Success Story
Last March, the engineering team at SyBridge was notified that an automotive injection mold the company had produced more than a year earlier and that had been running without issue was suddenly producing parts with an odd streaking pattern. The large, single-cavity tool ran 12% talc-filled polypropylene to produce liftgate inner liners for minivans. The streaking issue was a relatively new problem that started occurring right around the time the molder switched material grades.
The task was to eliminate the streak marks from the new material, and since the SyBridge engineering team had run Autodesk Moldflow process simulations on the tool before it was built, and those results had guided the final tool design and recommended process settings, Luigi Nicoletti, SyBridge Autodesk Moldflow certified professional analyst, went back to his records and pulled the original simulation files and results.
“After reviewing our original work and recommended process settings and comparing those against the current process sheet, it was pretty easy to see that the molder had reduced the mold temperature and shortened the cycle time on the tool to increase productivity,” Nicoletti recalls. Working with the results from a year earlier, Nicoletti ran a series of additional Autodesk Moldflow simulations. First, he changed the material card to capture the performance of the new polypropylene grade the molder was using. However, he saw nothing in the results corresponding to the visual defect the molder had reported, and fill, pack, cool and warpage results looked similar to those from the original simulations.
Next, he re-ran the simulation, but this time used both the new material card and the new process settings. “Suddenly, in the cooling analysis, I noticed a faint blue/green (cooler) area that corresponded to the location of the streaking,” Nicoletti continues.
Nicoletti re-ran the original simulation with the original material card and the original process settings, but the defect disappeared. Last, he ran one more set of analyses with the original material but using the new faster and cooler process settings. Once again, the defect showed up in the cooling analysis. “That’s when I clearly understood that this wasn’t a tooling or material issue but was caused by the change in process settings,” explains Nicoletti.
By dropping the recommended cooling temperature from 90°F to 70°F (32°C to 21°C) and cycling faster, the processor likely amplified temperature variations on the surface of the part, producing the streaking. Nicoletti informed the processor of what he had found. As soon as the molder reverted to the original process settings, the visual defect entirely disappeared, even with the new material.
“This was a win-win situation for everyone because the molder didn’t have to take the tool out of production, the OEM didn’t have to slow down the production line and we didn’t need to repair a tool that really had no problem,” adds Nicoletti. In addition, the entire troubleshooting process took just one week.
Project summary
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Circuiting Simulation Saves the Day
When designing a new injection mold, the main goal of Superior Tool & Mold, based in Old Castle, ONT is to put their client in the best position possible to make quality parts consistently and efficiently.
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