COMPANY CATEGORY
SECOND PRIZE WINNER
Project Name: Optimization of the Gas-assisted Injection Molding of a Fiber Reinforced Designer Chair Using Moldex3D and Ultrasim®
Company: BASF
By Aniket Atul Raje
Summary
A designer chair made from fiber reinforced plastics (FRP) from BASF was manufactured using GAIM (Gas-assisted injection molding). However, the gas fingering problem occurred during the production and led to reduced strength. Since design changes were not allowed, BASF engineers were tasked with optimizing the GAIM process conditions to reduce part weight without sacrificing strength.
Challenges
- Gas fingering
- Poor mechanical properties
- Not allowed to make any design changes
Solutions
With the use of Moldex3D, BASF engineers were able to minimize gas fingering by optimizing process conditions. In order to test if the prescribed loading conditions could be applied to the new process settings, BASF engineers exported important data, including the exact gas core, warped geometry and the fiber orientation from Moldex3D to ensure accurate FEM simulation results. The FEM analysis was carried out with the prescribed loading conditions in Abaqus. The analysis showed that the prescribed loading conditions can be applied to the part with optimized process settings. As a result, the chair met the weight requirement and gained better structural integrity at the same time.
Benefits
- Predicted gas fingering
- Increased the strength of the part by 60%
- Met weight and load requirements
Products Used
- Moldex3D Advanced Package
– Flow
– Pack
– Warp
– Gas-assisted Injection Molding (GAIM)
– FEA Interface
Meet the Team
We are looking forward to working on more projects in the future combining BASF’s Ultrasim® and Moldex3D. This project was an important milestone towards an integrative approach in product and process development.