2018 - SW Simulation - Plastic

SOLIDWORKS Plastics
ENG
SYSPRICE - REVENDA SOLIDWORKS
+55 112165.6900
www.sysprice.com.br
SOLIDWORKS
SOLIDWORKS Plastics
Dassault Systèmes SolidWorks Corporation

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Waltham, MA 02451 U.S.A.
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SOLIDWORKS® 3D mechanical CAD and/or Simulation Portions of this software © 1998-2017 HCL Technologies Ltd.
software is protected by U.S. Patents 6,611,725; 6,844,877; Portions of this software incorporate PhysX™ by NVIDIA 2006-
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COMMERCIAL COMPUTER SOFTWARE - PROPRIETARY
Portions of this software © 1995-2012 Spatial Corporation.
The Software is a "commercial item" as that term is defined at 48
C.F.R. 2.101 (OCT 1995), consisting of "commercial computer The eDrawings® for Windows® software is based in part on the
software" and "commercial software documentation" as such work of the Independent JPEG Group.
terms are used in 48 C.F.R. 12.212 (SEPT 1995) and is provided
to the U.S. Government (a) for acquisition by or on behalf of Portions of eDrawings® for iPad® copyright © 1996-1999
civilian agencies, consistent with the policy set forth in 48 C.F.R. Silicon Graphics Systems, Inc.
12.212; or (b) for acquisition by or on behalf of units of the Portions of eDrawings® for iPad® copyright © 2003 - 2005
Department of Defense, consistent with the policies set forth in Apple Computer Inc.
48 C.F.R. 227.7202-1 (JUN 1995) and 227.7202-4 (JUN 1995)
In the event that you receive a request from any agency of the Copyright Notices for SOLIDWORKS PCB Products
U.S. Government to provide Software with rights beyond those Portions of this software © 2017 Altium Limited.
set forth above, you will notify DS SolidWorks of the scope of
the request and DS SolidWorks will have five (5) business days
to, in its sole discretion, accept or reject such request. Contractor/
Manufacturer: Dassault Systemes SolidWorks Corporation, 175 Document Number: PMT1839-ENG
Wyman Street, Waltham, Massachusetts 02451 USA.
Contents
Introduction
About This Course . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Prerequisites . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Course Design Philosophy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Using this Book . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
About the Training Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Windows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Conventions Used in this Book . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Use of Color . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
More SOLIDWORKS Training Resources. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Local User Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Injection Molding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Fill Stage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Pack Stage. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Cool Stage. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Ejection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
SOLIDWORKS Plastics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
SOLIDWORKS Plastics Standard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
SOLIDWORKS Plastics Professional . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
SOLIDWORKS Plastics Premium . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
This Course . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
i
Contents SOLIDWORKS Simulation
Lesson 1:
Basic Flow Analysis
Basic Flow Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Stages in the Process. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Units . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Element Types. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Shell Elements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Solid Elements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Manual or Automatic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Meshing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
The PlasticsManager Tree. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Material . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Polymer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Using the Databases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Machines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Injection Location . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Running a Flow Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Flow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Pack. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Warp . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Cool. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Flow Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Fill Time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Weld Lines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
Results Adviser . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Exercise 1: Basic Flow Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Lesson 2:
Detecting a Short Shot
Detecting Short Shots . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
Fill Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Definition Fill Setting Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
Filling Time and Injection Pressure Considerations. . . . . . . . . . . 37
Report Text File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
Flow Front Central Temperature. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Pressure at End of Fill. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
Design Changes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
Plastics to Modeling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
Modeling to Plastics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
Thickness Change . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
Simulations After Design Changes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
Exercise 2: Short Shots . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
ii
SOLIDWORKS Simulation Contents
Lesson 3:
Automation Tools
Automation Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
Duplicate Study. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
Copying Settings. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
Plastics File Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
Batch Manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
Batch Controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
Summary and Report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
Exercise 3: Design Changes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
Lesson 4:
Injection Locations and Sink Marks
Injection Locations and Sink Marks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
Injection Location Rules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
Positioning the Injection Location . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
Single vs. Multiple Injection Locations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
Modeling for Injection Locations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
Automatic Injection Location Selection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
Predict Flow Pattern . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
Sink Marks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
Measure. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
Minimizing Sink Marks in Ribs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
Nominal Wall Thickness Advisor. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
Exercise 4: Minimizing Sink Marks (1) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
Exercise 5: Minimizing Sink Marks (2) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
Lesson 5:
Materials
Material Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
User-defined Database . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
Material . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
Resin Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
Temperature Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
Melt Temperature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
Mold Temperature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
Part Ejection Temperature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
Glass Transition Temperature. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
iii
Heat Transfer Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84

Specific Heat. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
Thermal Conductivity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
Viscosity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
PVT Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
Mechanical Properties. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
Thermal Expansion Coefficient . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
Elastic Modulus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
Poisson’s Ratio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
Lesson 6:
Mesh Manipulation
Mesh Manipulation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
Local Refinement of Mesh . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
Mesh Density . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
Gradation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
Element Issues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
Mesh Editing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
Mesh . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
Mesh Analysis. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
Mesh Triangles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
Mesh Nodes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
Leader Lines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
Solid Mesh . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
Solid and Shell Mesh . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
Solid Mesh Types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
Tetrahedral Elements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
Hexahedral Elements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
Exercise 6: Mesh Repairs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
Lesson 7:
Detecting Air Traps
Detecting Air Traps. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116
Stages in the Process. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116
Air Traps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
Dieseling Effect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
Plot Ranges . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
Thickness Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
Venting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122
Venting Analysis. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122
Venting Locations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122
Exercise 7: Air Traps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126
iv
Lesson 8:
Gate Blush
Gate Blush. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132
Runner Elements. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
Domains . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
Gate Blush. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134
Shear Stress. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134
Reducing Gate Blush . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135
Lesson 9:
Packing and Cooling Times
Packing and Cooling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140
Flow/Pack Switch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
Pack Stage. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
Pack Settings. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142
Pack Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142
Pack Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
X-Y Plot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
Volumetric Shrinkage at End of Packing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145
Clipping Plane Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
Setting the Clipping Planes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
Isosurface Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
Cooling Times. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
Temperature at Post-Filling End. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
Nodal Temperature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150
Jetting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151
Exercise 8: Packing and Cooling Times . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152
Exercise 9: Optimizing Cooling Time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155
Multiple Injection Locations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157
v
Lesson 10:
Multiple Cavity Molds
Multiple Cavity Molds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160
Mold Layouts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161
Channel Design. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163
Runner Channel Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163
Runner Types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164
Element Count . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164
Searching for Polymers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166
Clamping Force. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168
Clamp Force Limit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168
Clamp Force . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168
Runner Wizard Channel Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171
Family Mold Layout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173
Using Runner-Balancing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176
Exercise 10: Multiple Cavity Molds. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180
Exercise 11: Runner-Balancing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182
Exercise 12: Clamp Force. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184
Lesson 11:
Symmetry Analysis
Symmetry Analysis. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188
Case Study1: Runner Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188
Case Study2: Symmetry Face . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193
Symmetry Face . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194
Lesson 12:
Valve Gates and Hot Runners
Valve Gates and Hot Runners . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198
Hot Runners . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199
Valve Gates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200
Lesson 13:
Reaction Injection Molding
Reaction Injection Molding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204
Reaction Injection Molding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205
Lesson 14:
Using Inserts
Using Inserts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 210
Cavities and Inserts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211
Materials for Inserts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213
Insert Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215
Hiding Cavities and Inserts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 217
vi
Lesson 15:
Multi Shot Mold
Multi Shot Mold . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 222
Multi Shot Mold . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223
Domain Order . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223
Lesson 16:
Gas Assistance Molding
Gas Assisted Molding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 230
Gas Assist . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 231
Material Selection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 231
Lesson 17:
Cooling Analysis
Cooling Analysis. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 238
Cooling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239
Cooling Channels and Mold Bodies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239
Coolant . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 243
Mold . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 243
Cool Settings. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 244
Cooling Simulations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 245
Cool Flow Field . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 245
Cool Pipe. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 245
Coolant Entrance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 246
Mold Wall Temperature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 246
Cool Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 247
Cool. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 247
Cool Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 248
Baffle. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 250
Bubbler . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 251
Exercise 13: Cooling Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 256
Lesson 18:
Warpage Analysis
Warpage Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 258
Shrinkage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 263
Reducing Shrinkage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 263
Warpage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 263
Warp Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 263
Warp Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 264
Reducing and Fixing Warped Parts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 267
Thermal Contributions to Warping. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 267
Typical Warp Shapes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 267
Residual Stress . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 271
vii
viii
Introduction
1
Introduction SOLIDWORKS Simulation
About This The goal of this course is to teach you how to use SOLIDWORKS
Course Plastics to optimize your part and mold designs for manufacturability
so you can maximize part quality, avoid mold rework and decrease time
to market. Specifically:
 Identify and avoid part and mold design features that cause
injection molding manufacturing defects.
 Learn the most common SOLIDWORKS Plastics workflows to
ensure your part and mold designs are easily manufacturable.
 Quickly and easily communicate your analysis results with other
members of the design-to-manufacturing team.
The tools for working with plastic injection molding simulation in the
SOLIDWORKS Plastics software are quite robust and feature rich.
During this course, we will cover many of the commands and options
in great detail. However, it is impractical to cover every minute detail
and still have the course be a reasonable length. Therefore, the focus of
this course is on the skills, tools, and concepts central to successfully
working with SOLIDWORKS Plastics.
Prerequisites Students attending this course are expected to have the following:
 Mechanical design experience
 Fundamental knowledge of plastic materials, plastic part design
and/or injection mold design
 Completed the course SOLIDWORKS Essentials
 Experience with the Windows™ operating system
Course Length The recommended minimum length of this course is 3 days.
Course Design This course is designed around a process- or task-based approach to
Philosophy training. Rather than focus on individual features and functions, a
process-based training course emphasizes the processes and procedures
you follow to complete a particular task. By utilizing case studies to
illustrate these processes, you learn the necessary commands, options
and menus in the context of completing plastics simulation and design
optimization tasks.
Using this Book This training manual is intended to be used in a classroom environment
under the guidance of an experienced SOLIDWORKS Plastics
instructor. It is not intended to be a self-paced tutorial. The examples
and case studies are designed to be demonstrated “live” by the
instructor.
Laboratory Laboratory exercises give you the opportunity to apply and practice the
Exercises material covered during the lecture/demonstration portion of the
course. They are designed to represent typical simulation situations
while being modest enough to be completed during class time.
2
SOLIDWORKS Simulation Introduction
About the
Training Files
The files are organized by lesson number. The Case Study folder
within each lesson contains the files your instructor uses while
presenting the lessons. The Exercises folder contains any files that are
required for doing the laboratory exercises.
Windows The screen shots in this manual were made using the SOLIDWORKS
software running a mixture of Windows® 7 and Windows 10. You may
notice slight differences in the appearance of the menus and windows.
These differences do not affect the performance of the software.
User Interface Throughout the development of the software, there have been some
Appearance cosmetic User Interface changes, intended to improve visibility, that do
not affect the function of the software. As a policy, dialog images in the
manuals which exhibit no functional change from the previous version
are not replaced. As such, you may see a mixture of current and “old”
UI dialogs and color schemes.
Conventions Used This manual uses the following typographic conventions:
in this Book
Convention Meaning
Bold Sans Serif SOLIDWORKS commands and options
appear in this style. For example, Features >
Extruded Cut means click the Extrude
Cut icon on the Features tab of the
CommandManager.
Typewriter Feature names and file names appear in this
style. For example, Sketch1.
Double lines precede and follow sections of
17 Do this step the procedures. This provides separation
between the steps of the procedure and large
blocks of explanatory text. The steps
themselves are numbered in sans serif bold.
3
Use of Color The SOLIDWORKS user interface makes extensive use of color to
highlight selected geometry and to provide you with visual feedback.
This greatly increases the intuitiveness and ease of use of the
SOLIDWORKS software. To take maximum advantage of this, the
training manuals are printed in full color.
Also, in many cases, we have used additional
color in the illustrations to communicate
concepts, identify features, and otherwise
convey important information. For example,
we might show the result of a filleting
operation with the fillets in a different color,
even though by default, the SOLIDWORKS
software would not display the results in that
way.
More MySolidWorks.com enables you to be more productive by connecting

SOLIDWORKS you with relevant SOLIDWORKS content and services - anytime,
Training anywhere, on any device.
Resources Plus, with MySolidWorks Training you can enhance your
SOLIDWORKS skills on your own schedule, at your own pace.
Just go to My.SolidWorks.com/training.
Local User Groups Discover the benefits of the SOLIDWORKS User Group Network
(SWUGN). Attend local meetings to hear technical presentations on
SOLIDWORKS and related engineering topics, learn about additional
SOLIDWORKS products, and network with other users. Groups are
led by SOLIDWORKS users just like you. Check out SWUGN.org for
more information, including how to find a group in your area.
4
Injection There are many methods for manufacturing plastic parts, including:
Molding blow molding, vacuum molding, extrusion molding and rotational
molding, just to name a few. In this course, we will focus on the most
common method for producing plastic parts, injection molding.
A complete introduction to injection molding is beyond the scope of
this course. However, the basic premise is as follows.
The injection molding process starts with solid resin (plastic) which is
loaded into a hopper. The resin is then heated and turned by a screw
which causes the solid pellets to turn to liquid. If the screw were to
stop, the plastic on the inside of the machine would solidify because of
the non-Newtonian nature of plastics.
Fill Stage The liquid resin is then forced under constant velocity into a cavity
which is formed by two or more plates. This is known as the “fill”
stage. Generally, the cavity is filled to about 99% before the pack stage
begins.
Solid Resin
Hopper Liquid Resin
Screw
Mold Plate A
Mold Plate B
Cavity
Gate
Runner
Sprue
5
Pack Stage The liquid plastic begins to cool as soon as it touches the walls of the
mold. This causes the plastic to shrink. To reduce shrinking, additional
molten plastic is forced into the mold under constant pressure after the
fill stage completes. This is known as the “pack” stage because
additional plastic is packed into the mold. The mold is packed until
plastic ceases to flow through the gate; a phenomenon known as gate
freeze.
Cool Stage After the pack stage, the plastic continues to cool in the mold until it is
cool enough to be ejected. This is known as the “cool” or “pure
cooling” stage. It is important to note, cooling occurs throughout the
injection molding process but this stage is called the cool stage because
little else occurs in this time.
Ejection Once the part reaches ejection temperatures, it is then ejected from the
mold. After it is ejected, it continues to cool to room temperature.
Often, the part will be ejected with the sprue, runner and the gate with
the gate being cut later in the process.
Cavity
Gate
Runner
Sprue
6
SOLIDWORKS SOLIDWORKS Plastics makes use of a process called the finite

