Design Testing

Design Testing for manufacturing constraints needs to be considered at the same time as form, fit and function. A simple flow analysis of your product will prevent you from running into problems down the road. With the some mold analysis programs you can work directly from 3D solid CAD models without the need to create or even view a finite element mesh, saving hours, days even weeks of model preparation time. Intuitive result displays and detailed design advice help users to quickly optimize part and mold designs. Some programs have an automatic web-based report generator that facilitates communication of results among all members of the design and manufacturing team.

These tools will quickly check the manufacturability of your plastic part design when the cost of change is least — early in the design process. You will get rapid feedback on how modifications to wall thickness, gate locations, material or geometry can affect the filling pattern and pressure and temperature distributions in the part cavity. The analysis results and detailed design advice can be used to determine the optimum part thickness and gate locations as well as to identify and eliminate cosmetic issues such as weld lines, air traps and sink marks.

If you are creating your own design to be submitted to a mold maker you will save yourself much time and money to have this analysis completed prior to submitting.  If you have any questions about this process and to determine the necessity of the test for your particular project, please contact us and we will be happy to take a look at your project for manufacturability.