Example of Moldflow analysis
The above part was being considered for 7-8 inch wide gate or 3 drops. Ideal Tech was invited to resolve this and this part was filled with 1 1/2 inch size wide gate with one drop after some key input from Ideal Tech was incorporated saving hundreds of thousands of dollars in a possible tooling issue. Such input may involve design, material, process, tooling, or else but are you getting such input to resolve your problems and most importantly save costs? One simple suggestion resulted in thousands of dollars in gate fixture costs, scrap rate, cycle time, simple one drop per part manifold design (saved three drop manifold costs), reduced tooling costs, and more. How much did it cost compared to all these savings ? Only a fraction of total savings
On the bottom part with 16 cavity mold already in production, we were able to reduce the cycle time by 9 sec by incorporating few changes at a fraction of percentage of overall savings (25% cycle time reduction). Many times you can get results in a hours or days but are you eliminating your problems? Are you just paying for confirming your already known gate selection/problems? Are you just paying because you have to do CAE. It does not have to be that way. Use CAE to your benefits and use to predict problems, take preventive measures and get quality parts first time but this is possible only if you have the right source or you may be paying for some quick and easy simulation and advise that is just cheap
Do you know this – very rarely you will find that you can not fill the part because of your gate selection. So if you are making the right gate selection then why do you need to pay for analysis services? Well first of all you have to start using CAE tools to optimize the whole process of making plastics parts from concept, design, tooling to molding and only then you would really benefit over the long run to save tremendous costs and timing. Unless you know accuracy, expertise, and optimization of process is being blended in every simulation that you perform, you may not be realizing the benefits of using good expertise and sources for all plastics parts requirements.