Plastics volume method to simulate fluid flow and heat transfer in the fill, pack,
and cooling stages of an analysis. It then makes use of a process called
the finite element method to analyze warping. These two methods for
solving problems are also used in SOLIDWORKS Flow Simulation
and SOLIDWORKS Simulation but to solve different types of
engineering problems.
In the simulation process, the cavity is first modeled in
SOLIDWORKS. Most models are far too complicated to determine
flow patterns through. Therefore, the model is represented by many
simple shapes which when put together, represent the original cavity.
These simple shapes are idealized so that flow can be calculated
through them. This collection of shapes is called a mesh and each shape
is called an element.
Model Mesh Elements Results calculated through mesh elements

(representation of model)
There are three packages of SOLIDWORKS Plastics; Standard,

Professional and Premium. Each package is designed to simulate
various aspects of the injection molding process.
7
SOLIDWORKS SOLIDWORKS Plastics Standard is the package geared towards the

Plastics Standard plastic part designer. This package is used to simulate the fill stage of
the molding process. Using this package, a part designer can determine
proper gate locations, view fill patterns and predict if a short shot might
occur in addition to other fill related issues.
SOLIDWORKS SOLIDWORKS Plastics Professional is the package geared towards
Plastics mold designers. This package is used to simulate the fill stage, the pack
Professional stage and the cool stage. Using this package, a mold maker can balance
a family mold layout, predict and reduce packing and cooling times as
well as simulate more complicated molding processes.
SOLIDWORKS SOLIDWORKS Plastics Premium is the package geared towards
Plastics Premium plastics analysts. This package is used to simulate all stages of the
injection molding process from the fill stage to a post-mold state. Using
this package, an analyst can predict how much a part will warp after it
has cooled to room temperature. In addition to this, cooling lines can be
simulated which leads to more accurate simulations throughout all
stages of the mold process.
This Course This course is divided into three parts. Each part corresponds to a
different package of SOLIDWORKS Plastics. Each package of
SOLIDWORKS Plastics has a unique user interface which only shows
the functionality available in that package. The SOLIDWORKS
Plastics Premium user interface is used throughout this course.
8
Lesson 1
Basic Flow Analysis
Upon successful completion of this lesson, you will be able to:

 Create a simulation from scratch.
 Understand the available mesh and element types.
 Set triangle sizes and mesh a model.
 Use input options to select polymer materials and injection
locations.
 Run and review the results of the analysis.
 Predict and display weld lines.
9
Lesson 1 SOLIDWORKS Simulation
Basic Flow Analysis
Basic Flow In this lesson, we will perform an

Analysis analysis of a simple part in order to
examine Fill patters and Weld Lines.
The process of creating an analysis in
SOLIDWORKS Plastics is broken down
into three distinct phases; preprocessing,
processing and post-processing. We will
explore each phase.
Stages in the The major stages in the process are listed below:
Process
 Element types
We will have a discussion on the difference between solid and shell
elements.
 Meshing
We will go through the process of selecting an appropriate mesh for the
part geometry.
 The Plastics User Interface
We will explore the PlasticsManager tree, the Plastics drop-down menu
and the CommandManager.
 preprocessing options
The “preprocessing” options will be explored. These options are used
to setup simulations to be run.
 Running a flow analysis
The “analysis phase” includes different types of analyses such as Flow
and Flow + Pack. This phase is also known as the processing phase of
the analysis.
 Results
The “post-processing” phase allows for the viewing of many types of
results, including: plots, animations, charts, and reports.
Procedure We will setup a flow analysis which will include the following steps:
creating a shell mesh, specifying a polymer material, specifying an
injection location, and running the flow analysis. The results will then
be viewed.
10
SOLIDWORKS Simulation Lesson 1
Basic Flow Analysis
1 Start SOLIDWORKS
Plastics.
Click the Tools drop-down
and then click Add-ins.
This brings up the Add-Ins
window.
Click both options for
SOLIDWORKS Plastics.
Click OK.
2 Open the part file.

Open Basic Flow Analysis from the
Lesson01\Case Study folder.
Make sure that configuration 200C is active.
11
Basic Flow Analysis
User Interface Commands used in SOLIDWORKS Plastics can be found in three

locations; the CommandManager, the SOLIDWORKS Plastics pull-
down menu and a tree structure called the PlasticsManager Tree.
Pull-down menu
CommandManager
PlasticsManager
Units The Units include two Metric (SI and CGS) and one British setting.
The settings affect the units used in the results as well as the triangle
size for meshing (see Meshing on page 15). For Metric settings, the
triangle size units are mm. For British, they are inches.
Where to Find It  CommandManager: Settings and Help > Unit - Metrics > SI
3 Set units.
Set the units for the analysis.
Click Unit - Metrics, SI.
12
Basic Flow Analysis
Element Types As stated in Introduction: SOLIDWORKS Plastics on page 7, flow is

simulated through a cavity by representing the cavity as a collection of
simple shapes. These simple shapes are idealized so that flow can be
calculated through them. Each shape is called an element and the
collection of elements is called a mesh.
The elements that make up the mesh are either Shell (2D) or Solid
(3D) in nature. Shell elements cover just the surface of the body while
solid elements fill up the volume of the body.
Shell Elements A Shell mesh is generally used on thin

walled parts for obtaining quick results in
the early stages of the analysis process. For
a shell mesh, the flow profile within the
thickness of a shell is deduced from the
flow along the shell walls, making it less
accurate in many circumstances.
Solid Elements The Solid mesh can provide accurate results for any type of model, thin
or thick. While the run times for a solid mesh are usually longer when
compared to those of a shell mesh, a solid mesh should always be used
for thick parts. A solid mesh may also provide greater accuracy for
models with complex and intricate geometry.
13
Basic Flow Analysis
Manual or A mesh can either be created manually or automatically for both solid
Automatic and shell elements. The Manual method allows the user to control
element density; both locally and globally. (The terms local and global
are used to describe a specific region of the model or the entire model,
respectively.)
The Automatic method considers the geometry and places a denser
mesh on smaller features without user input.
Where to Find It  PlasticsManager Tree: Shell or Solid
 CommandManager: Mesh Drop-down > Shell or Solid
 Menu: Tools, SOLIDWORKS Plastics, Mesh, Shell Mesh or
Solid Mesh
4 Select the mesh type.

Click Shell and click Manual.
Click Next on the first page of the Shell
Mesh PropertyManager to accept the
default parameters.
Note The options presented in the Shell Mesh PropertyManager are

dependent on the geometry and package of SOLIDWORKS Plastics
used. These options will be explored throughout this course.
14
Basic Flow Analysis
Meshing The Surface Mesh page defines the size of the triangles used to create
the mesh. The size also determines the number of nodes and elements
within the mesh.
Element
Node
Refinement and The meshes can be repaired and refined in selected areas. For
Repairs information on repairing meshes, see Lesson 6: Mesh Manipulation.
For information on mesh refinement, see Local Refinement of Mesh on
page 93.
Number of Triangles The number of triangles in the mesh has an impact on calculation times.
Each triangle has three nodes and calculations are performed on each
node. So, as the number of triangles increase, compute times increase.
That said, element counts up to 100,000 should solve in a reasonable
amount of time, while element counts over 100,000 may take longer to
solve.
15
Basic Flow Analysis
5 Mesh size.
Select the body from the Mesh Groups list.
Enter a Triangle Size of 7 mm.
Click Mesh.
This triangle size does not result in an accurate

representation of the part geometry.
6 Reduce triangle size.
Select the body from the Mesh Groups list.
Enter 3 mm for the Triangle Size and click
Mesh.
The mesh looks much better. In the next step,

we will validate the mesh to see if it is
acceptable.
Click Next .
16
Basic Flow Analysis
7 Mesh summary.
The mesh Summary appears, listing important
qualities of the mesh. The Bad Elements and
Very Bad Elements are listed as 0%. These
parameters will be discussed further in
Lesson 6: Mesh Manipulation.
Click OK twice.
17
Basic Flow Analysis
The Plastics The PlasticsManager Tree contains

Manager Tree preprocessing, processing and post-processing
settings and commands. Individual commands
will be discussed in detail in later lessons.
 MESH - Includes settings to determine and
edit the type of mesh and runners.
 Material - Contains settings for the selection
of the polymer which will be injected into the
mold, the material of the mold and the
material of the cooling fluid.
 Process Parameters - Contains settings for
the fill, pack, cool and warpage of the part.
 Boundary Conditions - Contains settings
for specifying the injection location and other
simulation specific parameters.
 ADVISOR - Provides access to the Nominal
Wall Thickness advisor.
 RUN - Starts the analysis.
 RESULTS - Provides access to the results of
the analysis.
 DISPLAY SETUP - Options for isolines and
clipping planes.
Important! The items displayed in the tree will vary based on the SOLIDWORKS
Plastics package installed and the type of analysis being performed.
The image in the tree above is from SOLIDWORKS Plastics Premium.
Tip Check marks are added over icons of tasks that have been completed
such as Shell .
Material The material database provides access to thousands of materials.
Materials can be applied to cavities, mold bodies, cooling fluids and
inserts.
Polymer Polymers are organized in the material database by family and
company. Polymers can be applied to cavities and inserts.
Where to Find It  PlasticsManager Tree: Material, double-click Polymer
18
Basic Flow Analysis
8 Select a polymer.
Click Polymer .
Click Default Database .
Click Sort by Family.
Browse to the PP folder and expand it.
Click (P) BASF / NOVOLEN 1100 H.
Click OK.
Using the If the polymer you require is not in the Default Database, there are a
Databases couple of options:
 Use Similar - Look at the Polymer-Material Parameters tab and
the Viscosity tab. You may be able to find a substitute polymer
with similar parameters in the Default Database.
 Create new - Using the User-defined Database , a new
material can be added. This will be the subject of
Lesson 5: Materials.
19
Basic Flow Analysis
Machines The Machine option is used to define the injection molding machine to
be used. The machine database is provided only as a reference. The
selection of a machine does not have any effect on the analysis.
For SOLIDWORKS Plastics Standard, there is one machine:
Default Machine.
For SOLIDWORKS Plastics Professional and Premium, there are
many more machines listed by Name, Manufacturer and
Machine Type.
The defult setting is Default Machine.

Where to Find It  PlasticsManager Tree: Expand Process Parameters, right-click
Fill Settings, click Open Settings, expand Advanced and click
Machine Database .
Injection The Injection Location is where melted plastic flows from the mold
Location runner system into the part cavity. Multiple locations can be used but a
minimum of one is required to run an analysis.
Note The Injection Location does not create geometry. Rather, it is used to
locate a node on the shell where melted plastic will enter. A conical
pointer is then displayed at the Injection Location, indicating which
node the melted plastic will enter through. The Injection Location is
often critical to the success of the plastic injection molding process.
20
Basic Flow Analysis
Important! When using a shell mesh, the size of the Pointer Diameter does not
affect the results. The Pointer Diameter sets the visual display of the
conical pointer only. The Pointer Diameter does, however, affect the
results of a solid mesh.
Where to Find It  PlasticsManager Tree: Expand Boundary Conditions, double-
click Injection Location
Note The mesh can be shown or hidden by toggling the Mesh Model
option.
9 Add an injection location.

Click Injection Location .
Select the gate location on the model as
indicated in the image below.
Click Add Location.

Click OK .
21
Basic Flow Analysis
Running a Flow As mentioned earlier, the process of creating an analysis in

Analysis SOLIDWORKS Plastics is broken down into three distinct phases;
preprocessing, processing and post-processing. The stages of creating a
mesh, applying material and specifying fill settings are preprocessing
operations. The next phase is the processing phase, also known as the
RUN phase, is where the simulation is calculated. There are several
processing options available in SOLIDWORKS Plastics; Flow ,
Flow + Pack , Flow + Pack + Warp and Cool .
Note The Flow + Pack analysis is only available in SOLIDWORKS
Plastics Professional. Similarly, Flow + Pack + Warp and
Cool are only available in SOLIDWORKS Plastics Premium.
Flow Flow is used to analyze the fill stage.
Pack Pack is used to calculate the packing stage and the pure cooling
stage of the analysis.
Warp Warp is used to analyze the shrinkage and warpage of the part due
to residual stresses during the injection molding cycle. When using
Flow + Pack + Warp , all three stages are performed sequentially
during the analysis.
Cool Cool is used to analyze how the part cools throughout all stages of
the injection molding process.
Where to Find It  PlasticsManager: Expand RUN and double-click Flow
10 Run.
Click Flow .
The Analysis Manager pops up. Results appear on the model and can
be viewed as the simulation solves.
22
Basic Flow Analysis
Batch Manager If the Analysis Manager dialog is minimized, the

