ERIE, PA- Beaumont Technologies, a global plastics engineering leader, released new software to assist with mapping the injection molding characteristics of a polymer melt. The software, Therma-flo™ R1.1, was developed to manage the extensive data set generated for a given polymer using the Beaumont Moldometer automated work cell.
The user can select multiple competing polymers and graphically contrast their actual molding performance as influenced by temperature, injection rate and cavity wall thickness. The program’s multiple “tools” can provide additional polymer performance characteristics including viscosity sensitivity to temperature; flow sensitivity to cavity wall thickness and injection rate; and evaluation of the molding viscosity vs. capillary viscosity vs. MFI.
“Thermaflo R1.1 provides a unique and powerful new way for developers of new polymer materials and those involved with the development and manufacture of plastics parts to investigate how a polymer will mold,” said John Beaumont, President and CEO Beaumont Technologies, Inc.
Therma-flo™ can be used for a broad range of applications. For product developers or manufacturers this includes assessing how a candidate polymer will mold. For polymer developers or compounders it can accelerate development by quickly mapping actual molding characteristics of a melt while improving their ability to select the optimum material for their customer’s applications. For molders it can help with process optimization, trouble shooting and investigation of alternate polymers through use of pressure vs. fill rate sweeps and creation of relative viscosity vs. relative shear rate curves without having to perform costly mold trials.
