In this case, client provided product UG file, mold drawings, and material names. Moldflow analysis was used to examine software's analysis capabilities and verify its accuracy.
Key Analysis Contents:
1. Prediction of product's filling pattern
2. Product deformation trends and approximate deformation amounts
3. Identification of feasible optimization solutions based on analysis.
Material Properties
PA66 BASF Ultramid A3EG10

 

Runner Layout and Dimensions
Runner layout and dimensions were constructed strictly according to design drawings provided by client. This mold is a one-out-two die. Symmetrical analysis was used, and only one side of cavity was constructed.

 

Waterway Layout and Dimensions
Waterway layout and runner dimensions were constructed according to design drawings provided by 3D designer.

 

Basic Molding Conditions

 

Product Filling Pattern
Product filling pattern shows dynamic process of plastic filling product.
Red represents last filled area, and blue represents the earliest filled area.
This result helps users understand product filling process, determining whether filling process is smooth and balanced, thus assessing product filling quality. It also helps customers determine rationality of product structure and gate/runner design.
A good design ensures a uniform filling speed, smooth and balanced filling throughout product.
Analysis results show that product exhibits unbalanced filling due to multiple gates, and there is flow hysteresis at gate near main runner.

 

Product Fill Style - Exploded View

 

Melt Temperature Distribution at the End of Filling
This result shows average temperature variation across thickness of part at the end of filling.
This result can be used to assess whether excessive shear heating and shear stress occur during filling process.
Results show that due to flow imbalance, stagnation occurs near main runner gate, causing a sharp drop in peak temperature (below recommended melt temperature range for material), exacerbating flow imbalance.

 

Product Volume Shrinkage Distribution Chart
Volume shrinkage reflects shrinkage of a product after pressure holding and cooling. Inconsistent shrinkage can lead to product warpage, extent and variation of shrinkage can affect product appearance quality, such as shrinkage marks.
Analysis results show that shrinkage at the top of product is relatively large, while shrinkage on the left and right sides is relatively small. However, overall, difference is not significant.

 

Cooling Water Pipe Temperature Distribution
This result reflects coolant temperature variations within water channel. This result can be used to determine whether a sudden change in water temperature has occurred, and thus to infer whether a sudden change in temperature has occurred in the area through which water channel passes.
Results show that water temperature varies minimally and evenly throughout the area through which water channel flows. This indicates that there is no significant heat concentration in the area through which water channel passes.

 

Mold Temperature Distribution
Analysis results show temperature distribution inside mold. A uniform mold temperature distribution ensures a uniform solidification rate and relatively uniform shrinkage. Temperature fluctuations are generally controlled within 20℃.
Results show a relatively uniform mold temperature distribution, with no significant heat concentration or overcooling areas. However, the overall mold temperature distribution deviates from material's temperature range (recommended 80-90℃). While a low mold temperature can achieve faster cooling, it can also result in lower surface finish and greater internal stress.

 

Product Solidification Time Distribution
Solidification time reflects solidification rate across thickness of product. This result shows growth of solidified layer, or skin, of product.
Results show that solidification rate is slightly higher on the sides of product than in upper and lower regions. Overall, solidification rate is relatively uniform. Solidification time is less than 5 seconds, indicating a reasonable holding time.

 

Overall deformation trend (magnification 10x)
Warp analysis allows engineers to understand product deformation before mold is even manufactured, identify cause, and address it.
Analysis revealed that product ultimately deforms into an elliptical shape. Difference between major and minor axes is 0.12mm.

 

Deformation Cause Analysis
Moldlfow can further analyze causes of product deformation. Main factors that generally cause product deformation include following:
Uneven volume shrinkage: Uneven product structure and wall thickness can cause uneven shrinkage.
Uneven cooling: Different cooling times on both sides of product can cause differential shrinkage.
Molecular orientation (including fiber orientation): Uneven shrinkage occurs in direction of material flow and perpendicular to material flow.

 

Deformation Cause Analysis allows users to quantitatively understand severity of various factors contributing to product deformation, helping them identify primary cause.
Deformation cause analysis reveals that mold temperature distribution has the least impact on product deformation. While shrinkage causes significant dimensional change, results show relatively uniform shrinkage, with no noticeable elliptical distortion. However, glass fiber orientation causes significant elliptical deformation. Therefore, improving product roundness requires improving glass fiber alignment.

 

Glass Fiber Arrangement and Distribution
Variations in arrangement of glass fibers at hysteresis gate cause significant shrinkage differences across the entire product. Therefore, improvement is focused on balancing this with runner.

 

Runner Improvement Solution 1
Runner layout uses a composite runner to ensure a complete balance between gates. This would result in an excessively large runner volume in an 8-gate configuration.

 

Product Filling Pattern
Analysis indicates that balanced flow channels ensure balanced filling of product, significantly improving glass fiber distribution.

 

Glass Fiber Arrangement and Distribution: Glass fibers are symmetrically distributed across the entire torus. This ensures approximately equal shrinkage in each section, effectively minimizing product shrinkage variations.