Batch Manager continues to run the analysis
and can be accessed through Show hidden icons.
Tip A SOLIDWORKS part can be closed while the analysis is running.
Flow Results The results that can be analyzed after a Flow simulation has been
performed are known as the Flow Results. They include:
 Fill Time (Default)
 Pressure at End of Fill
 Central Temperature at End of Fill
 Average Temperature at End of Fill
 Bulk Temperature at End of Fill
 Flow Front Central Temperature
 Temperature Growth at End of Fill
 Shear Stress at End of Fill
 Shear Rate at End of Fill
 Volumetric Shrinkage at End of Fill
 Frozen Layer Fraction at End of Fill
 Cooling Time
 Temperature at End of Cooling
 Sink Marks
 Gate Filling Contribution
 Ease of Fill
Note The available result types differ based on the SOLIDWORKS Plastics
package: Standard, Professional, or Premium.
Where to Find It PlasticsManager: Expand RESULTS, double-click Flow Results
Tip Each of these results is described in detail within the Results Adviser.
See Results Adviser on page 27 for more information.
Fill Time The Fill Time plot can be used to visualize the profile of the melted
plastic as it flows through the mold cavity. Red regions are the last
areas to fill while blue regions are the first areas to fill. Fill Time is a
key result and is shown automatically when the simulation completes.
Isolines Some results can be shown using Isolines. Isolines run through a
model, indicating where a particular value is constant.
Where to Find It  When viewing a result from the Results PropertyManager: Click
Isoline
23
Basic Flow Analysis
11 Fill time.
Under Flow Results , click Fill Time.
Click Isoline . This will toggle a view of the Isolines on.
Click Isoline off.
24
Basic Flow Analysis
12 Animate results.
Click Fill Time and Play .
Click Stop to stop the animation.
25
Basic Flow Analysis
Weld Lines Weld Lines are formed by two or more flow fronts that come together.
They can be caused by multiple injection locations, through holes in the
part or variations in wall thickness that cause a single flow front to
separate into two. Weld lines often result in cosmetic defects in a
molded part and the areas near weld lines are weaker and prone to
structural failure.
The positions of weld lines can be changed by moving injection
locations or by making design changes. However, they cannot be
eliminated from the part if there are through holes or multiple injection
locations.
Where to Find It  PlasticsManager: Expand RESULTS, double-click Flow Results
and check the box for Weld Lines in the Flow tab.
13 Weld lines.
Click Weld Lines.
The plot displays the locations of the weld lines
and the angle of the flow field as the weld lines
form.
26
Basic Flow Analysis
Results Adviser The Results Advisor is a pop-up

window which defines various result
plots available in post-processing.
The “traffic light” symbol at the
top provides an indication of the
manufacturability of your design based
on part geometry, material selection,
injection location(s), processing
parameters and the overall ease or
difficulty in filling the mold cavity. A
green light indicates a cavity which is
easy to fill, a red light indicates failure
and yellow indicates that there may be
difficulties.
The adviser also provides details such as
the required injection pressure and
clamping force in the dialog below the
light.
Where to Find It  When viewing a result from the Results PropertyManager: Click
Results Advisor
14 Results Adviser.
Click Results Advisor .
A green “traffic light” symbol indicates that the mold can be
successfully filled as per the Ease of Fill plot. (See next the step.)
Close Results Advisor.
27
Basic Flow Analysis
15 Ease of Fill.
Click Ease of Fill.
You can see that the part is green,
which indicates that this part should
easily fill based on the geometry,
material selection, injection
location and processing parameters.
Click OK .
16 Save and close the file.
28
SOLIDWORKS Simulation Exercise 1
Basic Flow Analysis
Exercise 1: Perform a basic flow analysis using the part

Basic Flow provided.
Analysis This lab uses the following skills:
 Basic Flow Analysis on page 10
 Element Types on page 13
 Meshing on page 15
 The Plastics Manager Tree on page 18
 Running a Flow Analysis on page 22
 Flow Results on page 23
 Weld Lines on page 26
Units: Metric, SI
Procedure Follow the procedure below.
1 Open a part file.
Open Basic Flow Analysis from the Lesson01\Exercises folder.
2 Units.
Set the units to Metrics, SI.
3 Mesh.
Create a shell mesh using a Triangle Size of 2mm.
4 Material.
Click Polymer.
Click Default Database.
Select ABS and the Material (P) Asahi Chemical / STYLAC 120.
Click OK.
29
Exercise 1 SOLIDWORKS Simulation
Basic Flow Analysis
5 Injection Location.
Add an Injection Location selecting the outer edge near the position
shown below.
6 Run analysis.
Run a Flow analysis and view the Results.
Review Fill Time with and without the Weld Lines.
30
Basic Flow Analysis
Note The Max. Injection Pressure of 100 MPa is reached before the Analysis
Manager reaches 90% of the cells filled. Notice the Results Adviser
traffic light indicates a failure (red), even though the cavity is able to be
completely filled at the machine maximum injection pressure of 100
MPA. Increasing the part wall thickness is one of the best ways to
reduce the required injection pressure to fill the part cavity. Changing
the part geometry using SOLIDWORKS and rerunning a
SOLIDWORKS Plastics analysis is covered in Lesson 2: Detecting a
Short Shot.
31
Basic Flow Analysis
32
Lesson 2

 Detect a short shot.
 Change the model and the fill settings to correct the short shot.
33
Detecting Short This lesson follows the process of predicting

Shots a short shot in the fill stage.
Short shots occur when molten plastic cools
and solidifies before the cavity fills all the
way. In this lesson, we will see how an
undersized wall thickness can cause this
problem to occur.
Once the short shot is detected, we will fix the problem by exploring
two options: a design change at the part level and the decision of
whether or not to use an injection molding machine with higher
injection pressure capabilities.
Process
 Detecting short shots
We will explore what a short shot is and how to predict one in the
analysis process.
 Report text file
The report text file provides details of the analysis including short shot
errors. We will explore this file and how to read it.
 Fixing the short shot
We will fix the short shot by modifying the part geometry and editing
the Fill Settings. The Fill Settings are used to set the fill time and
temperature. Both methods can be used to fix a short shot.
Procedure In this lesson, we will setup and run a simulation on a part with thin
walls. The simulation will show a short shot which we will fix by
modifying the thickness of the part and editing the Fill Settings.
1 Open a part file.

Open Short Shots from the
The wall thickness of the outer edges is 0.60mm.
34
2 Settings.
Use the following settings to setup a
simulation:
 Units - Metrics, SI
 Mesh, Shell - 2mm
 Polymer - PS, (P) Asahi
Chemical, ASAHI-PS404
 Injection Location - Circular
face on bottom
Fill Settings As mentioned in Introduction: Fill Stage on page 5, the fill stage is
characterized by liquid resin being forced into a cavity under constant
velocity. Likewise, the Fill Settings control the parameters of the
machine throughout the fill stage. These parameters include:
Filling Time, Melt Temperature and Mold Temperature.
Changing these parameters can fix the short shot issue but may cause
other problems to arise. For example, a hotter mold and a shorter filling
time may fix the short shot issue, but changing these parameters will
also increase cooling time and molded-in stresses. (An increased
cooling time leads to higher cycle times and molded-in stress can cause
warpage.)
The default values used in the Fill Settings dialog are estimated by
the software using the part volume and material manufacturer
recommendations for melt and mold temperature.
Where to Find It  PlasticsManager Tree: Expand Process Parameters and double-
click Fill Settings
35
Definition Fill Within the Fill Settings, there are several

Setting parameters that can be edited. These
Parameters parameters are defined below:
 Fill Time - The time required to fill
the mold cavity with polymer melt.
 Melt Temperature - The
temperature of the plastic as it enters the
gate.
 Mold Temperature - The
temperature of the mold walls during the
fill stage.
 Injection Pressure Limit - The
maximum possible pressure of the
polymer at the injection location.
 Clamp Force Limit - The maximum
force that can be exerted on the on the
cavities to hold them together.
 Flow/Pack Switch Point -
Determines the switch between the
constant velocity fill stage and the
constant pressure pack stage. Generally
this is kept at 99% to reduce flash
(plastic flowing through the parting line
of the core and cavity).
 Flow Rate Profile Settings -
Allows for a variable flow rate with
time.
 Temperature Criteria for Short
Shots - If the temperature of the melt front reaches the value set
here, a short shot will automatically be detected. This parameter is
set to the Glass Transition Temperature by default (see Glass
Transition Temperature starting on page 83 for more information).
36
Filling Time and The Fill Time heavily influences

Injection Pressure the pressure required to fill a Velocity too high
Considerations cavity. When the Fill Time is
short, the velocity is high and a lot
of resin travels through the gate all
at once. This causes the pressure
to increase. On the other hand,
Plastic cooling
when the Fill Time is long, the
velocity is low and the flow front
may freeze due to the non-
Newtonian nature of molten resin which begins to solidify under low
shear. This phenomenon also causes an increase in pressure during the
fill stage. Therefore, the graph of injection pressure versus fill time
displays a U shape curve as shown in the image. From this graph it can
be seen that a fill time exists where a cavity can be injected with the
lowest possible pressure.
3 Fill settings.
Click Fill Settings .
Click Fill Time and enter 0.5 sec.
Click OK .
Note The default values for Melt Temperature, Mold Temperature and
Temperature Criteria for Short Shots come from the material
database and are material manufacturer recommendations. The default
value for Filling Time is estimated based off of the part volume as well
as the Melt Temperature and Mold Temperature. The default value
for the Injection Pressure Limit is always 100 MPa and the Clamp
Force Limit is always 100 metric tons. However, in practice, each
machine has a different pressure limit and clamp force.
37
4 Run analysis.
Click Flow .
5 Fill time.
The Fill Time result shows that the flow stops well short of filling the
mold; resulting in a short shot.
Report Text File The Report Text File records data from the analysis including
warnings and errors. In this example, an error message appears in the
text of the report.
Where to Find It  PlasticsManager: Expand RUN, expand
Open Report Text File and double-click
Flow Text
6 Report text file.

Click Flow Text .
38
An HTML document opens and an error near the bottom of the text
reads:
Warning C1002 Pressure has reached the max. inject
pressure 100.00 MPa.
Error C2005 A short shot has occurred during the Flow
Process.
Close the HTML document.
Flow Front The Flow Front Central Temperature measures the temperature of the
Central flow front as it flows through the mold. This result is one of many Flow
Temperature Results on page 23.
7 Flow front central temperature.

Click Flow Results .
Click Flow Front Central Temperature.
The plot shows that the melted plastic cools before filling the mold.
39
Pressure at End of The Pressure at End of Fill result is the pressure required to fill the
Fill geometry that has been meshed for the simulation. This result can
predict the required pressure for the entire mold including the sprue,
runner, gate and cavity if all of the geometry is represented in the mesh.
This result is one of many Flow Results on page 23.
8 Pressure at End of Fill.

Show the Pressure at End of Fill plot.
The Pressure at End of Fill plot indicates that the Injection Pressure
Limit of 100 MPa (14507 psi) has been reached. The default Injection
Pressure Limit is set to 100 MPa in the Fill Settings.
9 Results Adviser.
Click Results Advisor .
There is a red “traffic light” symbol indicating that a short shot
has been detected. The details are found in the text at the top portion of
the Adviser dialog. Several options to address short shots are also
discussed.
Close the dialog and click OK .
40
Design One advantage of performing simulations early in the design process is

Changes that it becomes easy to make changes to the model based off of the
results of the analysis. Because SOLIDWORKS Plastics is integrated
directly into SOLIDWORKS, this process is very simple.
All that is required is to switch between SOLIDWORKS Plastics and
SOLIDWORKS as needed to iterate design changes and update the
analysis. The view of the cavity can be toggled to a view of the model
through the Cavity Visibility command.
Where to Find It  CommandManager: SOLIDWORKS Plastics >
Cavity Visibility
Plastics to To switch from SOLIDWORKS Plastics to SOLIDWORKS when
Modeling making a design change, follow the two step procedure:
1. Click Cavity Visibility off.
2. Click the FeatureManager Design Tree tab .
Modeling to To switch from SOLIDWORKS to SOLIDWORKS Plastics after
Plastics making a design change, follow the two step procedure:
1. Click the PlasticsManager tab .
2. Click Cavity Visibility on.
Using Working with multiple part configurations is another way to
Configurations incorporate design changes. See Automation Tools on page 49 for more
information on working with configurations.
Thickness Change In this example, a change to the thickness of part is required to
eliminate the short shot issue. This will be done by editing the part.
10 Design change.
Click Cavity Visibility .
Click the FeatureManager Design Tree
and Edit Shell 1 .
Change the thickness value from “0.60mm”
to “1.20mm”.
Click OK .
41
Simulations Design changes made to the SOLIDWORKS part while using

After Design SOLIDWORKS Plastics will require you to remesh the part and
Changes perform another analysis.
A design change will necessitate the following procedure in
SOLIDWORKS Plastics:
1. Recreate the mesh.
2. Reselect the injection location.
3. Reanalyzing and replacing the current results.
Note The units and material process settings will remain the same.
11 Mesh, injection location and material.

Click the PlasticsManager tab and click Cavity Visibility on.
Click Shell and begin the meshing process.
The following message will appear:
Do you want to use the previous meshing parameters?
Click Yes. This will retain the prior settings.
Remesh the part with the same settings as before.
Click Injection Location and add an injection location to the same
spot as shown in step 2 on page 35.
Click Polymer and select PS, (P) Asahi Chemical, ASAHI-PS404.
12 Injection Pressure Limit.
For the Fill Time enter 0.5 sec.
For the Injection Pressure Limit enter 150 MPa.
Click OK .
Note In this example, we increased the Injection Pressure Limit from the
default value to a value of 150 MPa. The default value for Injection
Pressure Limit is set to 100 MPa because the vast majority of injection
molding machines can achieve this pressure. Some more advanced
machines can reach pressures between 150 MPa and 200 MPa, and
state of the art machines can reach upwards of 240 MPa. If your molder
runs one of these more advanced machines, you will most likely be
paying top dollar for their services. Rather than increasing the
Injection Pressure Limit you can increase the part wall thickness, use
a high flow polymer material, increase the melt temperature or increase
the mold temperature to reduce the required injection pressure.
42
13 Rerun analysis.
Click Flow . The following message will appear:
FLOW results exist. Do you want to replace it?
Click Yes.
14 Fill time.
Show Fill Time to verify that the
melted plastic now completely fills
the mold.

