After completing the input data for Mesh, Material, Process parameters, and Boundary conditions, you are ready to execute a plastics simulation.
You execute a simulation of a plastics injection molding process sequentially in four steps:
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The Cool step computes the distribution of mold temperatures that vary by position, and also over time. These mold temperature results override other mold temperature data you enter either in the Fill Settings PropertyManager or Mold Wall Temperature boundary condition input. Temperature results from Cool step are stored in a database for use in subsequent Flow and Pack steps.
You can optionally skip the Cool step, and simply enter temperature data for the entire cavity surface that can vary with time (), or by selecting cavity surfaces and specifying their temperature values that remain constant over time (Mold Wall Temperature PropertyManager).
- The Flow step simulates cavity filling by the molten plastic material. Results of the Flow simulation include distributions of pressure and temperature within the cavity, and detection of potential short shots and weld lines.
Flow results are required to run Pack.
- The Pack step simulates polymer freezing during pressure holding and pure cooling. Distributions of pressure, stress, and shrinkage results at every point of the part are available from Pack.
Pack results are required to run Warp.
- The Warp step simulates deformation of the part after it is ejected and cooled to room temperature. Runner domains are automatically excluded from Warp analysis to focus only on the trimmed cavity part.
Since each step provides results for the next one, these steps must be executed sequentially.
The various options under Run allow you to execute the steps individually, or to combine sequential steps by clicking once. After each step completes, you can view a Report text file with a summary of the execution history, and plot corresponding results.
If you change your model you can re-run only the affected step(s). For example, if you change the packing pressure you do not have to re-run Cool and Flow. Dependencies between analysis steps can be complex though, so when in doubt after making a change to your model you should re-run all steps.
The Cool and Warp analysis modules are available with the SOLIDWORKS Plastics Premium product.