to precision casting process to fully cater to the industry needs.

Moldex3D Investment Casting solutions (see Figure 1 and Figure 2) can not only help optimize the parameter setting of wax injection in precision casting process, reduce the potential defects of the molding process, but provide the design solutions for molding, accurately predicting the size of the wax pattern after shrinkage and optimizing the mold size. Besides, Moldex3D Material Lab also provides a full spectrum of material testing, including viscosity, volume expansion, coefficient of thermal conductivity, specific volume, heat capacity and other measurements of the properties of wax, offering a total solution of investment casting process for the industry.

10%	40%
80%	90%

Figure 1 Wax injection melt front progression

Figure 2 Wax pattern displacement

Thermosetting plastics lose mobility at high temperature due to the cross-linking reactions which form a 3D network between molecular chains. Whether it is EMC in IC packaging or AB glue in resin transfer molding, choosing the proper type of materials that can cure quickly at the end of filling is the primary consideration of thermosetting plastics molding.

The new DSC (Perkin Elmer Instrument DSC 8500) of Moldex3D Material Lab provides complete reaction curve of thermosetting plastics (shown in Fig. 1). The degree of cross-linking not only relates to the quantity of the heat generating from the reaction, but also directly affects the viscosity of the material (shown in Fig. 2). At low conversion, the viscosity of thermosetting plastics will decrease due to the elevated temperature, which is the same for thermoplastic materials. When the temperature reaches a certain point, the rapid increase in conversion and the cross-linking will cause a great increase in viscosity, which is characterized by the U-curve.

Moldex3D Material Lab provides accurate shear viscosity measurements of thermosetting plastics to help optimize the processing conditions to identify the flow front, the processing time and the temperature for optimum performance.

Moldex3D Material Lab also provides precise measurements of heat capacity and thermal conductivity (shown in Fig. 3) by means of DSC. This will help accurately predict the heat transfer and the temperature distribution between the mold temperature and the melt temperature to optimize the process cycle time and product quality.

Figure 1 Kinetic curve of thermosetting plastics

Figure 2 Shear viscosity of thermosetting plastics

Figure 3 Heat capacity at different temperatures

Customer Testimonial: Moldex3D through Linear Eyes

Why Chose Moldex3D?

Conformal cooling is a process in which we utilize 3-D printing technology to make cooling lines incorporated into a component of a tool. The reason for this process is applied to any portion of the tool that has a tendency of not cooling at a rate with the rest of the tool, in which problems like warpage occur. The result is having created cooling lines where never before possible, giving us even cooling throughout the entire tool.

In the molding analysis arena, we use Moldex3D as our software of choice. As a designer at Linear, I have been using Moldex3D since its introduction into our company in 2012 to analyze different methods of cooling and various press requirements that will be needed while still in the design process. After attending the classes that Moldex3D offers, I have become efficient in evaluating our approach to the design of the tooling we build. Using Moldex3D I can supply the information that will result in an appropriate build of a tool from the beginning to end.

One of the advantages I have found using Moldex3D is comparing conventional cooling to conformal cooling. By using Moldex3D, we can identify hot or cold spots in a tool before design has even been completed. The conformal cooling process is achieved through our 3-D printed metal process. A wide range of components can be created using this process from slides to inserts and virtually anything we can imagine. As they are created, cooling lines are built into the inserts allowing cooling that has never before been possible. As this process allows cooling exactly where we want it, the run time of tools can be reduced by over 50% in which a higher production volume can be achieved. In a recent comparison we were able to reduce cycle time of a tool from 35 to 16 seconds, resulting in a 54% reduction. A savings of 19 seconds per cycle over 350,000 parts led to a total savings of 1,847 hours (76 days of production). Creating these components with 3-D printing can also produce threading, thus reducing assembly time and cost.

 
Conventional cooling vs conformal cooling

We have also found that dealing with warpage of the part can be controlled with the results from running Moldex3D. The results are tools that have been built to nearly perfect specifications with accounting for warpage and cooling of the tool before it has left the design room floor.

From my perspective at Linear, the Moldex3D software stands alone in the molding analysis world. The first thing that I noticed was how easy it was to use this software. Because of the user friendly graphics interface, I found the menus to be very simple to navigate. Also, the Moldex3D icons make finding a given function obvious. With no prior experience in this software, I was able to easily begin creating my first analysis with no formal training. After completing a few short classes provided by Moldex3D, I was able to successfully navigate through the entire software without confusion.