The Pressure at End of Fill plot indicates that the required pressure is
below 85% of the Injection Pressure Limit of 150 MPa.
Note In the injection molding process, additional pressure losses occur

through the runner system and machine nozzle geometry. It is
recommended when you are analyzing the part cavity only, the result
value for Pressure at the End of Fill be closer to 50% of the maximum
injection pressure limit specified for the analysis.
43
Short Shots
Exercise 2: Detect short shots and make repairs using

Short Shots the part provided.
This lab uses the following skills:
 Detecting Short Shots on page 34
 Report Text File on page 38
 Report Text File on page 38
 Flow Front Central Temperature on
page 39
Units: Metric - SI

1 Open a part file.
Open Short Shots from the Lesson02\Exercises folder.
2 Basic settings.
Add these steps in the order shown.
Mesh Shell 2mm
Polymer PS, (P) Asahi Chemical, Asahi-PS 404
Injection Location
3 Fill settings.
Under Fill Settings, set the Filling Time to 0.40 seconds.
Note Leave the Injection Pressure Limit at its default value of 100MPa.
4 Flow analysis.
Run a Flow analysis.
44
Short Shots
5 Short shot.
Show the Fill Time result plot.
It is clear that the cavity does not fill properly.

Click OK.
6 Error message.
Click Flow Text and search the document for the following error
message:
A Short-Shot has occurred during the Flow Process.
Close the html document.
7 Design change.
Switch to the FeatureManager design tree and change the Shell 1
feature thickness to 1 mm.
8 Run analysis again.
Re-mesh and re-analyze the part using the same values for mesh,
polymer, injection location (Basic settings. on page 44), fill settings
(Fill settings. on page 44).
45
Short Shots
9 Ease of fill.
Show the Ease of Fill result.
Although the cavity does fill, there are yellow and red areas indicating
Moderately difficult to fill and Difficult to fill regions of the cavity
with an Injection Pressure Limit of 100MPa.
46
Short Shots

Show the Pressure at End of Fill result.
The plot indicates that the required pressure is more than 90% of the
default Injection Pressure Limit value of 100 MPa.
11 Design change.
Switch to the FeatureManager design tree and change the Shell 1
feature thickness to 1.25 mm.
12 Run analysis again.
polymer, injection location (Basic settings. on page 44), fill settings
(Fill settings. on page 44).
13 Results.
The Fill Time and Ease of Fill results now both provide acceptable
results.
47
Short Shots
48
Lesson 3
Automation Tools

 Use the Duplicate Study command to create new studies in new
configurations.
 Use the Copy Study command to copy the setup of one simulation
into another.
 Run multiple simulations at the same time using the Batch
Manager.
 Create Summary & Report files.
49
Automation Tools
Automation This lesson makes use of the Duplicate Study command, the Copy
Tools Settings command, the Batch Manager and the Report Generator to
automate some of the preprocessing, processing and post-processing
stages of the analysis.
Process
 Duplicate Study
The Duplicate Study command is used to copy the settings of a
simulation to a new configuration.
 Copy Settings
The Copy Settings command is used to copy the settings of a
simulation to another existing simulation.
 Batch Manager
The Batch Manager is used to run simulations during off-peak hours
and to manage the processing of simulations.
 Generate Report
Automatically produce a complete report in Microsoft PowerPoint and
Word format.
Procedure We will start with a model which has already been setup and run. The
Duplicate Study command will be used to create two new simulations.
The properties of one of the duplicated studies will be edited. The
Copy Settings command will be used to copy the parameters from one
simulation to another and the gate location of the copied simulation
will be edited. The Batch Manager will then be used to run several
simulations. The results of one of the simulations will be analyzed
using the Generate Report command.
1 Open a part file.

Open Model Manager from the Lesson03\Case Study folder.
The part has one configuration and has already been analyzed.
Review the setup and results.
50
Automation Tools
Duplicate Study The Duplicate Study command allows you to copy a simulation to a
new configuration. The Duplicate Study command always copies the
preprocessing information and can be used to copy the results as well.
Duplicate Study
2 Model manager folder.

Click Duplicate Study .
Name the new study Duplicate 1.
Click Copy without results.
Click OK.
3 Duplicate 2.
Activate the Default configuration and repeat the procedure shown in
step 2 on page 51.
Name this new study Duplicate 2.
You should now have three configurations.
4 Activate Duplicate 1.
5 Edit Duplicate 1.
Change the Filling Time (sec) to .5 seconds.
Click OK .
51
Automation Tools
Copying The Copy Settings command is used to copy preprocessing data from
Settings one simulation to another. This includes parameters such as the
Material and Process Parameters but not information pertaining to
the Mesh or Boundary Conditions.
Where to Find It  CommandManager: SOLIDWORKS Plastics > Copy Settings
Plastics File For every simulation that is created,
Management preprocessing and post-processing data is
automatically stored in a folder system. In this
folder system, a Plastics Data folder exists
with the same name as the part file. The
Plastics Data folder is automatically created at
the root level of the part.
Below the Plastics Data folder, Configuration
Data folders exist. These folders are named after the configurations the
studies are attached to.
Only one study can exist per configuration.
The Duplicate Study command is used to create the configurations and
folders while information from existing folders is transfered through
the Copy Settings command.
6 Copy parameters across simulations.

Click Copy Settings .
Right-click on Duplicate 1 and click
Copy Parameter.
Right-click on Duplicate 2 and click
Paste Parameter.
A message will appear:
Copy the parameters of (Duplicate 1) to (Duplicate 2).
Click OK.
7 Paste parameters again.
Click Up.
Expand the Basic Flow Analysis folder.
Right-click 200C and click
Paste Parameter.
Click OK again to exit the warning.
Note This study is the same study run in Lesson 1: Basic Flow Analysis.
We will run it again in this lesson with new parameters.
Click Copy Settings again to exit the command.
52
Automation Tools
8 Change gate location for Duplicate 2.

Activate the Duplicate 2 configuration.
Select the current gate and click Delete Injection Location .
Add a gate on the other side of the part.
Batch Manager The Batch Manager allows you to run multiple analyses immediately
or at a later time.
Batch Controls The control panel at the bottom of the dialog can be used to add, change
or delete the batch analysis jobs.
 Add Analysis - Add a batch analysis.
 Change Analysis - Used to change the type of analysis, such as
Shell - FLOW to Shell - PACK.
 Delete Analysis - Delete a batch analysis from the list.
 Move Down - Move a batch analysis down the list.
 Move Up - Move a batch analysis up the list.
 Start - Start the batch analysis.
 Stop - Stop the batch analysis.
Where to Find It
Batch Manager
53
Automation Tools
9 Add batch job for Duplicate 1.

Click Batch Manager .
Expand the Lesson03\Case Study\
Model Manager folder.
Select the Duplicate 1 folder.
Click Shell|Flow.
Click Add Analysis .
The batch analysis job appears in the list at
the top of the dialog.
10 Add additional jobs.
Using the same process shown in step 9 on
page 54, add the Duplicate 2 folder.
Browse to the Basic Flow Analysis
folder and add the 200C analysis to the
batch process.
11 Run all the simulations.

Click Start .
Click OK to exit the Batch Manager.
Note Using the Batch Analysis tool, a file does not need to be open in order
for it to be analyzed.
54
Automation Tools
12 Analyze the results.

View the results from each of the three simulations.
Summary and The Summary and Report tool is used to automatically gather
Report preprocessing and post-processing information into an easy to read
PowerPoint or Word document. This document can include the plastic
used, gate locations as well as result graphs.
The report is customizable and can also be edited after creation.
Where to Find It  PlasticsManager: Expand RESULTS and double-click

Summary and Report
55
Automation Tools
13 Activate Duplicate 1.
14 Initiate report.
Click Summary and Report .
Click OK .
15 Report generator.
Click the Cover tab and type the following text.
56
Automation Tools
16 Introduction.
Click the Introduction tab and type the following text.
The mold fills correctly.
Air traps at the end of fill.
Numerous weld lines.
17 Generate Image File.
Click the Generate Image File tab and then click the Results tab.
Check the following options:
 Shell_PT_R_1_Max. Inlet Pressure
 Shell_PT_R_4_Y dir.
For the Flow tab, click these options:
 Shell_FLOW_ Fill Time
 Shell_FLOW_ Pressure at End of Fill
 Shell_FLOW_ Central Temperature at End of Fill
 Shell_FLOW_ Temperature Growth at End of Fill
 Shell_FLOW_ Shear Stress at End of Fill
 Shell_FLOW_ Cooling Time
 Shell_FLOW_ Sink Marks
 Shell_FLOW_ Ease of Fill
 Shell_FLOW_ Weld Lines
 Shell_FLOW_ Air Traps
Click OK.
Note Images will appear briefly as they are generated.
18 Saving.
The following message appears:
Report generation finished! Do you want to save to another
folder?
Click Yes and save the report to the Desktop location.
Note If another folder is not selected, the file is placed in the analysis folder.
19 Close the file.
57
Automation Tools
20 Results.
Expand the Duplicate 1_Report folder. It contains folders, an HTML
file and the powerpoint file. Open the powerpoint file Duplicate
1_report.
21 Close all files.
58
Design Changes
Exercise 3: Analyze and make design changes using the

Design part with multiple configurations provided.
Changes This lab uses the following skills:
 Design Changes on page 41
 Copying Settings on page 52
 Batch Manager on page 53
Units: Metric

1 Open a part file.
Open Design Changes from the Lesson03\Exercises folder.
2 Configuration.
Change the configuration to 100C.
3 Settings.
Use the following settings for SOLIDWORKS Plastics:
 Mesh, Shell = 4mm
 Polymer = ABS, (P) Asahi Chemical / STYLAC 120
 Injection Location = Near the midpoint of outer edge as shown
4 Run analysis.
59
Design Changes
5 Results.
Show and review Fill Time and Ease of Fill.
6 Design change.
Change to the configuration 100S.
7 Copy Settings.
Mesh the model and add an injection location.
Use the Copy Settings command to copy the material from the 100C
configuration to the 100S configuration.
Note The Copy Settings command does not copy the mesh. Therefore, the
mesh and the injection location must be defined before the
Copy Settings command can be used.
8 Repeat on other configurations.
Repeat the procedure for as many of the
part configurations as you desire.
9 Batch run.
Use the Batch Manager to run the
studies and then analyze the results.
60
Lesson 4

 Understand the rules for positioning an injection location.
 Predict and minimize sink marks.
61
Injection This lesson follows the process of

Locations and positioning injection locations and
Sink Marks avoiding sink marks. Sink marks occur
in relatively thick wall sections that are
not packed out well enough to
compensate for shrinkage as the part
cools. They are called sink marks
because the part surface is pulled
inward, resulting in visible depressions.
In this example, we will investigate a
model with several ribs of various
thicknesses.
Process
 Positioning an injection location
Single or multiple injection locations can be created within the cavity.
Some rules for injection locations are discussed.
 Predict and minimize sink marks
The severity of sink marks can be identified through analysis and
reduced by following some general design rules.
Procedure In this lesson, we will analyze a cover for a power tool. This model
contains ribs of various dimensions. We will start by determining a
suitable injection location using a tool called Automatically Add
Locations. After we run the analysis, we will find that some ribs are
predicted to cause significant sink marks and other ribs will have only
minor sink marks. We will analyze these sink marks using the Measure
tool and take a look at the dimensions of the ribs. Finally, we will have
a discussion on how to properly design ribs to be both strong and have
a minimal effect on sink marks.
1 Open a part file.

Open Injection Locations from
the Lesson04\Case Study
folder.
2 Settings.
Use the following settings for
SOLIDWORKS Plastics:
 Mesh, Shell - 1.75mm
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3 Material.
Click Polymer .
Click Sort by Company.
Expand BASF.
Click PP / NOVOLEN 1100 H.
Click OK.
63
Injection There are several considerations when placing an injection location and
Location Rules determining if multiple injection locations are required. The following
rules will help identify these locations.
Positioning the When placing an injection location, consider the following suggestions:
Injection Location
 Avoid placing the injection location on highly visible areas of the
part. The injection location may appear as a visible defect on that
surface.
 Consider the type of mold you will use:
 For a two part mold, it is easiest to inject at the parting line or
on the B-Side of the cavity if using a cashew or submarine gate.
Alternatively, the mold can be injected from the A-Side if the
cavity is injected directly from the sprue.
 For three part molds and for hot runner molds, it is easiest to
inject from the A-Side of the cavity.
 When possible, always inject into a thick section of the part
geometry. Using Thickness Analysis and Nominal Wall
Thickness advisor will help determine where thick sections of the
part geometry are located.
 Avoid injecting into thin areas of the part. The pressure drop
through a thin section will require higher injection pressures to fill
and pack out the part. The gate may also completely freeze before
the part is fully packed out, resulting in larger sink marks.
 If possible, place the injection location towards the middle of the
part geometry to minimize flow lengths within the mold cavity.
Single vs. Multiple In some cases, a model may require multiple injection locations. Here
Injection are some general rules to help determine if multiple injection locations
Locations will be beneficial.
 Use a single injection location whenever possible. The mold will be
less expensive to machine when using a single injection location.
There will also be fewer weld lines when using a single injection
location.
 For large or thin parts like a TV housing, use several injection
locations spaced so that each injection location fills equal volumes
with uniform pressure distributions.
 For revolved parts, place 3 or 5 injection
locations positioned radially outward from the
center. This allows for uniform packing and
minimizes the possibility of “oval”
deformation as the part cools.
Note For an example of using multiple injection locations on the same

cavity, see Multiple Injection Locations on page 157.
64
Modeling for Injection Locations can be placed at specific locations if those

Injection locations are defined by the geometry. Use the Split Line command
Locations to break a model face into multiple faces and create edges and vertices
in the process. The edges shape the elements and force nodes to the
vertices where injection locations can be placed.
Automatic Gates can be placed automatically using the Add Injection Locations
Injection Location Automatically command. This command is used to determine the gate
Selection location(s) resulting in the lowest pressure to fill. However, this
command will not consider manufacturability. Therefore, gates created
using this method often need to be replaced.
Where to Find It  PlasticsManager Tree: Boundary Conditions, Injection Location,
Add Injection Locations Automatically
Tip You can add up to 10 injection locations at once automatically.
Predict Flow The Predict Flow Pattern command displays an animation of the fill
Pattern pattern without running a complete simulation.
Where to Find It  PlasticsManager Tree: Boundary Conditions, Injection Location,
Predict Flow Pattern
65
4 Automatic injection location.

