ADDITIONAL PRODUCT NEW

Moldflow Announces the Release of Moldflow Plastics Insight 6.1   

Moldflow Corporation announced the release of Moldflow Plastics Insight® (MPI®) 6.1.  MPI 6.1 delivers new technologies and key enhancements to help users investigate and solve potential design issues, better interface with structural CAE software programs, reduce solution time, and work more efficiently. 

One of the most significant new features in MPI 6.1 is the ability to predict birefringence (also known as double refraction), which is a phenomenon that causes optical defects in lens applications. This will allow designers of optical parts to be able to eliminate one of the major causes of lens defects in applications ranging from automotive lighting to magnifying glasses used to inspect medical x-rays to display screens on cell phones. 

Enhanced 3D ANSYS® and 3D ABAQUS® interfaces now support the export of 3D Overmolding, 2-shot Sequential Overmolding, and Microchip Encapsulation models. The 3D ANSYS interface also enables the export of a 2-layer, aggregated 3D mesh with results, which vastly improves the efficiency of structural analyses completed in ANSYS. MPI 6.1 offers new customer-driven interfaces to Nastran™ and Patran™ for the export of key plastics material data and analysis results, thereby improving the accuracy of subsequent stress analyses.

MPI 6.1 features a parallel solution method on shared memory multi-processor (SMP) systems, which speeds up 3D Warp analyses by a factor of 1.3 or more. An AMG matrix solver option cuts solution time for large models when running a Midplane, Fusion Warp, or a 3D Flow analysis. 

TOOLOX® – The New Generation HASCO Tool Steel

HASCO is now offering for the first time the modern TOOLOX® - tool steel as an alternative to the conventional plastic mold steel materials 1.2311 and 1.2312. The advantages of the TOOLOX - steel grades 33 and 44 are particularly highly valued, not only in mold making, but also in the production of high quality tool and machine components. 

TOOLOX 33 is a pre-hardened and tempered tool steel with exceptionally low residual stresses in ESR quality. As a result of its extraordinarily high toughness, with a 1080 N/mm² tensile strength, and its high dimensional stability, it is particularly well suited for injection molding tools. 

TOOLOX 44 is the only quality tool steel supplied ex stock worldwide that is pre-hardened to 45 HRC. Normal pre-machining and heat treatment processes are not required, thus reducing costs and the risk of scrap. 

Husky Introduces Ultra 750 HT-S6 Nozzle for Closures 

Husky Injection Molding Systems has introduced the Ultra 750 HT-S6 nozzle, specifically developed to address the demands of the closures market. The nozzle's design includes three melt channel sizes for optimal rheology with the complete range of closure resins, a robust steel seal for long life, excellent gate cooling access to ensure the industry's fastest cycle time, and UltraSeal patented technology for guaranteed leakproof operation. 

The Ultra 750 HT-S6 nozzle is an enhancement of the thermal gate Ultra 750 HT-SD, a new benchmark for cap molding. Its tip design exhibits an optimized resin flow in the gate well, which allows for faster color changes.

The new nozzle is supported by Husky technology for optimal performance. The high design standard of Husky hot runner plates ensures flatness and temperature homogeneity. Minimal thermal and mechanical impact on the cavity plate in turn leads to increased production quality and longer mold life. 

Featured at Fakuma, Husky's Ultra 750 HT-S6 nozzle is designed for high-speed closure operation where fast cycle times, rapid color changes, robustness and leakproof operation are the norm. 

HASCO Introduces A4200 for Insert Molding 

HASCO’s newly introduced flexible sealing element A4200 is made of special plastic Murseal®. This material provides damage-free insertion of metal inserts as well as flashes free over-molding. It can withstand processing temperature of 480 degrees F. Unlike metal, it will not mar or scratch the metal substrate.

Murseal® elastic characteristics provide a high resetting capacity. It is resistant to deformation during injection molding and provides compensation for tolerance variations. Flash formation can be avoided by using this new composite material. 

Priamus Introduces World’s Smallest Temperature Sensor 

Due to great demand, PRIAMUS has introduced a new extremely small cavity temperature sensor (type 4009A/4010A) with only 0.6 front diameter was now introduced which confidently may be called the smallest cavity temperature sensor of the world. Type 4011A/4012A is equipped with the same front diameter. This sensor however has a longer measuring body and thus can be used for extremely small mounting proportions. 

Cavity temperature sensors gain more and more importance especially for the open and closed loop control in the injection molding process. In order to react fast enough for real-time controls, both sensors as well as the equivalent electronics must be designed accordingly. The delay time from the melt reaching the sensor until sending a switching signal may not exceed very few "milliseconds" because otherwise valve gates or core pullers react too late, and the melt fills the cavity without control. 

In order to reach these fast reaction times, the mass of the sensor body must be kept very small. A cavity temperature sensor in the body of a cavity pressure sensor is usually far too slow to detect the melt front on time. 

28% Cycle Time Reduction Using RiTemp™ Mold Cooling Technology

RiTemp, a patented technology developed and tested over 30 years, simplifies the design and manufacturing requirements of mold cooling by replacing gun drilled water lines with a “cooling chamber” or water pocket that completely envelops mold cooling surfaces. The water chamber ensures even heat distribution without the engineering compromise often limited by gun drilling. Using heat exchangers, water is condensed and recycled throughout the chamber. Air is removed prior to production eliminating any corrosion issues. Water and or coolant flow is controlled by a RiTemp mold temperature control that senses and adjusts flow to regulate heat levels. The results range from lower operational and design/manufacturing costs to significant productivity gains.

In an electrical part application (pictured above), the end user had a requirement for increased part production to meet market demand, sustainable part quality over several million shots annually and reduced costs. The existing 2 cavity production mold produced a 15 gram electrical box with a 1.5 mm critical wall thickness dimension running Noryl material. The cycle time was 18 seconds.

RiTemp was used in the design and manufacture of a new 4 cavity production tool running the identical part. The result: The 4 cavity tool runs 13 second cycle time (a 28% reduction) and has produced 7 million parts without fail to date. Further, RiTemp exceeded expectations in that the new tool can actually run at a 10 second cycle time but is currently limited by downstream handling equipment.