MOLDEX-3D

COMPANY CATEGORY
SPECIAL PRIZE WINNER

Project Name: Automotive Side Window Encapsulation

Company: Dura Automotive Systems
By Bhargav Nadinla

Summary

The product is a window encapsulation with three different part inserts: transparent glass, glass run channel (GRC), and small aluminum insert. The deformation of the GRC made the part unable to meet gap and flush requirement, leading to difficulties in the assembling process. Dura Automotive engineers used Moldex3D to identify the root cause of the deformation, and they found out that the thick PVC wall in contact with the GRC caused the functionality failure. Therefore, they applied ABS insert to reduce the thick region without compromising part stiffness. As a result, Dura was able to effectively find the optimized design and modify the tool according to Moldex3D results in order to reduce warpage and solve the assembling problem.

Challenges

• Warpage causing gap-flush assembly failure
• Sink marks
• Meeting required cooling time

Solutions

Moldex3D helped to analyze and find out the reasons behind the warpage. The simulation results showed that high variation of wall thickness near the GRC area, high shrinkage owing to accumulated hot spot, non-uniform volumetric shrinkage, and insufficient cooling time led to this problem. Couple of iterations to modify the process conditions could not solve the problem, so Dura CFT team utilized Moldex3D to verify design modification. They placed ABS insert at the thick region without compromising part stiffness. As a result, they could both identify the root cause and verify the modified design that solved not only warpage problem but also sink mark and cooling time.

Benefits

• Obtained more balanced filling
• Improved warpage, solved assembling problem, and met gap and flush requirement
• Eliminated sink mark
• Reduced required cooling time by 66%
• Reduced mold trials and development time