By Laura Carrabine

Productive Design Services (PDS) is an Ontario-based engineering consulting firmwith an impressive number of tier-one automotive suppliers as clients. Jay Meyerleads product development and, along with one other employee, uses Moldflow PlasticsInsight (MPI) software from Moldflow Corp. (Framingham, MA; moldflow.com). MPI providesin-depth injection-molding simulations to validate part and mold design.

Clients come to PDS with challenging problems that demand fast turnaround, accordingto Meyer. “We experience a lot of pressure to move jobs quickly and on time,“says Meyer. Besides MPI, PDS uses high-end CAD systems including Alias, CATIA,I-DEAS, Pro/Engineer, and Unigraphics.

Meyer and his colleague use MPI to validate product designs and to validate tooldesigns. “Many of our tier-one customers are responsible for building molds fornew parts. In turn, we work with the mold shops with constraint issues such aswater line placements, drop locations because of impeding inserts, or other difficulties.This process ensures the manufacturability of the products,” Meyer adds.

At PDS, MPI helps identify potential problems. Recently, Meyer and his team encountereda job in which bore diameters in a manifold were too small. The injection pressureswere too high and unrealistic for the press to handle. “The proactive use of MPI,“says Meyer, “allowed us to identify the problem and modify the manifold to createlarger bores. We then reconfigured the manifold by adjusting bore diameters andgate locations so that the pressure was evenly distributed.”

According to Meyer, if MPI hadn’t been used, the press would have been at itslimit, leaving a very small processing window if any at all. His client wouldhave had to identify the problem, implement a Moldflow analysis for a benchmark,then for a fix, pull the mold, and rework it—all very time-consuming, stressful,and costly measures.

Additionally, Meyer’s client would have consumed a hefty amount of resourcesidentifying and fixing the problem if the flawed design had made it into productionbefore being remedied. “In this particular case, Moldflow made a big differencein the project outcome. Proactive use of the software really pays off for us,“says Meyer.

Meyer and his colleague began using MPI after they joined the firm several yearsago. With no prior use of the software, he says it was easy to learn to use. “BeforeI came to PDS,” Meyer notes, “I was a molder, so I knew the principles behindthe process and tooling. As a result, using the software was almost second nature.It is very much a valuable asset to the company.”

PDS is running MPI’s Flow, Cool, and Warp modules. Meyer notes, “When I joinedthis company, MPI was integrated into I-DEAS software. We decided to unleash MPIand run it on its own to obtain the full benefits and all of the product’s functionality.Now, we obtain all the regular product updates and it’s worked out very positivelyfor us.”

Meyer also says, “Using MPI provides us with added value to our plastic partdesigns. Product design is our main focus and using MPI along with other FE (finiteelement) analyses aid us realizing timely, feasible designs with confidence. Sincewe generally have access to the mold designers, we establish good communicationsas far as capabilities and expectations. This way we all educate and learn fromeach other. These are clear benefits that we have added to our services. A highpercentage of the time we have access to accurate, clean, native solid modelsso it’s really easy and quick for us turn a Moldflow analysis around. Dependingon the part, we can turn an analysis around in just a few days from the modelingto the full report.”

Laura Carrabine is a technical writer based in Ohio. Send comments about this article to Desktop Engineering Feedback .

Moldflow Plastics Insight Suite

Among the available analysis modules in the Moldflow Plastics Insight (MPI) suiteare cooling, flow, injection compression, microchip encapsulation, optimization,reactive molding, shrinkage, underfill encapsulation, and warpage.

MPI supports Unix, Windows, and distributed computing environments.—LC

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Company Information
Alias
800-447-2542
website

Dassault Systemes of America Corp.
818-999-2500
website 

Moldflow Corp.
508-358-5848 
website

Productive Design Services
519-974-7101
website

PTC - Parametric Technologies Corp.
781-370-5000
website

 

UGS Corp.
972-604-6000
website