After using the software for some time, another great feature I discovered was the fact that I could customize my parameters for any of the analyses I wished to perform. As a more experienced user, I found it possible to predict conclusions that matched the physical outcomes with almost identical results. Another plus was the simplicity of the results and how easy they were to read. The answers to my questions were there in plain sight. I firmly believe that any designer with little to no experience could understand and interpret this software with very little effort.

If I haven’t convinced you yet, I found an abundance of uses and applications of Moldex3D including filling, packing and stress of the desired part. These features provide the benefit of predetermining information used in the molding process. Some other examples of how the software helped us at Linear include determining the press size and the amount of clamping tonnage that is required to run a particular tool, as well as predicting run time and pressure required for filling the part. With information that Moldex3D provides, you too can get perfect parts on the first or second shot.

The best stage to show your soft power and shine!

With more and more various applications of plastic products and diverse customers’ needs, the importance of product quality and accuracy become a critical issue in manufacturing. The customers are seeking for better solutions when facing severer global competition. Moldex3D provides the world leading CAE product for the plastic injection molding industry. With the best-in-class analysis technology, Moldex3D can help the customers carry out in-depth simulation of the widest range of injection molding processes. Its high compatibility and adaptability enhance the product quality, shortens the cycle time, and generates core competence for the business.

In order to help our customers all over the world to master Moldex3D with professional application skills, CoreTech System is organizing “Moldex3D Innovation Talent Award” with the theme of “Showing your talent; Molding your innovation”. We received a considerable number of excellent works in its first version in Taiwan, including office products, household products, automotive parts, optics etc.

The winning entries will receive generous awards and be published on the Moldex3D official website and international media with the industrial elites worldwide. We cordially invite you to participate this special opportunity to show the worlds your innovation talent of mastering molding simulation tools, with unlimited possibility.

The judges will rely on the following criteria:

Theme of Award

“Showing your talent; Molding your innovation” is the theme of Moldex3D Innovation Talent Award. All entries of successful stories, which applied Moldex3D simulation software (any module) for new technology research, part design, mold design, mold manufacturing, and new product development, are highly welcome.

Participants

Each team may consist of up to 6 members, and each member is from the same corporation/organization. (South East Asia)

Requirements of Entry

• Real cases and user’s experience with any module of Moldex3D simulation software, for new technology research, part design, mold design, mold manufacturing, and new product development.
• Content shown could be one detailed analysis of product application, or the integrated application of a series of products.
• All products mentioned in the entries should be fully developed and ready to market. All entries should be approved and agreed by the corporation/organization of participants.

Please note: All CAD models of the entries are required to be public disclosure, and consist no confidential content. Otherwise, the participants will be responsible for the consequences. Meanwhile, by submitting an entry to the competition, the participant transfers to CoreTech System (Moldex3D) Co., Ltd. the ownership in and to the submitted entry and grants an unlimited, non-exclusive, perpetual, irrevocable, royalty fee, worldwide license to CoreTech System (Moldex3D) to publish, use, amend, adapt, revise, distort and copy each entry to the public.

 Registration

• Registration opens till 2013/4/15.
• Fill out the registration form (download here), and email to helenliang@moldex3d.com
• Successful registration will be informed by the host and receive your participant number.

Host

CoreTech System (Moldex3D) Co., Ltd.

Contact

Ms. Helen Liang
helenliang@moldex3d.com

Rules of Competition

• To enter the competition, all participants must comply with the entry requirements. The participant acknowledges that failure to comply with the rules may result in his or her disqualification from the competition.
• Participants shall declare that they own the copy right of their entries.
• The participants should confirm that they have the right to submit the competition entry; all entries submitted by the participant are legal, and truthful and comply with all applicable laws, regulations, standards or codes of practice; all entries submitted do not infringe copyright, design, privacy, publicity, data protection, trademark, or any other rights of any third party.
• The determination of the host shall be final in relation to the eligibility of any participant. No correspondence will be entered into about a decision regarding eligibility.
• All entries will not be returned to the participants. Please keep your own copy.
• By submitting an entry to the competition, the participant transfers to CoreTech System (Moldex3D) Co., Ltd. the ownership in and to the submitted entry and grants an unlimited, non-exclusive, perpetual, irrevocable, royalty fee, worldwide license to CoreTech System (Moldex3D) to publish, use, amend, adapt, revise, distort and copy each entry to the public.
• For any updated rules, please refer to our website: www.moldex3d.com

High quality mesh is a key prerequisite of obtaining accurate simulation results. However, the time and human effort spent behind generating the high quality meshes are considerable and costly.

