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Modelling software | machinery feature


Model behaviour: software for extrusion simulation


Plastics simulation software is most often associated with injection moulding, but challenges in extrusion – such as die swell – mean that similar programs are useful when designing extruded products. US-based Plastic Flow has developed extrusion die optimisation software, which has been used improve the design of a square profile die with non-uniform wall thickness. The software successfully optimised the die’s geometry – and that of a sheet die – so that a uniform velocity distribution was obtained at the die exit without exceeding a pre-specified pressure drop across the die. 3D flow simulation software for extrusion die design


allows designers to fine-tune an extrusion die before it is machined, which can reduce development time by 40-50% according to Mahesh Gupta, president of Plastic Flow, and a professor of mechanical engineering at Michigan Technological University. “However, virtual fine tuning of extrusion dies still


requires designers to modify the die geometry them- selves after each flow simulation, using their past experience,” he said, in a presentation at Antec last year.


www.pipeandprofile.com


Simulation software helps to banish the ‘trial and error’ approach to designing extruded products – and the dies that produce them. Lou Reade reports


He says that the new software eliminates the need


for this ‘virtual trial and error’. After each flow simula- tion, the geometry is improved, and the simulation is run again. This cycle of geometry improvement, followed by a flow simulation, is repeated until a design with a uniform exit velocity distribution is obtained process. As well as eliminating the need for designer interven-


tion for die improvement after each flow simulation, the new software is expected to further reduce the develop- ment time for extrusion dies, he says. Before an extrusion die can be optimised, its


March 2017 | PIPE & PROFILE EXTRUSION 13 Computer


simulation can help model extruded products


including pipes


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