All members of the design and build process of manufacturing plastic parts can benefit from the optimization of mold tool design and and its process operation. Part designers, mold makers and molders will all benefit from using Vero’s patented technology for injection simulation to achieve cost-effective and reliable mold designs and the optimum molding conditions.
VISI Flow is a unique prediction tool, ideal for pre and post-production analysis and con-current engineering of injection molded plastic components.
Pre-Production Analysis
Before any tool design is started, preventive analysis can detect potential manufacturing issues – such as welding lines, air traps and best gate location etc, providing the maximum possible time frame for a corrective solution. By analyzing the component during the design stage it is also possible for designers to test wall thickness distribution on the overall quality of the finished component and maximize the choice of molding material. By predicting possible problem areas, component design changes can be implemented with minimum impact on tooling corrections and expensive molding trials.
Post-Production Analysis
When a component is already in production and not performing as expected, molding simulations can help the operator better understand the conditions inside the mold cavity during the molding cycle. This procedure can help judge the effectiveness of different corrective actions and produce the most effective improvements to the molding results.
Concurrent Engineering
Pre-production and post-production analysIs can certainly be very helpful but, if not related to the entire process, they do not guarantee the complete optimization of the part/mold/molding process. This is only made possible only through an integrated CAD/CAM/CAE analysis. An uninterrupted data exchange between the design and the analysis environment provide the ability to identify possible critical situations, set the most effective mold parameters, optimize the runners and cooling layout and predict problems concerning any part of the plastic component creation process.
VISI Flow is the most cost effective solution, providing a user friendly interface with short model preparation and calculation times.
Initially introduced to the injection simulation market over 25 years ago, VISI Flow combines the powerful versatility of VISI Modeling with the undisputed result accuracy of Finite Element Analysis. VISI Flow provides the complete solution for part/mold designers and plastic injection molding technicians: from filling analysis, to warpage calculations and thermal optimization analysis.
Extensive Range of CAD Interfaces
VISI Flow can work directly with Parasolid, IGES, CATIA v4 & v5, Pro-E, UG, STEP, Solid Works, Solid Edge, ACIS, DXF, DWG, STL and VDA files. The extensive range of translators ensures that users can work with data from almost any supplier. Very large files can be handled with ease and companies working with complex designs will benefit from the ease with which their customer’s CAD data can be manipulated.
Simple Design of Runner and Cooling Systems
A range of methods are available for importing or creating one of the most important mold tool features. Any feeding and conditioning system, with no limit of complexity can be included within the analysis, and easily edited to allow for a comparative analysis to be calculated.
Patented Meshing Technology
Using a proprietary hybrid meshing technology, VISI Flow performs a real 3-dimensional flow simulation with very short calculation times. The solid mesh creation is an automated function applied to any CAD geometry providing VISI Flow with short model preparation times and rapid analysis calculations. The patented meshing approach gives consistent results unaffected by component size, complexity or wall thickness.
Materials Database
The accuracy of the analysis result is directly related to the material characterization. VISI Flow includes an extensive material database covering a wide selection of material grades and suppliers. New materials are constantly being developed and introduced into the market place, therefore to guarantee an accurate representation of molding materials, VISI Flow provides the operator with the ability to easily add new polymer grades or modify the existing data to match the exact molding material being used.
Filling Phase Module
The filling phase provides the same level of control over the injection of molten polymer into the mold cavity as you have on any injection molding machine. Many molding parameters are suggested to provide an accurate molding cycle analysis with the minimum of input from the operator. This allows operators with a limited molding back ground to create an analysis and be confident about the molding settings used for the selected grade of polymer. The filling simulation provides the ability to forecast and visualize how a component will be filled by the plastic melt front making it possible to identify any potential aesthetic issues. Analysis results such as clamp force requirements allow the operator to confidently select a molding machine that will provide a comfortable processing window. The filling module provides many tools to allow the operator to investigate the molding variables such as pressure, temperature, shear stress, frozen skin, fibre orientation, and many others.
Shape Phase Module
The shape module is used to investigate the polymer behavior during the holding and freezing time of the injection cycle. This technology provides the operator with the ability to identify possible mold defects such as sinking or voids caused by packing conditions during the holding time. The result presented by VISI Flow Shape allows the operator to visualize and measure the final molded shape predicted after processing the values for the filling, holding and freezing molding phases. Many tools are provided to the operator for evaluating the result including viewing displacement along an axis, querying point locations to calculate the warpage, linear shrinkage and ensuring feature ovalization stays within any set tolerance. If necessary, it is possible to export the warped model geometry for comparison with the original CAD data for potential reverse engineering or improvements to the mold tool design.
Thermal Phase Module
The thermal module is a powerful tool for the detailed analysis of the effect of the thermal conditioning system of an injection mold tool. VISI Flow combined with VISI Mold makes full use of the automatic extraction of cooling and flow channels for use in the thermal simulation. The thermal module provides the ability to run an analysis by considering all possible thermal effects including the heat exchange among plastic and blocks, hot and cold runners and mold inserts with high conductive materials. The ability to analyze the cooling system allows the operator to visualize the warpage related to the cooling system and makes it possible to define the best layout to achieve the shortest possible cycle times. Other useful features include controlling both core and cavity temperatures, analyzing the temperature distribution through the insert blocks and defining the ejection time in relation to the solid fraction of the part.
Complete Analysis of the Molding Process
Other optional modules make it possible to simulation the latest molding techniques such as sequential molding, gas-assisted, co-injection, overmolding technologies and cross-linking grades. As with all modules within VISI Flow the system automatically enters key values for creating an analysis relevant to the geometry and material grade selected.