Click Add Injection Locations
Automatically and select 1 for the
number of gates.
Note The gate is added to a location which can not easily be manufactured.
We will move the gate to the parting line so that this part can easily be
manufactured with a two plate mold.
5 Delete injection location.
Select the injection location and click Delete Injection Location .
6 Reposition injection location.
Select the location near the midpoint of the circular edge as shown and
click Injection Location .
66
7 Filling pattern.
Click Predict Flow Pattern and review the predicted flow pattern.
Click OK .
8 Run.
Click Flow .
Note Sink marks are reduced in the packing stage of the injection molding
process. However, in this simulation, we are only solving for the flow
stage and are making assumptions with regards what will happen in the
packing and cooling stage. We should, therefore, acknowledge
variability in the results.
67
Sink Marks Sink Marks occur during the cooling process and appear as depressions
on the surface of the molded part. They can be predicted and displayed
by viewing the Sink Marks result in a flow analysis.
This result is one of many Flow Results on page 23.
9 Sink marks.
Under Flow Results , click Sink Marks.
Looking at the Top view, some of the internal ribs are visible as sink
marks.
68
Measure The Measure tool is used to measure the location and values of results
at selected nodes.
Where to Find It  CommandManager: SOLIDWORKS Plastics > Measure
10 Measure.
Click Measure and click the sink mark as shown below.
Click the upper right corner of the blue box (check mark appears) and
click on a location next to the sink mark.
The magenta box shows the difference in location and results between
the two selections. The difference in results (dR) is shown to be
0.022 mm. This means there will be a 0.022 mm indent at this location.
The value dR[%] displays the difference in the results over the distance
between the two selected points.
69
11 Measure a thicker rib.

Follow the same procedure to measure the sink marks from the large rib
on the handle.
This measurement shows an estimated 0.028 mm indent which is

significantly larger than the prior sink mark.
12 Measure the other ribs (optional).
Minimizing Sink Design rules for ribs and fillets can be used to minimize potential sink
Marks in Ribs marks in parts. Here are some rules for rib and fillet sizing.
 Rib Thickness - The base thickness of the rib should fall in the
range of 1/2 to 2/3 of the attached parent wall thickness.
 Rib Fillet - The rib fillet radius should fall in the range of 1/4 to 3/4
of the part thickness.
 Draft Angle - The draft angle of ribs should fall in the range of 1.5°
to 2.0° per inch of rib length, to facilitate part ejection.
70
13 Section.
Click Cavity Visibility and switch to the FeatureManager design
tree .
Create a Section View using the Right plane and an Offset
Distance of 47mm. Two ribs can be seen from the sectioned view.
Parent Wall
Thickness
Rib 1 Rib 2
Rib 1 has the proper ratios to minimize sink marks while Rib 2 does
not. The rib thicknesses at the base and fillets compare as follows:
 Parent Wall Thickness = 2.54mm
The thicknesses compare as follows:
 Rib 1 Thickness = 1.37mm = 54% of Parent Wall Thickness
 Rib 2 Thickness = 1.99mm = 78% of Parent Wall Thickness
The fillets compare as follows:
 Rib 1 Fillet = 0.69mm = 27% of Parent Wall Thickness
 Rib 2 Fillet = 2.0mm = 79% of Parent Wall Thickness
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Nominal Wall The primary design rule for an injection-molded plastic part is to
Thickness Advisor maintain a uniform wall thickness. A uniform wall thickness leads to
uniform filling patterns, pressure distributions, cooling times, shear
stress and volumetric shrinkage. Parts with uniform wall thicknesses
have optimized cycle times and are less likely to warp or deform out of
shape.
The Nominal Wall Thickness Advisor queries the geometry and
determines the overall nominal wall thickness in the model and the
percentage deviation from this nominal value.
Where to Find It  PlasticsManager: Expand ADVISOR, double-click
Nominal Wall Thickness
14 Nominal Wall Thickness.

Click Nominal Wall Thickness .
The plot shows percentage deviation from the nominal wall thickness.
The thicker portions of the model will likely have larger sink marks.
72
Minimizing Sink Marks (1)
Exercise 4: Add gate locations automatically and analyze

Minimizing Sink the part for sink marks at the ribs.
Marks (1) This lab uses the following skills:
 Injection Location Rules on page 64
 Positioning the Injection Location on
page 64
 Automatic Injection Location Selection on
page 65
 Sink Marks on page 68
 Minimizing Sink Marks in Ribs on page 70
Units: Metric - SI
Procedure Open the part and use the following steps to complete the analysis.
1 Open a part file.
Open Minimizing Sink Marks 1 from the Lesson04\Exercises
folder.
2 Steps.
Mesh Shell 2mm
ABS, Generic material / Generic material

Polymer
of ABS
3 Injection location.
Automatically add one injection location.
The suggested injection location will be changed to an edge because
this part will be made with a two plate mold.
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Delete the injection location, select the location shown, and add the
injection location. The injection location is on the outer edge and is
roughly (90, 37, 0).
4 Run analysis.
5 Fill time.
Click the result Fill Time.
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6 Sink marks.
Click the result Sink Marks. The bands of color mark each rib of the
part from the outside.
7 Design change.
Switch to the FeatureManager design tree and change the following
values:
 Rib1, Rib Thickness = 1mm
 Fillet2, Radius = 0.80mm
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8 Re-analyze.
polymer, and injection location.
The resulting Sink Marks are much smaller than in the previous
analysis.
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Exercise 5: Predict and reduce the effect of sink marks

Minimizing Sink using the part provided.
Marks (2) This lab uses the following skills:
 Sink Marks on page 68
 Minimizing Sink Marks in Ribs on page 70
Units: Metric
1 Open a part file.
Open Minimizing Sink Marks 2 from the Lesson04\Exercises
folder.
2 Basic settings.
Mesh Shell 1mm
Polymer (P) Asahi Chemical / STYLAC 120
Injection Location
Analysis Flow
3 Sink marks.
Show the Sink Marks result plot.
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4 Design changes.
Edit the part and make changes to the fillets and ribs as follows:
 Fillet9, Radius = 0.25mm
 Rib1, Draft Angle = 1°
 Rib2, Draft Angle = 1°
5 Re-analyze.
Re-analyze the part using the same settings and check for improvement
in the sink marks.
78
Lesson 5
Materials

 Understand the polymer properties required to run a flow
simulation.
 Create new plastic materials in the User Defined Database.
79
Materials
Material SOLIDWORKS Plastics contains a large library of predefined

Properties materials. However, there are many materials that are not yet in the
database. A material can be added to the database if the required
material properties are known. This lesson follows the process of
creating a custom resin.
Process
 Obtain material properties
Before creating a material, the material properties need to be obtained
through various testing procedures.
 Enter material properties
Material properties are entered into the User-defined Database.
Procedure Start an analysis. Define and enter the material properties into the
database. Run the study. View fill time.
1 Open a part file.

Open Cover from the Lesson05\Case Study folder.
2 Settings.
Use the following settings to start the simulation:
80
Materials
User-defined The User-defined Database is used to create and store custom

Database materials. Custom materials can be created in one of two ways. The
first, and easiest way, is to copy and paste an existing material from the
Default Database into the User-defined Database then modify the
properties from there. The second is to create a new material from
scratch. We will create a material from scratch in this lesson.
Material In SOLIDWORKS Plastics, the term Material is used to define a
grouping of resins, metals (for molds) or cooling fluids; while the term
Product is used to define a particular resin, metal or cooling fluid.
Products and Materials can be created and deleted in the User-
defined Database but not in the Default Database.
3 Create a Material.
Click Polymer .
Click User-defined Database .
Click Add Material .

4 Name Material.
Name the material Lesson 5.
Click OK.
Lesson 5 is now listed in the
database.
81
Materials
Resin A resin is considered “characterized” when its material properties are

Properties know. The process of fully characterizing a material requires several
tests and can be quite expensive (between $4,000 and $10,000). These
material properties will often be supplied by the resin distributer.
The properties required to run a simulation will be discussed
throughout this lesson and are listed below:
 Melt Temperature
 Mold Temperature
 Part Ejection Temperature
 Glass Transition Temperature
 Specific Heat
 Thermal Conductivity
 Viscosity
 PVT Data
 Thermal Expansion Coefficient
 Elastic Modulus
 Poisson's Ratio
5 Create a Product.
Click Lesson 5 to make it active.
Click Add Product .
82
Materials
Temperature Temperature plays a large role in the injection molding process. There
Properties are several critical temperatures which must be defined in order to
characterize a resin.
Melt Temperature The Melt Temperature is not the temperature at which the plastic
melts. Rather, it is the temperature the resin should be heated to while
inside the barrel and the screw. A suggested Melt Temperature must be
specified in addition to a Minimum and Maximum allowable range.
Mold Temperature The Mold Temperature is the temperature the mold maintains
throughout the injection molding process. This temperature is
controlled through cooling channels that run through the mold plates.
Because the mold is constantly being heated from the injected resin and
cooled through the cooling channels, a consistent temperature is never
fully achieved. A suggested Mold Temperature must be specified in
addition to a Minimum and Maximum allowable range.
Part Ejection The Part Ejection Temperature is the temperature the part must reach
Temperature before it is ejected. If the part is ejected before reaching this critical
value, the part could deform.
Important! The Ejection Temperature should be reached throughout the entire

part, not just the surface. This is especially true at the locations where
pins eject the part from the mold.
Glass Transition The Glass Transition Temperature is the temperature at which a resin
Temperature is considered solid. For semi-crystalline materials, this is a very precise
temperature. For amorphous materials, the glass transition is more
gradual despite being entered as a single, constant value.
6 Enter Temperature Properties.

Enter the values into the Polymer Product Manager as they are listed
in the table blow:
Parameter Value
Polymer Product SOLIDWORKS Plastic
Data Source SOLIDWORKS
Melt Temperature 294 °C
Max Melt Temperature 306 °C
Min Melt Temperature 281 °C
Mold Temperature 86 °C
Max Mold Temperature 96 °C
Min Mold Temperature 71 °C
Part Ejection Temperature 181 °C
Glass Transition Temperature 152°C
83
Materials
Note The resin properties used in this lesson are fictitious and are not
intended to reflect any existing materials.
Heat Transfer How heat transfers through a resin during the injection molding process
Properties is of critical importance. The Specific Heat and the Thermal
Conductivity are two parameters which directly affect heat transfer.
Specific Heat The Specific Heat is a measure of how much thermal energy it takes to
heat up one kilogram of material one degree Kelvin. Therefore, if a
material has a high specific heat, it takes more energy to raise its
temperature. The specific heat of a material can be measured on a
machine called a differential scanning calorimeter.
Thermal The thermal conductivity is used to characterize how easily thermal
Conductivity energy can transfer through a material. In other words, if a material has
a high thermal conductivity, it has a low thermal resistance. There are
several possible ways of measuring the thermal conductivity for a
material.
7 Define the Specific Heat.

Click the Specific Heat tab.
Enter 2,200 J/(kg-K).
8 Define the Thermal Conductivity.

Click the Thermal Conductivity tab.
Enter .25 W/(m-K).
84
Materials
Viscosity The Viscosity is a measure of how easily fluid can flow. A highly
viscous fluid, such as peanut butter, resists flow much more than a low
viscous fluid, such as air.
Most liquid resins are non-Newtonian which means their viscosity is
dependent on the shear rate experienced by the liquid at that moment.
In addition to this, resins solidify as they cool. Therefore, the viscosity
is also dependent on the temperature.
Viscosity is measured using a testing device called a capillary
rheometer. You can learn more about the testing procedure from
standard, ASTM D3835.
9 Enter Viscosity data.

Click the Viscosity tab.
Click Modify 7 parameters Cross model.
Enter the following values:
Parameter Value
D1 7.00e+015 Pa-s
D2 400 K
D3 0 K/Pa
A1 40
A2ba 52 K
tau 700000 Pa
n .15
Note There are several methods and models for specifying viscosity data. By
clicking Data Fit you can enter raw data for viscosity, temperature and
shear rate values.
85
Materials
PVT Data PVT stands for pressure, volume and temperature. In thermodynamics,
these parameters are often related to one another to determine the state
of the material. This information is important for liquid resins because
it is used to determine how much the plastic will shrink as it cools
during the injection molding process.
PVT data can be obtained through the piston apparatus method as
outlined in the ISO standard 17744:2004.
10 Enter PVT data.

Click the PVT tab.
Click 13: Modified Tait Equation.
Parameter Value
B1M 8.0e-004 m³/Kg
B2M 5.5e-007 m³/Kg-K
B3M 1.75e+008 Pa
B4M 0.004 1/K
B1S 8.00e-004 m³/Kg
B2S 1.85e-007 m³/Kg-K
B3S 3.40e+008 Pa
B4S .003 1/K
B5 420 K
B6 3.5e-007 K/Pa
B7 0 m³/Kg
B8 0 1/K
B9 0 1/Pa
86
Materials
Mechanical Mechanical properties describe how a material responds to stimuli

Properties from a structural perspective. There are several parameters that must be
considered.
Thermal The Thermal Expansion Coefficient is used to describe how a
Expansion material expands and contracts with regards to changes in the
Coefficient temperature.
Elastic Modulus The elastic modulus, also known as the Young’s Modulus, is a
property which describes the stiffness of a material. More specifically,
it describes the relationship between stress and strain. The elastic
modulus is obtained through a tensile test often performed on a
universal testing machine.
Poisson’s Ratio As a material deforms under structural load, its volume is not
necessarily conserved. The Poisson’s ratio describes how much a
material deforms parallel to a load relative to how much it deforms
normal to a load. A common way to calculate the Poisson’s ratio is with
strain gages on a tensile test.
Note As the plastic flows, the molecular chains will orient in a particular
direction which is dependent on the direction of shear. Because of this,
there are two models for each of the mechanical properties; a one
constant model and a two constant model. The one constant model
assumes that the material behaves uniformly in all directions. The two
constant model can be used if the material properties are dependent on
the orientation of the molecular chains in the plastic.
11 Define the Thermal Expansion Coefficient.

