Jennifer Schmidt, Senior Instructor, Simulation and
Jason Travitz, Senior Instructor, Processing; Beaumont’s AIM Institute

Moldflow simulation is used to aid in material selection, as a mold and part design tool, and as a processing guide. In regards to processing, an analyst may be asked to identify ideal process conditions to meet various part quality requirements with the widest process window possible. Likewise, the analyst may also be asked to troubleshoot/optimize an existing process. Some companies and OEM’s grade an analyst on how well the simulation results match the results from the mold floor. However, consideration must be taken in regards to sources of error between Moldflow and the mold floor. There are numerous sets of process parameters, that if collected and/or reported improperly or are not well understood between the analyst and the mold floor, provide very little chance of good correlation between Moldflow results and the mold floor data. This talk will highlight several of the sources of error while focusing in on a few key points to consider when using simulation for process development and troubleshooting.