Software Includes Part Unfolding, Enhanced Reverse, Mold-Tool Design and Plastic Flow Analysis

The latest release of VISI CAD/CAM from Hexagon Manufacturing Intelligence’s Production Software business, improves mold and progressive-die design processes, along with enhancement to the Reverse module, specifically designed for the mold and die market.

New part-unfolding technology has been introduced in VISI 2020.0, giving the ability to work directly on the original solid part without needing to extract the model’s skin. Sheet-metal part recognition now provides an improved graphical representation of the part analyzed by identifying bends, planar faces and features.

Enhancements to the Reverse module provide new functionalities for both Reverse and Casting processes, giving greater flexibility for both processes. Features such as clipping plane management for point scanning, planar face and draft analysis on mesh data, adapting a mesh to a boundary and best fit improve the reverse process from point scanning to solid model generation, and manufacturing.

A Compare feature lets the user compare two entities, such as a point cloud, mesh or solid, by checking the relative distance; the graphical results show different colors in reference to the distance ranges. The system also shows the relative distance between the two selected entities during the comparison by simply selecting a point.

Additional Meusburger Mold Tool templates (FB, FM and FW types) are now incorporated, including new plates, as well as standard components. The new mold templates also include assemblies from the same supplier.

VISI’s Flow Analysis has been improved by mesh group technology specifically designed for FEM analysis. It gives a high quality mesh while reducing computation time by providing new options to adapt and fit the mesh accordingly to the model’s shape. The flow lines in can be shown, highlighting possible ‘hesitations’ of the filling from isochrones. Engineers can graphically identify possible quality issues caused by flow hesitations and then simulate alternative solutions. With thermal analysis becoming increasingly more important in optimizing mold cooling, the Flow Thermal function has been enhanced with improved coolant flow-rate suggestions, giving an indicative value for a single cooling circuit and an improved solid mesh definition for the mold cavity block, along with each axis, to offer more accurate results.

A direct interface between VISI and Digimat provides data showing material local rigidity can be exported into Digimat for the structural FEM analysis process. MSC Software’s Digimat positions itself between the manufacturing and structural analysis by allowing chosen composite materials to be added to a new reference model to simulate and predict the molded part’s mechanical properties.

By bridging the independent Flow injection molding and structural analysis environments such as MARC, APEX and ANSYS, Digimat provides added value with a more realistic stress analysis simulation. Extra data has been added to the material database to better match fiber characteristics, including information such as shape and length of the filler.

Overall benefits include realistic structural analysis simulation, influencing design construction to improve the molded part’s mechanical behavior, optimizing material selection and fiber properties to improve mechanical resistance and validating the part’s properties in reference to the mold design.