Click the Thermal Expansion Coefficient tab.
Click 1: Constant Coefficient.
Enter 0.00005 1/C° for the Thermal Expansion Coefficient.
12 Define the Young’s Modulus.
Click the Young Modulus tab.
Click 1: Constant modulus.
Enter 2,500 MPa for the Young’s Modulus.
13 Define the Poisson’s Ratio.
Click the Poisson’s Ratio tab.
Click 1: Constant modulus.
Enter .4 for the Poisson’s Ratio.
Click OK.
The material SOLIDWORKS Plastic is now created.
Click OK again to select it as the polymer.
87
Materials
14 Define gate.
Define the gate at the edge as indicated in the image below.
15 View the Fill Settings.

Note how the Melt Temperature and Mold
Temperature are brought in directly from
the definition of the material.
Click OK .
16 Run the analysis.
Click Flow .
17 Results.
View the fill time.
18 Close all files.
Save and close the file.
88
Lesson 6
Mesh Manipulation

 Apply local mesh refinement.
 Learn how a mesh can be repaired.
 Convert a shell mesh into a solid mesh.
89
Mesh Manipulation
Mesh The mesh, as stated in

Manipulation SOLIDWORKS Plastics on page 7,
is a mathematical representation of
the original geometry which is
used in the simulation process.
Creating a mesh which accurately
represents the geometry and
allows for the simulation to run in
a reasonable amount of time often
requires manual editing. This
lesson follows the process of
manipulating the mesh.
Process
 Mesh refinement
Manual mesh refinement allows for a finer mesh in critical areas and a
coarser mesh in less critical areas.
 Mesh repairs
Often times, a mesh will have issues when it is being created. There are
several tools which can be used to fix these issues. These tools will be
explored.
 Solid mesh
A solid mesh is always created from a shell mesh. There are several
solid mesh elements available. These elements will be explored.
Procedure Refine a mesh in critical areas where geometric detail is necessary.
Repair the mesh in areas that require it. Turn the shell mesh into a solid
mesh and discuss the various solid element types. Setup and run a
simulation.
1 Open a part file.

Open Mesh Manipulation from the Lesson06\Case Study folder.
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Mesh Manipulation
2 Units.
Set the units of the analysis to Unit - Metrics, SI.
Note In order to create a Solid Mesh (which we will do in this lesson) a
Shell Mesh must first be created. The initial Shell Mesh can either be
created through the Shell Mesh command or the Solid Mesh
command.
3 Shell Mesh.
Click Next on the first page of the Shell
Mesh PropertyManager to accept the
default parameters.
Enter .5 mm for the Triangle Size.
Note The Number of elements (predicted) shows that for a surface mesh,
the number of triangles (elements) will be about 219,000 and for a solid
mesh, the number of elements will be about 781,000. This is an
unreasonable number of elements to have for this particular model.
Therefore, we will reduce the overall number of elements by creating
larger elements and apply mesh controls to create a denser mesh in
critical areas.
4 Reduce mesh size.
Enter 1 mm for the Triangle Size.
The Number of elements (predicted) drops to about 55,000 for a
surface mesh and about 98,000 for a solid mesh. These values are much
more reasonable.
Click Mesh.
91
Mesh Manipulation
5 Observe the mesh.

At a distance, the mesh appears to be acceptable.
However, there are several locations where the mesh is not

representative of the geometry. This can be seen on the small features
shown in the image below.
Hole in boss (3X)
Holes
We will apply a local mesh control to refine the mesh at these locations.
92
Mesh Manipulation
Local The mesh is refined through Local Refinement. Local Refinement

Refinement of can be applied on faces, edges or points (vertices).
Mesh
Mesh Density The same Mesh Density is not required on all locations of the model:
set a fine mesh in more critical areas, a coarse mesh in others. Mesh
refinement should also be applied to detailed features.
Gradation Gradation is used to set the transition between areas of fine mesh and
coarse mesh using a slider that moves from Smooth to Sharp. This can
increase (smooth) or decrease (sharp) the total number of elements.
Global
mesh
Gradation
mesh
Refined
mesh
6 Set local mesh refinement.

Click Delete to remove the current mesh.
Under Local Refinement, click Assign Size.
The Assign Size PropertyManager appears.
93
Mesh Manipulation
7 Mesh control to the small holes.

Set the Triangle Size to .25 mm.
Orient the model to view of the inner faces of the
hole pattern.
Use a “window selection” to draw a window
around the holes.
8 Deselect extra faces.

If any additional faces are selected
during the selection process, they
can be deselected through Control +
click functionality. The remainder of
the faces will stay selected.
Rotate the part around to ensure you
have not selected the top surface on
the other side of the part, Control +
click to deselect that face if needed.
9 Assign local mesh value.
Click Assign to add all the selected faces to the
list.
94
Mesh Manipulation
10 Additional faces.
Now, set the Triangle Size to 0.40mm and apply mesh controls to the
faces shown in the picture below.
Interior faces
of hole
Faces of boss
Interior faces
of hole
Click OK .
95
Mesh Manipulation
11 Mesh model.
With the mesh controls applied, click Mesh.
12 Mesh Summary.
Click Next .
The Summary page opens and indicates that the
mesh is not Waterproof.
Click OK .
Element Issues The quality of the mesh plays a large role in the accuracy of a
simulation. Issues in areas like Waterproof, Number of Mesh Group
and Aspect Ratio can cause the analysis to fail or adversely affect the
results. If problems arise in these areas, they must be repaired.
Waterproof Elements that fail the Waterproof test have missing faces where ‘water
could get in’. This is the case with our current mesh.
Number of Mesh The Number of Mesh Group should correspond to the number of
Group bodies or cavities in the part.
Non-Manifold Non-Manifold refers to elements that share a boundary with more than
two elements.
Aspect Ratio The Aspect Ratio refers to the ratio of the longest edge to the shortest
edge within a single element.
Bad Elements The elements with an aspect ratio between 8 and 20 are characterized
as Bad Elements.
96
Mesh Manipulation
Very Bad Elements The elements with an aspect ratio above 20 are characterized as
Very Bad Elements.
Unmatched The Unmatched Elements are the elements at the touching or
Elements intersecting faces that do not match.
13 Mesh Editing.
The Mesh Editing dialog opens.
Mesh Editing The Mesh Editing dialog contains informational

and editing options that can be used to repair a
mesh.
There are four main groups of mesh editing tools. These groups, along
with their commands are summarized below:
Mesh This section is used to hide or show elements in the model.
Hide Element The Hide Element command is used to hide or show sections of the
mesh.
97
Mesh Manipulation
Mesh Analysis This section is used to identify and categorize groups of elements.
Summary The Summary command is used to identify element issues as
outlined in Element Issues on page 96.
Topology The Topology command is used to identify missing faces on the
model. Missing faces cause Waterproof errors.
Group The Group command is used to identify which elements are in each
domain.
Quality The Quality command is used to identify elements with large
aspect ratios.
Overlap Region The Overlap Region command is used to identify contacting faces
between two bodies where the mesh is incompatible.
Mesh Triangles This section is used to edit the surface elements (triangles) of the mesh.
Delete The Delete command is used to delete triangle elements.
Flip Normal Vector The Flip Normal Vector command is used to reverse the direction
of a group of triangles in a mesh.
Fill Hole The Fill Hole command is used to repair elements that are not
waterproof.
Auto Fill Hole The Auto Fill Holes command is used to fill all the holes that are
detected in the mesh automatically.
Subdivide The Subdivide command is used to divide selected elements into
smaller elements.
Mesh Nodes This section is used to edit the nodes at the corners of the surface
elements (triangles).
Merge The Merge command is used to merge two or more nodes together
which are separated by a distance.
Auto Merge The Auto Merge command is used to automatically find nodes
which are separated by a specified distance and merge them together.
Insert The Insert command is used to insert a new node at a selected
location. New elements are created accordingly.
Adjust The Adjust command is used to adjust the location of a specific
node.
Replace The Replace command is used to delete and merge selected nodes
precisely.
Important! When editing the mesh, there is no reference to the original geometry.
The part’s geometry is only referenced in the initial creation of the
mesh. Therefore, it is advisable to only make small changes when
editing the mesh triangles and mesh nodes.
98
Mesh Manipulation
14 Identify holes in the mesh.

Click Topology and click Edit.
The hole in the mesh which caused the Waterproof warning is outlined
in red. This hole will need to be filled.
Click OK .
15 Fill hole.
Click Fill Hole and click Edit.
There are several options for filling the hole. To start, we will fill the
hole one triangle at a time.
Click Fill One Triangle and zoom into the hole.
Select the nodes in the order shown. A triangle element is formed.
1 2 3
As you can see, this can be a rather time consuming way to fill a hole,
especially if the hole is large.
99
Mesh Manipulation
16 Fill hole all at once.

Click Fill Hole .
Select the edge of the rectangle.
The gap is filled with elements that are automatically created.
Click OK .
100
Mesh Manipulation
17 Identify Bad Elements.

Click Summary and click Edit.
The Summary shows the mesh is now
Waterproof. It also shows that there are
0.00% Bad Elements. As mentioned in
Element Issues on page 96, a Bad Element
is defined as having an aspect ratio between
8 and 20. However, the Maximum Aspect
Ratio within the mesh appears to be 15.39. Considering the total
number of elements, it appears that there are less than .005% Bad
Elements within the mesh. These elements will be fixed in later steps.
Click OK .
Leader Lines Leader lines can be used to identify specific types of elements once
they have been isolated.
Where to Find It  CommandManager: SOLIDWORKS Plastics > Leader Line
18 Identifying Bad Elements.

Click Quality and click Edit.
Click the Show elements based on and
select Range (Aspect Ratio).
Click Minimum and enter 8. Two elements
appear.
Click Leader Line .
The Leader Lines now point to the bad elements.

Click OK .
101
Mesh Manipulation
19 Fix bad aspect ratios.

Zoom into the Bad Elements on the side of the tab as indicated in the
image below.
Click Auto Merge and click Edit.

Select the Bad Element from the screen.
102
Mesh Manipulation
Click Apply.
The Bad Element is no longer present.
Fix the Bad Element on the other side of the tab as well.
Click OK .
20 Complete Shell Mesh.
Click OK on the Mesh Editing page.
The Shell Mesh is now complete.
Solid Mesh A Solid Mesh is made from 3D elements and explicitly represents the
inside geometry of a part. In SOLIDWORKS Plastics, a 3D Solid
Mesh is created by referencing a typical 2D Shell Mesh. There are
several available solid element types which we will explore.
Solid and Shell A shell mesh works by interpolating the flow profile between the shell
Mesh walls. This can be a fair assumption especially in the early stages of
analysis (when the accuracy of the results is not as important) and for
thin walled parts. A solid mesh, on the other hand, can calculate the
flow profile through the thickness of a cavity without interpolating the
results. This is why a solid mesh should almost always be used in the
later stages of the analysis process.
Solid Mesh There are two main solid element types, tetrahedral and hexahedral.
Types Both element types have several variations thereof.
103
Mesh Manipulation
Tetrahedral Tetrahedral elements are the most Tetrahedral Element

Elements commonly used element type
because they can represent
complicated shapes much more
reliably than hexahedral elements.
Despite this advantage, tetrahedral
elements are more prone to
numerical diffusion and are
generally slower to solve than
hexahedral elements if the number of
elements are the same.
Tetrahedral Mesh In a true Tetrahedral Mesh, only tetrahedral elements are used to
represent the geometry. For a solid mesh, it is advisable to have at least
5 elements across the thickness of a part. Therefore, a Tetrahedral
Mesh should only be used when the part geometry is thick enough.
Hybrid Mesh A Hybrid Mesh uses a combination of tetrahedral elements and

extruded triangular elements (extruded from the surface) to represent
the part geometry. This makes the hybrid approach great for thin parts
because more elements are forced across the thickness.
104
Mesh Manipulation
Hexahedral Hexahedral Elements are superior in many Hexahedral Element

Elements ways to Tetrahedral Elements. Hexahedrals
solve faster and are less prone to numerical
diffusion. However, when working with
complicated geometry, hexahedrals are much
more difficult to use and often require many
more elements than a typical tetrahedral
mesh.
Voxel Mesh In a Voxel Mesh, only hexahedral elements are used to represent the
geometry and all the elements are oriented in the same
direction (orthogonal). Voxel elements are not good at capturing the
curvature of complicated geometries but are great for geometrically
simple parts.
Marching Mesh In a Marching Mesh, triangle elements are used on the surface and
orthogonal hexahedral elements are used on the inside. A
Marching Mesh captures surface geometry and detail much better than
a Voxel Mesh.
105
Mesh Manipulation
Non-Orthogonal In a Non-Orthogonal Voxel Mesh, hexahedral elements are allowed to

Voxel curve with the part geometry. This leads to geometry which is much
more representative of the original geometry.
21 Create a Solid Mesh.

Click Solid and click Manual.
Under Select Model Type, click Use Shell
Mesh Data.
Click Next .
Note The option, Use Shell Mesh Data will make use of the Shell Mesh
created earlier in the lesson. The option, Solid Mesh Procedure would
take us through the process of creating a Shell Mesh again. A
Solid Mesh must always reference a Shell Mesh.
22 Specifying Tetrahedral Elements.
Under Solid Mesh Type, click Tetrahedral.
Click Next .
Note The geometry in this model is sufficiently complicated so that we will
specify a Tetrahedral Mesh.
106
Mesh Manipulation
23 Specify Hybrid Mesh.

Under Mesh Type click Hybrid.
Click Create Mesh.
Use the Section Clipping Settings sliders to get a 3D view inside the
mesh.
Note The Hybrid Mesh was used because the model has complicated
geometry and is thin. Remember, it is advisable to have at least
5 elements across the thickness of a part.
107
Mesh Manipulation
24 Complete Mesh.
Click Next .
Click Next again to accept the Section Clipping defaults.

Click OK to accept the Solid Mesh Quality and exit out of the
Solid Mesh wizard.
The mesh is now complete.
Note The Section Clipping page allows you to show and hide domains for a
section clipping of the mesh. The Solid Mesh Quality page allows you
to analyze the Aspect Ratio of the solid elements in the mesh.
25 Apply Material.
Click Polymer .
Browse to the ABS folder.
Click Asahi Chemical/STYLAC 120.
Click OK.
26 Add injection location.
Specify a Pointer Diameter of 2 mm.
Place the gate as indicated below.
Click OK .
Note The size of the Pointer Diameter indicates how large the gate will be
for a Solid Mesh.
27 Run the simulation (optional).
Click Flow .
The simulation takes 30 minutes to solve.
108
Mesh Manipulation
28 Results (optional).
View the Fill Time.
The part experiences a short shot.