With increased demands for superior product quality and faster time-to-market, Moldex3D R12 rolled out the new pre-processing module- Designer BLM (Boundary Layer Mesh), which can effectively help advanced users build high quality boundary layer meshes; current eDesign users can also experience the advanced mesh performance of BLM by upgrading their version. BLM can precisely capture the drastic changes of temperature and velocity near the cavity wall during the filling process so users can accurately detect viscous heating and warpage problems in advance.

After importing models in Designer BLM mode, users can immediately detect potential defects of the original models, such as free edges, broken surfaces…etc. These defects could only be manually fixed in the past, involving a great deal of time. Now, through the CADdoctor under Designer BLM mode, users can automatically heal these model defects and further meet model simplification.

Gate location is one of the most common design changes. However, it is very time-consuming to rebuild the mesh every time when the gate location is changed. Through the automatically generating function of Designer BLM, users can reserve the solid mesh of the cavity model, and can only rebuild the mesh of the new gate location area. This enhancement can help users to ensure the mesh quality and speed up the mold design and build process, enabling successful product development processes.

*Please note: Designer BLM Mode (Beta) is available for Moldex3D Advanced Package only.

In this Tips and Tricks, you will learn many various surface mesh fix tools under Designer BLM mode, including merge, rebuild, fill hole, remesh and other repairing tool to help you enhance mesh qualities at your finger tips.

To access surface mesh fixing tools, click on and you will see the window as shown below.

Merge Fillet

Defect: Long and thin surface mesh, caused by tiny edges existed in original geometry model.
Repairing Tool: Merge Fillet.
Result: The fillet surface mesh is merged by adjoining surface meshes.

Rebuild

Defect: Non uniform surface element sizes.
Repairing Tool: Rebuild.
Result: The target surface mesh is rebuilt to improve uniformity of element sizes.

Fill Hole 

Defect: Openings in surface mesh.
Repairing Tool: Fill Hole.
Result: The opening or gap is filled by surface mesh.

Annular 

Defect: Annular gaps in surface mesh. The gap must be defined by two independent closed curves.
Repairing Tool: Fill Annular Hole.
Result: The annular gap is filled by surface mesh.

Stitch

Defect: Tiny surface mesh slits, which can be seen as small openings in surface mesh. For such small size of openings, you would prefer merging adjoining meshes rather than filling it by poor quality meshes.
Repairing Tool: Stitch Surface Mesh.
Result: The mesh nodes of the two selected surface meshes will be connected. As a result, the slit between them will be eliminated.

Split/Swap 

Defect: Surface elements which have relatively larger sizes.
Repairing Tool: Split/Swap surface element edge (In this example, we use only Split function.)
Result: The selected element edge is split into half and the adjoining elements become smaller.

Defect: Surface elements which have relatively small aspect ratios. (Poor quality)
Repairing Tool: Split/Swap surface element edge (In this example, we use only Swap function.)
Result: The selected element edge is swapped into the other direction. Then the quality of the element is improved.

Remesh 

Defect: Unsuitable surface mesh density on particular edges.
Repairing Tool: Remesh
Result: The mesh density of the remeshed edges is changed per your needs.

Case Study: Moldex3D Simulation Solutions for Medical Devices

The leading True 3D CAE simulation innovator, Moldex3D, in collaboration with its long-time partner SimpaTec, has unveiled expanded capabilities in medical industry. The following case study is the example showcasing the practical applications of Moldex3D Multi-component Molding (MCM) and Powder Injection Molding (PIM) on artificial hip joints.

Generally, the artificial hip joint consists of three parts: a stem, a femoral head, and an acetabular prosthesis. In general, the life-cycle of such product is about 20 to 30 years. Therefore, material property and durability play a key role in extending the life-cycle. Moldex3D and SimpaTec therefore looked to existing and new solutions to address the critical issue and came up with the innovative synergy of Moldex3D MCM and PIM.

