Strategic Injection Molding Simulation for Validated Part and Tool Performance
When it comes to manufacturing plastic parts, even the smallest defect can lead to significant delays and costs. Common pain points like weld lines, short shots, burning, residual stresses, and excessive part warpage can halt manufacturing and require costly tooling rework. At The Madison Group, our team of recognized Moldflow Experts and Plastics Engineers are dedicated to helping you avoid these issues, ensuring a smooth and efficient transition from design to manufacturing.
We understand the challenges you face in achieving a high-quality, manufacturable part. That’s why we use the latest technology and Autodesk Moldflow Insight (AMI) to provide comprehensive support to our customers. Our expert services are designed to address critical issues early in the product development cycle, saving you time and money by reducing the need for expensive physical molding trials. We go beyond injection molding simulation, combining our expertise with hands-on, practical experience to provide solutions that are not only scientifically sound but also proven in real-world molding practices.
Our team supports the entire supply chain of plastic part manufacturing during any stage of development. So whether you are having trouble qualifying a mold, or are running into production quality issues, our team has the experience to help you find a path forward. We help you make informed decisions about your part design, material selection, mold design, and injection molding simulation process to ensure that you not only get a high-quality part made to print, but that also performs as expected in the field.
Avoid manufacturing issues for your plastic parts.
Find solutions to correct production problems.
Housing requiring gate placement change to eliminate jetting.
Interior of housing showing jetting defects eliminated with a change in gate type and placement.
Strategic Analysis for Tooling Optimization and Cycle Time Reduction
Moldflow Services Include:
Design for Manufacturing and Assembly Optimization (DFM, DFMA): We help you identify and correct design flaws before they become manufacturing problems, preventing defects like sink marks, part warpage, or short shots. We also help evaluate how your design and assembly could be improved through part consolidation and optimized joining methods to ensure structural integrity and robustness of your design and assemblies.
Gate Location Analysis and Sizing: Improper gate placement can lead to uneven filling, high pressure, part warpage, weakened parts and costly defects. Our analysis helps optimize gate locations for a balanced flow, and calculates gate sizing to minimize the potential for cosmetic defects or weak parts.
Hot Runner vs. Cold Runner Designs: We provide a comprehensive analysis to determine the most efficient and cost-effective runner system for your specific application.
Mold Filling Analysis: We predict the filling pattern of molten plastic as it flows into the mold, identifying potential issues such as short shots, excessive injection pressure, weld lines, and air traps early in the process.
Material Selection: Choosing the right material is crucial. We evaluate material properties and behavior, both rheological and mechanical, to ensure they are compatible with your design and process parameters. To read more about our material selection services, click here.
Cooling Analysis and Conformal Cooling Optimization: Poor cooling can increase cycle time and cause defects. We optimize your cooling system to achieve more uniform cooling, which helps reduce cooling-related issues and speeds up production. Our team not only looks at conventional cooling strategies, but also has the expertise to help you determine if advanced cooling techniques like conformal cooling, or integration of high-conductivity inserts can help your produce better, more cost-effective parts.
Warpage Analysis and Reduction: Part warpage is a major concern caused by uneven cooling and material shrinkage. Our advanced analysis predicts warpage and provides actionable suggestions to mitigate it, ensuring your final part meets dimensional and aesthetic standards.
Molded-in Residual Stress Analysis: Molded-in residual stresses can be a liability both in part strength and chemical resistance. While all molded parts will have some level of molded-in stress we can help minimize these levels which will in turn optimize the robustness of your part. Additionally, the ability to quantify the level of stress in the molded part helps minimize unexpected performance issues later while in the field.
Cycle Time Optimization: We pinpoint opportunities to shorten your production cycle time, helping you increase output and improve overall efficiency, while at the same time retaining part durability.
Core Deflection: While we often think of the steel and alloys that make up our injection mold as very strong, non-ideal gate location and poor mold design can lead to core deflection that could lead to mold filling issues and fatigue failure of the injection mold components. Our experts can help optimize your mold design and shut-off strategy to prevent or address these failures.
Process Troubleshooting and Root Cause Analysis: Our experts are consistently supporting our customers not only in upfront development of plastic parts and tooling, but also helping to troubleshoot narrow processing windows, inconsistent part performance, and problematic molds. By using injection molding simulation we are able to look into the mold cavity and get more details about what is happening to the plastic and mold during the entire cycle. This type of information is difficult or impossible to get in order to identify the root cause of the processing issues.
We bring a wealth of practical experience to every project, with hands-on knowledge of various processes including Conventional Injection Molding, Co-Injection Molding, 2k and 3k Molding, Over-molding and Insert Molding, Gas-Assist Injection Molding, and more. Our real-world experience, combined with our technical expertise, allows us to provide solutions that are both accurate and effective.
Moldflow Analysis Request
If you would like to have The Madison Group perform Moldflow analysis please fill the form linked to below.
Authorized Autodesk® Training: Elevating Simulation from “Know-How” to “Know-Why”
In addition to our consulting services, we are proud to offer a full lineup of Moldflow Training classes. As authorized Autodesk trainers for both Autodesk Moldflow Insight and Autodesk Moldflow Adviser, we are dedicated to empowering your team with the knowledge they need.
Our goal is to ensure your analysts not only know what buttons to click but also how to interpret results to gain actionable insights from their investment. This transition from “know-how” to “know-why” is essential for making better, faster product design decisions.
We offer both public and private training options, allowing us to tailor our content to meet the specific needs of your internal team. To provide a flexible learning solution, we also partner with Symetri to offer on-line training through CAD L.I.V.E. These live, instructor-led courses eliminate the need for travel and do not restrict your training group size.
Click here to see a listing of our public courses offered through Symetri’s CAD L.I.V.E. If you are interested in a more customized training plan, please feel free to reach out to us.
Mold flow simulation.
Flow simulation.
Cooling analysis.
Fiber orientation.
The Madison Group’s expertise is not limited to processing of thermoplastics by way of injection molding. Our experts also have experience in more complex molding processes such as:
- Thermosets
- Over-molding
- 2-shot
- In-mold labeling
- Co-injection
- Gas-assist
- Injection-compression
- Compression molding
Inquire Today
At The Madison Group we are always ready to assist. Our engineers experience in mold design and manufacturing can save you time and effort, allowing you to make a better product, faster. Contact us today to learn more about our manufacturing and process support services.