Save and close the file.
109
Mesh Repairs
Exercise 6: Create a solid mesh and eliminate errors

Mesh Repairs that arise during mesh creation.
 Local Refinement of Mesh on page 93
 Mesh Editing on page 97
 Solid Mesh on page 103
Units: Metric, SI
1 Open a part file.
Open Repair Mesh from the Lesson06\Exercises folder.
2 Mesh.
Create a Shell Mesh.
Set the default Triangle Size to 2.5 mm.
Assign a mesh size of 0.25mm to the grouping of small holes.
Small Holes
110
Mesh Repairs
3 Summary.
Summarize the mesh. The mesh is not Waterproof.
4 Identify hole in mesh.

Use the Topology command to find the location of the hole.
5 Fill hole.
Use the Fill Hole command to make the mesh Waterproof.
Note The mesh appears to have some irregular elements. We will investigate
further.
111
Mesh Repairs
6 Perform a Quality check.

Use the Quality check to show Very Bad Element (Aspect ratio
larger than 20).
Use Leader Lines to help identify these elements.
7 Delete trouble elements.

Use the Delete command to remove all of the Very Bad Elements
in addition to the elements which were created from the Fill Hole
command.
112
Mesh Repairs
8 Fill Hole.
Use the Fill Hole command and specify the Fill One Triangle option to
close the hole.
9 Create a Solid Mesh.

Finish the Shell Mesh and create a Solid Mesh which references the
Shell Mesh using Tetrahedral, Hybrid elements.
113
Mesh Repairs
114
Lesson 7
Detecting Air Traps

 Detect air traps in the mold cavity.
 Perform a venting analysis.
115
Detecting Air Traps
Detecting Air This lesson follows the process of

Traps detecting air traps during the fill
stage of the injection molding
process.
As the cavity fills with melted
plastic, the air inside the cavity is
displaced. Ideally, this air is
vented through machined channels
at the parting line or through
ejector pins. However, when air is
pushed to an area of the cavity
where it cannot be easily vented, it
is referred to as an “air trap”. Air traps usually cause molded part
defects that range from bubbles in the plastic to burn marks caused by
the combustion of the trapped air (a phenomenon also known as the
“Dieseling Effect”).
In this example, a design change will be used to move an air trap to a
more manageable location. Venting locations will then be specified to
remove any gas which could build up.
Process
 Detecting air traps
The Air Traps are displayed with the Fill Time result. They appear
graphically as small spherical shapes.
 Specify venting locations
Specify where vents will be and see how they affect the air traps.
Procedure We will simulate a cavity being filled. We will then examine the results
and view air traps in the model. We will make a design change which
will move a problematic air trap to a different location where it can be
vented. We will then setup venting locations to remove an air trap.
116
Detecting Air Traps
1 Open a part file.

Open Air Traps from the Lesson07\Case Study folder.
2 Units.
Set the units of the analysis to Unit - Metrics, SI.
3 Mesh.
Specify a mesh with a Triangle
Size of 2 mm.
Click OK .
4 Material.
Click Polymer .
Click the Default Database.
Click the PP folder.
Select (P) BASF / NOVOLEN 1100 H.
Click OK.
Specify the Injection Location on
the outer edge near the midpoint
as shown.
Click OK .
6 Run.
Click Flow .
117
Detecting Air Traps
Race-tracking When melted plastic is injected into a mold, it will always follow the
path of least resistance; generally, the thickest areas of the cavity. When
a uniform plastic melt flow front encounters wall sections of various
thickness, it will flow into the thickest areas first and the thinnest areas
last. This can lead to a phenomenon known as the Race-tracking
effect.
The Race-tracking effect can be seen here as the flow follows the
curve of the thicker section and moves ahead of the center of the flow
front. This can cause air traps and weld lines where the flow fronts
meet.
Potential
air trap
and weld
lines
Air Traps The Air Trap option in the Flow Results will show locations of air
traps superimposed over the Fill Time plot or other results. They are
caused when converging plastic melt flow fronts create an air pocket.
Dieseling Effect An inadequately vented air trap can result in the Dieseling Effect
which occurs when trapped air combusts under compression. The
potential damage can result in burn marks on the surface of a part.
A potential air trap, like the one seen in this lesson, can often be
prevented by avoiding differences in thickness and providing adequate
venting.
Plot Ranges The range of a plot can be edited by manipulating the Min and Max
parameters when viewing a result. By default the entire range of the
plot is shown.
118
Detecting Air Traps
7 Air trap.
Click Fill Time.
Click Air Traps.
Click the Max control and drag the scroll
wheel so that the fill time is about
.36 seconds.
The above result clearly indicates an air trap in the center of the
ear piece.
Click OK .
Thickness Thickness Analysis is a SOLIDWORKS command that can be used

Analysis to find thick regions in a model.
Note In some cases, a visual inspection using Section View may provide
enough information.
Where to Find It  CommandManager: Evaluate > Thickness Analysis

 Menu: Tools, Thickness Analysis
119
Detecting Air Traps
8 Thickness analysis.
Click Thickness Analysis and set the
following options:
 Target thickness = 1.27mm
 Show thick regions = enabled
 Thick region limit = 2mm
 Treat corners as zero thickness =
enabled
 Full color range = cleared
Click Calculate.
The circular rib feature is identified as a

thicker region.
Click OK .
9 Roll to end.
Click Cavity Visibility .
Click the FeatureManager Design Tree
tab.
Drag the rollback bar to the end of the
FeatureManager design tree.
120
Detecting Air Traps
The Move Face1 feature decreases the thickness of the circular rib
feature as shown below.
10 Mesh, injection location and material.

Click the PlasticsManager tab and click Cavity Visibility on.
Click Shell and begin the meshing process.
The following message will appear:
Do you want to use the previous meshing parameters?
Click Yes. This will retain the prior settings.
Remesh the part with the same settings as before.
Click Injection Location and add an injection location to the same
spot as shown in step 5 on page 117.
Click Polymer and select (P) BASF / NOVOLEN 1100 H as shown
in step 4 on page 117.
11 Re-run the analysis.
Click Flow .
121
Detecting Air Traps
12 Re-evaluate air trap.

Click the Fill Time results.
Check the Air Traps.
Use the Max slider control to view the fill with time.
The air trap has moved to a location where it will be easier to vent the
cavity.
Click OK .
Venting It is not always possible to eliminate air traps but they can be moved to
places where the air can be vented away. Air traps can be vented by
machining small grooves in the mold. The easiest place to do this is on
a parting line. The next easiest way to vent the air is by grinding a slot
at a pin location. A third option is to vent through a porous section of
the mold using vent plugs. Successfully venting the trapped air to the
atmosphere will prevent part defects caused by the dieseling effect.
Venting Analysis In a standard analysis, the effects from the air pushing back on the
injected plastic are ignored. However, a Venting Analysis can be
performed to take these pressure effects into account.
Venting Locations must be specified when performing a
Venting Analysis in order to accurately model the effects of the air.
Where to Find It  PlasticsManager Tree: Process Parameters, Fill Settings ,
click the Venting Analysis check mark
Venting Locations When performing a Venting Analysis, Venting Locations must be
specified manually.
Where to Find It  PlasticsManager Tree: Boundary Conditions, Air Vent
Important! A Venting Analysis can only be performed using a Solid Mesh and
the SOLIDWORKS Plastics Professional package or higher.
SOLIDWORKS Plastics Professional functionality will be featured
throughout the remainder of this course.
122
Detecting Air Traps
13 Solid Mesh.
Click Solid and Manual.
Mesh the model using the Shell Mesh created earlier and Tetrahedral
Hybrid elements.
Click OK .
14 Venting Analysis.
Activate Venting Analysis.
Leave the Cavity Initial Air Pressure at
0.1 MPa.
Leave the Cavity Initial Air Temperature

at 25 °C.
Click OK .
Note The Cavity Initial Air Pressure is the initial pressure when the
cavity is empty. The Cavity Initial Air Temperature is the initial
temperature of the air at the start of the simulation.
123
Detecting Air Traps
15 Vent Locations.
Click Air Vent .
Select elements at the four locations shown.
Click Apply.
Click OK .
Note We will ignore the air trap at by the ear piece to see how much adding
venting locations affect the results.
16 Polymer and Gate settings.
Click Polymer and select (P) BASF / NOVOLEN 1100 H as shown
in step 4 on page 117.
Click Injection Location
and add an injection location to
the same spot as shown in step 5
on page 117.
Specify a Pointer Diameter of
5 mm.
17 Run Venting Analysis.

Click Flow .
The simulation takes approximately 12 minutes to solve.
124
Detecting Air Traps
18 Venting Pressure.
When Venting Analysis is selected under Fill Settings, the
Venting Pressure plot becomes available under Fill Results.
Click Venting Pressure.
Note the buildup of pressure at the ear piece. This combination of

pressure, air and plastic could cause dieseling to occur.
125
Air Traps
Exercise 7: Detect air traps and make repairs

Air Traps using the part provided.
 Air Traps on page 118
 Thickness Analysis on page 119
 Venting on page 122
 Design Changes on page 41
Units: Metric

1 Open a part file.
Open Air Traps from the Lesson07\Exercises folder.
2 Thickness analysis.
Use Thickness Analysis with 2 mm as the Target Thickness. Select
Show thick regions and enter 5.5 mm as the Thick region limit.
The thick area can also be clearly seen using Section View.
Click OK.
126
Air Traps
3 Mesh.
Create a Shell mesh using a Triangle Size of 1 mm.
4 Polymer.
Set the Polymer using Sort by Family. Select the family PP and the
type BASF / NOVOLEN 1100 H.
Add an Injection Location near the position shown below.
127
Air Traps
6 Run analysis.
Run a Flow analysis and view the Fill Time with Air Trap.
7 Edit the part.

On the SOLIDWORKS Plastics Command Manager, click Cavity
Visibility off.
Click the FeatureManager design tree and edit Sketch3. Change the
dimension of the sketch to 1.5 mm and rebuild the part.
8 Remesh and reanalyze.
Remesh the part using the same
settings.
Add an injection location in the
same place and run a Flow
analysis.
View the Fill Time with
Air Traps.
128
Air Traps
9 Perform a Venting analysis (optional).

Create a Solid Mesh using Tetrahedral Hybrid elements.
Setup the same Polymer and
Injection Location (specify a
Pointer Diameter of 2 mm).
Use the default Venting Analysis
options.
Add an Air Vent towards the back
of the part.
129
Air Traps
10 Run a Flow analysis and view the Venting Pressure.
The plot shows a buildup of pressure on the end of the part. This
buildup can be easily vented because it lies on the parting line.
130
Lesson 8
Gate Blush

 Specify Runner Elements.
 Understand gate blush and how to reduce it.
131
Gate Blush
Gate Blush This lesson follows the process of creating a

solid mesh with runner elements and
determining if gate blush is predicted to
occur. We will then make a design change to
the part which will reduce the shear rate of the
resin as it enters the cavity.
Process
 Runner Elements
In this analysis, we will simulate flow through the runner system and
the cavity which will be treated as separate entities.
 Gate Blush
We will simulate a phenomenon called gate blush which is caused by
excessive shear stress in the resin during fill. We will then make a
design change which will reduce gate blush.
Procedure Define a Runner Domain and a Cavity Domain when creating a
Solid Mesh. Setup a simulation. Observe the maximum shear rate of
the material. Run the analysis. Observe the shear rate experienced by
the resin during fill. Modify the gate to reduce shear stress during fill.
Rerun the analysis and observe the results.
1 Open a part file.

Open Panel Cover from the Lesson08\Case Study folder. The
model contains two bodies. The first body is composed of the cavity
and the second body is composed of the sprue, the runner and the gate.
Runner
Cavity
Gate
Body 1
Sprue
Body 2
132
Gate Blush
Runner In the injection molding process of a standard two plate mold, resin is
Elements injected into a runner system before it is injected into the cavity. The
runner system and cavity are ejected from the mold at the same time
and the runner system is cut off later.
Domains In SOLIDWORKS Plastics, the term “domain” is used to designate
different components in the injection molding process. So far, we have
only worked with a single Cavity Domain. However, domains can
exist for Runner Systems, Inserts (bodies made of metal or plastic
that are over molded by the liquid resin), Cooling Channels and the
Mold itself.
The purpose of identifying and simulating multiple domains is to create
a more realistic simulation by specifying the unique properties of each
domain. In our case, understanding the flow of resin into the cavity
from the runner system is of critical importance. Therefore, we will
model a runner system using a Runner Domain.
Where to Find It  CommandManager: Assign Domain
 Domains can be assigned on the second page of the Manual Mesh
procedure window.
2 Runner Domain.
Click Solid Mesh Procedure.
Click Next .
From the Set Domain Type list, select the body
corresponding to the runner system.
Click Runner. Runner System
Click Apply.
The runner system changes color.
.
Click Next .
133
Gate Blush
3 Complete the Solid Mesh.

Set the Triangle Size to 1.6 mm and assign a
.4 mm local mesh refinement to the two faces
of the gate.
Use Tetrahedral Hybrid elements and
default parameters for the remainder of the
mesh.
4 Polymer properties.
Click Polymer .
Click Sort by Family, browse to PA66 and click BASF /
ULTRAMID A3EG6.
Gate Blush After ejection, the runner system is cut from the cavity at the gate. So it
makes sense that a small gate produces a small visible mark on the part.
However, this is not always the case. Resin is composed of long carbon
molecules that can be damaged if the shear rate between the molecules
reaches a critical value. These high shear rates are commonly
experienced at gate locations due to the amount of plastic flowing
through the small opening of the gate. This is known as “gate blush”
and it is characterized by a visible mark at the gate location.
Shear Stress For every resin, there is a maximum recommended shear stress and
shear rate. If the polymer exceeds the Max Shear Stress or the
Max Shear Rate, it will be damaged. This shear stress is often listed in
the definition of the polymer.
134
Gate Blush
Reducing There are several methods for reducing gate blush. Changing the fill
Gate Blush time, the melt temperature, the mold temperature, the fill rate profile
and the material are all possible solutions. However, the easiest
solution is to increase the size of the gate.
5 Max Shear.
Click the Polymer-Material Properties tab.
The Max Shear Rate and Max Shear Stress are listed as 60,600 1/s
and 500,000 Pa respectively.
Click OK.
6 Fill Settings.
Click Fill Time and enter 1 sec.
Click OK .
135
Gate Blush
Set the Pointer Diameter to 7 mm.
Place the injection location at the top of the sprue. The machine will
inject resin into the mold directly from here.
8 Run the simulation.