 

Overall deformation trend (magnified 10x)
Warpage results show a significant improvement in product's elliptical distortion. Difference between major and minor axes has been reduced to 0.05mm, and difference in product shrinkage has been reduced to 0.14%.

 

Analysis of Deformation Causes
Analysis of warpage causes reveals that deformation caused by glass fiber has been reduced from 0.13mm to 0.05mm, demonstrating that flow path change has significantly improved glass fiber orientation differences.

 

Runner Improvement Solution 2
Runner layout still uses composite runners to ensure perfect balancing of gates. Number of gates has been reduced from 8 to 4.

 

Product Filling Pattern
Based on analysis results, balanced runners enable balanced filling of product.

 

Glass Fiber Arrangement and Distribution
Across the entire torus surface, glass fibers are arranged symmetrically, primarily along tangent line. This minimizes shrinkage along torus, thus reducing overall deformation.

 

Overall deformation trend (magnified 10x)
Warpage results show a significant improvement in product's elliptical distortion. Difference between major and minor axes has been reduced to 0.06mm. Difference in product shrinkage is 0.17%.

 

Summary - Solution Review
Analysis revealed no issues with filling product itself, but following quality defects were present:
1. Hesitation occurred near gate near main runner.
Cause: Unbalanced runner layout resulted in uneven pressure distribution.
Suggestion: Modify dimensions of submerged runner connected to this gate or adjust runner layout.
2. Product exhibited insufficient roundness, exhibiting elliptical deformation; major and minor axis difference was 0.12.
Cause: Hesitation caused a change in flow direction, resulting in significant differences in glass fiber orientation. These differences in glass fiber orientation caused significant differences in shrinkage in orthogonal direction, resulting in distorted roundness.
Suggestion: Improve hesitancy to eliminate differences in glass fiber orientation caused by flow imbalance.
Based on this analysis, product's molding cycle is estimated to be:
1 (filling) + 4 (holding) + 17 (cooling) + 5 (mold opening and closing) = 27 seconds.
Summary - Why Use Moldflow?
1. Early detection of potential quality issues, reducing mold trials and lowering mold manufacturing costs:
MF analysis revealed that runner imbalances were causing significant shrinkage differences in product. If this issue were known at outset of design, design changes (such as altering runner design) could have prevented it. Same applies to determining weld line locations and deformation. This effectively reduces mold trials and revisions, shortens mold manufacturing cycles, reduces mold manufacturing costs, and enables timely response to customer needs.
2. Accurately determine molding cycle and reduce product manufacturing costs:
Analysis allows for precise determination of gate solidification time, thereby determining effective holding pressure time; and by determining product cooling time, determining cooling time. By determining these two times, a reasonable minimum molding cycle can be determined, thereby reducing product manufacturing costs. Molding cycle for this product can be reduced from 45 seconds to 27 seconds.
3. Reduce material costs by optimizing runner design and dimensions:
Analysis can determine pressure and clamping force required for product manufacturing, thereby selecting appropriate injection molding machine. Alternatively, runner layout and dimensions can be adjusted based on machine's maximum pressure to achieve balanced filling and optimal holding pressure, thereby optimizing runner volume and reducing material costs.
4. Pre-assess manufacturing feasibility to gain an advantage in negotiations with customers:
Analysis can pre-assess product's manufacturing difficulty and feasibility (e.g., dimensional and appearance requirements), as well as product's production costs (e.g., material costs, molding cycle time, injection molding machine capacity, etc.), ensuring a reasonable balance when negotiating with customers.
5. Identify optimal mold and product design by comparing different options, improving engineers' technical skills:
Based on product quality requirements, compare results of different solutions, use data to evaluate pros and cons of different design options to identify optimal design and avoid internal friction. Because Moldflow allows for unlimited and low-cost experimentation with different design options, it unleashes engineers' imagination, reducing mold manufacturing costs while improving their technical skills.
6. Through analysis, engineers can identify causes of problems and accelerate their knowledge accumulation:
MF analysis can qualitatively and quantitatively determine causes of product quality issues, improve engineering theoretical foundations, accelerate engineers' knowledge accumulation, and contribute to rapid improvement of engineers' skills, ensuring company's technical capital and reducing talent training costs.
Summary - Moldflow's Functions
1. Flow: Analyzes various issues related to the filling/packing phase of a part, providing results such as pressure distribution, part filling pattern, weld line location, and part shrinkage.
2. Cool: Analyzes various issues related to part cooling and temperature variations, providing results such as average part temperature distribution, mold temperature distribution, part cooling time, and water channel temperature distribution.
3. Warp: Analyzes various issues related to part dimensional variation, such as deformation trends, deformation amount, and deformation causes.
4. Fusion/3D: Supports analysis in different mesh modes. Fusion is primarily used for analyzing parts with relatively uniform thickness ratios, while 3D is primarily used for analyzing parts with relatively thick thickness ratios or those with large thickness variations. This module works in conjunction with previous analysis modules.
5. CAD Doctor: A tool for importing, cleaning, optimizing part and mold design models. It prevents data loss or deformation during model import, improves data accuracy, reduces difficulty of analyzing model processing, and increases analysis efficiency.