Moldex3D MCM is designed to meet the increasing needs of multi-component injection molding, including insert molding, over-molding and multi-shot sequential molding. The module can accurately analyze the interaction behavior of different components and predict warpage caused by property mismatch of different materials.

Another unique simulation solution, Moldex3D PIM, is developed for optimizing products made from metal or ceramic feedstock. Moldex3D PIM can visualize the flow behavior of the feedstock consisting of powder and binder and predict potential black lines caused by non-uniform powder concentration for green parts.

The femoral head of the artificial hip joint consists of Ti-AI6V4. The ceramic on the femoral head is produced via Powder injection molding (PIM).

The lower part of the stem is produced with another component via insert molding.

The maximal shear stress over the whole forming process can be reflected on the surface.

The components with varying properties caused by the manufacturing process will be transferred to the structural simulation to calculate the resulting stresses and the displacement from the required thermal stress. Based on the information obtained from the structural simulation, designers can quickly optimize parts. Due to the excellent properties in terms of bio-compatibility, ceramic materials have been proved as ideal materials for medical applications. For example, hydroxyapatite or tricalcium phosphate (TCP) has a high wear resistance, and ZrO2 or Ti-variations is durable with high stresses. In this case, the artificial hip joint consists of three components: the stem, femoral head, and acetabular prosthesis, which is made with titanium compound (Ti-AI6V4). These three components can be precisely analyzed and verified with Moldex3D MCM module. Moreover, under different loadings and stresses, the optimization of the representation of mechanical properties of these components can also be obtained through the integration of ABAQUS and Moldex3D FEA Interface.

 Moldex3D PIM can simulate and optimize the injection molding of ceramic components.

Besides investigating the properties of the materials, Moldex3D also provides detailed predictions on common powder injection molding problems, such as weld lines and non-uniform powder concentration distribution. Through accurate and precise simulation capabilities, Moldex3D comprehensively examine the effects of powder concentration, feedstock material properties, and processing conditions on cavity filling behaviors to help mold makers achieve optimal parts.

The simulation analysis correlates with the reality very well.

The synergy of Moldex3D MCM and PIM modules has demonstrated how CAE simulation can optimize and enhance the quality of medical devices. For product designers, surgeons, and people with healthcare needs, the simulation techniques can boost the delivery of better healthcare products and further improve the quality of human life.

About SimpaTec
With years of practical experience in plastic injection molding, SimpaTec enjoys a notable reputation in Europe. Since 2004 SimpaTec has entered the world of plastics and started to offer diversified solutions and fresh inputs into molding simulation. With solid background in plastics and attentive support to customers, SimpaTec has made Moldex3D known as the world-class supplier of CAE software in Europe. For more information, please visit www.simpatec.com.

About Moldex3D
CoreTech System Co., Ltd. (Moldex3D) has been providing the professional CAE analysis solution “Moldex” series for the plastic injection molding industry since 1995, and the current product “Moldex3D” is marketed and supported worldwide. Committed to provide the advanced technologies and solutions for industrial demands, CoreTech System has extended its worldwide sales and service network to provide local, immediate, and professional service. CoreTech System provides the innovative simulation software to help customers troubleshoot from product design to development, optimize design patterns, shorten time-to-market, and maximize product return on investment (ROI). In addition to NX EasyFill Analysis, more advanced Moldex3D functions are also integrated with NX for packing, cooling and warpage optimization. Please find more details at www.moldex3d.com.

• Course Date: 28 May, 2013
• Time: 08:30 – 16:30
• Location: Filderstadt, Germany

Moldex3D is the world’s leading 3D engineering software designed for plastic injection molding. Costs and quality have always been the key concerns in product design. Moldex3D delivers just-in-time molding solutions for less real mold trials, faster time-to-market, and time-to-profit.

In this workshop, attendees will get an overview of Moldex3D injection molding simulation capabilities, such as Flow, Pack, Cool and Warp.

All attendees will receive a 4-week trial license of Moldex3D full version, a great chance to fully practice what you have just learned from the workshop.

Seats are limited so please register right away!

• 28 May, 2013 : http://www.simpatec.com/howfilderstadt280513/