CIMdata PLM Industry Summary Online Archive

21 May 2007

Product News

Moldflow Announces the Release of Moldflow Structural Alliance

Moldflow Corporation announced the commercial release of Moldflow Structural AllianceT (MSAT) 1.0. MSA is a new product that allows ABAQUS® and ANSYS® software users to significantly improve the quality and accuracy of their structural analyses for plastic parts. MSA has the unique ability to map Moldflow Plastics Advisers® (MPA®) or Moldflow Plastics Insight® (MPI®) results to any 3D structural analysis, especially those involving fiber-filled materials. This mapping feature creates a mesh-independent link between the injection molding simulation model and the structural analysis model. This makes it very easy to experiment with different materials and design options and automatically analyze the effects on the structural integrity of the model without adding additional time to the analysis in ABAQUS and ANSYS.

Until now, structural analysis software programs assumed plastic parts have consistent material properties throughout the entire part. However, due to the nature of the injection molding process, the flow pattern of molten plastic introduces variations in the structural performance of the part. MPI and MPA are designed to analyze these flow patterns and with MSA, this valuable analytical data is made available to ABAQUS and ANSYS technologies without adding time to the analysis. With accurate data that reflects the material properties of the final molded part, the analysis results from ABAQUS and ANSYS will be more precise. Consequently, plastic product designers can optimize the structural performance of their designs. In addition, designers will no longer need to overcompensate for the uncertainties introduced during the injection molding process. This means they can use less material, which leads to lower part costs and shorter cycle times.

Niels Lerke, of Nokia Mobile Phones (Copenhagen, Denmark) says, "The continuous development to obtain more accurate and reliable results in simulation requires a closer tie to manufacturing, especially in the case of injection molded plastic parts. The development of MSA enables more accurate modeling for structural analysis and is warmly welcomed by Nokia."

"We fully support Moldflow's effort in bridging the gap between injection molding and structural simulation," said Ken Short, Vice President of Marketing & Strategy at SIMULIA. "The mapping technology used by MSA will allow users of Moldflow and Abaqus to transfer material information for larger models with greater complexity than has previously been possible."

"Our collaboration with Moldflow in creating MSA has produced a breakthrough in extracting structural properties in order to capture accurate behavior of plastic parts," stated Mike Wheeler, Vice President at ANSYS, Inc. "The integration with Moldflow parallels the ANSYS vision of virtual prototyping, specifically in understanding the impact that the manufacturing process has on the structural performance of critical plastic components."

Ken Welch, executive VP and general manager of Moldflow's Design Analysis Solutions business unit, states, "The commercial launch of MSA follows a very successful three-month trial period that was open to Moldflow, ABAQUS and ANSYS customers. An overwhelming number of customers participated in the trial, indicating high market demand for this product. We are very excited to be working with ABAQUS and ANSYS in this endeavor. The use of plastics in high performance applications continues to increase, and material properties -- particularly for fiber-filled materials -- are heavily influenced by the molding process. With MSA, it is now even easier to take application-specific data from Moldflow simulations into structural analyses to achieve more precise results."

Availability

MSA 1.0 is available now. For more information, please call Moldflow in the US at +1-508-358-5848 or go to http://www.moldflow.com/ .

Become a member of the CIMdata PLM Community to receive your daily PLM news and much more.

Tell us what you think of the CIMdata Newsletter. Send your feedback.

CIMdata is committed to your privacy. Your personal information will never be sold or shared outside of CIMdata without your express permission.

Subscribe