Overview: Plastic Injection Molding Simulation

The main steps, as shown below, of a plastics injection molding simulation illustrate the iterative nature of the design process. These steps highlight remedial actions you can take for a successful simulation.



Step Description
1 Create the CAD parts such as cavities, inserts, and runners.
2 Define boundary conditions on CAD entities.
3 Create the mesh.
4 Select materials for the polymer and solid components (mold, inserts).
5 Define the process parameters.
6 Run the analysis.
7

Evaluate the results.

  • If no problems or defects are detected, the simulation is complete.
  • If there is a problem with the part design, return to step 1.
  • To specify alternate gate locations, return to step 2.
  • To investigate the behavior of alternative materials, return to step 4.
  • If there are problems with process conditions, return to steps 2, 4 or 5.
As a best practice, refine the mesh (step 3) and rerun the simulation to verify that the results are independent of the mesh density. Small differences in results because of different mesh sizes are acceptable.