Click Flow .
The simulation takes approximately 15 minutes to solve.
9 Results.
Click Shear Stress at End of Fill.
This plot shows that the stress at the gate reached a value of .67 MPa.
This value is considerably larger than the Maximum Shear Stress of
.5 MPa. Therefore, this part could experience gate blush.
136
Gate Blush
10 Activate larger gate configuration.

This configuration has a much larger gate.
11 Setup model.
Follow step 2 on page 133 through step 7 on page 136 to setup the
model.
Alternatively, you can use the Copy Settings command after
meshing.
12 Run the simulation.
Click Flow .
137
Gate Blush
13 Results.
The Shear Stress is now .35 MPa, well below the
Maximum Shear Stress of .5 MPa.
138
Lesson 9

 Determine Packing times.
 Determine Pure Cooling times.
139
Packing and As mentioned in Injection Molding on page 5,

Cooling there are several stages of the injection
molding process. So far, we have explored the
fill stage. Now we will focus on the packing
and cooling stages. In the injection molding
process, the transition from the fill stage to
the pack stage is characterized by a velocity controlled fill to a pressure
controlled pack. Once the part has finished packing, the pressure is
reduced and the mold is allowed to cool in the mold before ejection.
This lesson follows the process of determining packing and cooling
times.
Process
 Fill to Pack Transition
Generally, the cavity is filled 99% full before the pack stage begins.
The reason why the cavity is not filled to 100% of its full capacity is to
reduce flash at the weld lines.
 Pack to Cool Transition
During the pack stage, the plastic in the mold cools and shrinks. To
reduce these effects, additional plastic is forced through the mold under
a controlled pressure. This causes the cooling, shrinking plastic to be
forced against the mold walls. The pack stage occurs as long as
additional plastic can flow through the gate. Once additional plastic
ceases to flow, the pack stage ends and the pure cooling stage begins.
 Cool to Ejection Transition
During the pure cool stage, the pressure is reduced and the part is
allowed to cool until it reaches ejection temperature. Ejection
temperature should be reached throughout the part, not just at the
surface. This is because as the part is ejected, pins push the part out. If
the part is still soft in the center during ejection, the pins can perforate
or deform the surface of the part.
Procedure Perform a pack analysis and analyze part shrinkage. Reduce the pack
times and rerun the analysis. Observe the temperature of the part at the
hottest location in the mold and determine the optimum cooling time.
1 Open a part file.

Open Panel Cover from the Lesson09\Case Study folder.
This lesson picks up from Lesson 8. The Flow analysis has
already been performed.
140
Flow/Pack The fill stage is characterized by filling the cavity at a controlled flow
Switch rate. The pressure during fill is not constant. It will go up or down in
order to for the fill to achieve a controlled flow rate. When the switch
from the fill stage to the pack stage occurs, the machine goes from
controlling the fill rate to controlling the pressure.
2 View Flow/Pack Switch Point.

Expand Advanced.
The Flow/Pack Switch Point shows the
percentage volume the cavity will be filled
to before the pack stage begins. In practice,
this switch point is ideally set to 99% in
order to reduce flash. However, determining
the exact switch point is often performed on
the shop floor. We will therefore keep the
default, 100%.
Click OK .
Pack Stage Resin begins to cool and shrink as soon as it touches the mold walls. To
counteract these effects, additional plastic is forced into the mold under
a controlled pressure. The amount of pressure applied during the pack
stage is often a fraction of the pressure applied by the machine during
the fill stage and is staggered down, often gradually until the pack stage
ends.
The end of the pack stage occurs when no more additional plastic can
be pushed into the mold.
Velocity vs Time Pressure vs Time
V P
e r
l Switch Point e
o s
c s
t u Switch Point
y r
e Time
Time
141
Pack Settings The Pack Settings control the Pack Time and
Pure Cooling Time as well as the
Pressure Profile Settings.
The Pressure Profile Settings determine the
packing pressure throughout the pack stage. By
default the pressure profile is set to 80% of the
maximum pressure achieved during the fill stage
and is reduced to 40% half way through the pack
stage. However, these values can be changed.

click Pack Settings
3 Pack Time.
Click Pack Settings .
Under Pressure Holding Time clear Auto .

Enter 40 sec.
Click OK .
Note We will determine the Pure Cooling time after calculating

Pressure Holding Time.
Pack Analysis A Flow analysis must be run before a Pack analysis. A Pack analysis
will calculate the pack stage as well as the cooling stage. In order to
perform a Flow and a Pack analysis, the Flow + Pack command can be
used.
Where to Find It  PlasticsManager: Expand RUN and double-click Pack or
Flow + Pack
4 Run Pack simulation.

The Flow simulation has already been performed. There is no need
to run it again.
Click Pack .
142
Pack Results The Pack Results include results for understanding the packing
process (End of Packing) as well as results for understanding the
cooling process (Post-Filling End). The results include the following:
 Pressure at End of Packing
 Temperature at End of Packing
 Bulk Temperature at End of Packing
 Shear Stress at End of Packing
 Shear Rate at End of Packing
 Volumetric Shrinkage at End of Packing
 Temperature at Post-Filling End
 Freezing Time at Post-Filling End
 Residual Stress at Post-Filling End
 X-Y Plane Birefringence at End of Packing
 X-Z Plane Birefringence at End of Packing
 Y-Z Plane Birefringence at End of Packing
 Frozen Area at Post-Filling End
Pack Results
Note The option to add the Birefringence results must be selected before
running the simulation. This option is located in Fill Settings,
Advanced, Viscoelastic Birefringence Calculation. Birefringence is
an optical property that is applicable to transparent materials and will
not generate values for opaque materials.
X-Y Plot With X-Y Plots, parameters can be plotted against time. Viewing the
results from this perspective can provide insight into how the system
changes throughout the molding process. The following parameters can
be plotted.
 Max Inlet Pressure
 Inlet Flow Rate
 X-direction
 Y-direction
 Z-direction
 Part Mass
 Nodal Pressure
 Nodal Temperature
Where to Find It  PlasticsManager: Expand RESULTS and double-click X-Y Plot
5 Mass of Cavity.
Click X-Y Plot .
Click Part Mass.
143
The plot shows that the mass of the part eventually converges to a
constant value and appears to completely level off at about 45 seconds.
However, from 15 seconds to 45 seconds, the mass of the part only
increases by a little more than a gram. Adding 30 seconds to the cycle
time may not be worth the increase in part quality. We will experiment
by changing the pack time to15 seconds in step 7 on page 145.
Click OK .
Note The plot shows the mass increasing at a constant rate for the first
second (fill stage).
144
Volumetric The Volumetric Shrinkage at End of Packing plot displays the

Shrinkage at End reduction of volume during the pack stage. This plot can be used to
of Packing show how the part will deform and where sink marks will appear. This
result is one of many included in Pack Results on page 143.
6 View Volumetric Shrinkage.

Click Pack Results .
Click Volumetric Shrinkage at End of Packing.
Click Runner Visibility from the CommandManager. This will
hide the runner system from view.
The plot shows minor shrinkage (around 2.5%) close to the injection
location.
Click OK .
7 Change Pressure Holding Time.
Change the Pressure Holding Time to 15 seconds.
Click OK .
145
8 Rerun the pack.

Click Pack .
9 Volumetric Shrinkage with shorter pack time.
Click Pack Results .
Click Volumetric Shrinkage at End of Packing.
Click Runner Visibility .
.
The plot shows an increase in Volume Shrinkage which is what we

might expect.
Note Whether or not this is an acceptable amount of shrinkage is dependent
on how this part will be used. An engineering decision must be made to
determine a proper balance between cycle time and part quality.
146
Clipping Plane The Clip Plane Mode command can be used to view the inside of a
Mode result plot across a plane.
Where to Find It  When viewing a Result plot > Clipping Plane >
Clip Plane Mode
Setting the The Clipping Plane section of the dialog is
Clipping Planes used to set the positions of the clipping planes.
Dragging the dial moves the plane in the
positive or negative directions from the default “zero” position.
Isosurface The Isosurface Mode command is used to create a surface within a
Mode model were a result maintains a constant value.
Where to Find It  When viewing a Result plot > Clipping Plane >
Isosurface Mode
Note Both the Isosurface Mode option can only be used with solid elements.
Cooling Times Once the packing times have been determined, the cooling times can be
found. Ultimately, the cavity must reach the ejection temperature
before the part is ejected so that the part does not warp or deform after
it comes out of the mold. This will also prevent the ejector pins from
damaging the cavity. (The runner system does not need to reach
ejection temperature.)
Temperature at The Temperature at Post-Filling End result shows the temperature of
Post-Filling End the part at the end of the cooling stage. This result is one of many
included in Pack Results on page 143.
147
10 Clipping Plane of the Temperature at Post-Filling End.

Click Temperature at Post-Filling End.
Click Min and enter 225 for the minimum temperature.
Note The Ejection Temperature for BASF / ULTRAMID A3EG6 is 225 °C.
Click Clip Plane Mode .
Select the Right Plane from the tree.
Click Add.
The regions in blue indicate temperatures at or below the ejection

temperature. From this plot it appears that the cavity can be ejected
safely. An Isosurface mode plot will verify this in the next step.
Click Clip Plane Mode to toggle off the section plot.
148
11 Isosurface of the Temperature at Post-Filling End.

Click Isosurface . This will show only the regions of the model that
are 225 °C and above.
The cavity is below the ejection temperature. This means that the part
can be safely ejected.
12 Determine hottest point on the cavity.
Click Min and enter 165 °C.
The plot shows that the hottest point on the
cavity is right at the injection location.
Click OK .
149
Nodal The Nodal Temperature is an XY Plot . It allows you to plot the

Temperature temperature of any node against time.
13 Temperature trend.
Click X-Y Plot .
Click Set Reference Plane.
Under Plane orientation click XY Plane.
Drag the slider bar so that the plane is over the hottest point of the
cavity and click a node which is close to it.
Click Add Grid .
Click Node Temperature.
The plot shows that the hottest point on the cavity reaches the ejection
temperature at about 25 seconds of cycle time. Remember, the fill time
was 1 second and the pack time was 15 seconds. This means that an
appropriate cool time is around 9 seconds.
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Jetting Jetting conditions can occur when the gate diameter is too small, the
injection speed is too high or when there is no wall directly opposite the
gate. Jetting can result in a worm- or snake-like pattern on the surface
of the part.
SOLIDWORKS Plastics can help detect and prevent jetting.
.
Follow these steps to check a cavity for jetting:

1. Create Solid mesh refined at the gate. Solid elements must be used.
2. Click Fill Settings and browse to
the Solver Settings section. Click
Options.
3. For the option (#) Volume of Fluid
(VoF) Algorithm (1: Direct, 2: Indirect,
3: CICSAM), select Direct and click OK.
This switches to a different solver.
4. Add all other required settings and run a
Flow analysis.
5. View the Fill Time results with
Isosurface enabled to check for
jetting.
151
Exercise 8: Create a solid mesh and eliminate gate freeze

Packing and using the part provided.
Cooling Times This lab uses the following skills:
 Local Refinement of Mesh on page 93
 Solid Mesh on page 103
 Runner Elements on page 133
 Packing and Cooling on page 140
Units: Metric, SI
This is intended to be an open ended problem.
1 Open a part file.
Open Gate Freeze from the Lesson09\Exercises folder.
2 Mesh.
Create a solid mesh and specify
Runner elements for the runner body.
Use an overall triangle size of 3mm, a
refined mesh of 1.5mm on the runner
and sprue faces and a refined mesh of
0.5mm on the gate as shown.Use
Tetrahedral, Hybrid elements.
1.5 mm
.5 mm
1.5 mm
3 Material.
Add the polymer ABS, (P) Generic material of ABS.
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Add an injection location as shown. Make it large enough to cover the
elements at the top of the sprue.
5 Fill and Pack Settings.

Note the Fill Time, Pressure Holding Time and Pure Cooling Time.
Keep all the defaults.
6 Flow and Pack.
Run a Flow + Pack analysis using the default settings.
7 Mass Vs Time.
View the XY Plot for Part Mass.
Note when the when the pack time ends. Is the part fully packed when
the cooling stage begins?
153
8 Part Shrinkage.
View the Volume Shrinkage at End of Packing.
9 Find Pack Times.

Extend the Pressure Holding Time to find a pack time that will be
suitable for this part. (This is an open ended task.)
10 Find Cooling Times.
Once you have found a suitable Pressure Holding Time, find a
suitable Pure Cooling Time. (This is also an open ended task.)
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Optimizing Cooling Time
Exercise 9: Create a solid mesh and optimize the

Optimizing cooling time using the part provided.
Cooling Time This lab uses the following skills:
 Clipping Plane Mode on page 147
Units: Metric, SI
1 Open a part file.
Open Optimizing Cooling Time from the Lesson09\Exercises
folder.
2 Solid Mesh.
Create a Solid mesh using, tetrahedral, hybrid elements. Use an
overall triangle size of 2 mm.
3 Material.
Add the polymer PS, (P) Asahi Chemical, Asahi-PS 404.
Add a 3 mm injection location on the edge as shown.
5 Run analysis.
Run a Flow + Pack analysis.
155
6 Fill time.
Play the animation for Fill Time using Isosurface Mode. Also check
the Weld Lines.
7 Sink marks.
Check the result Sink Marks.
156
Multiple Multiple injection locations provide the ability to fill the cavity
Injection simultaneously from multiple locations on the geometry. This helps to
Locations ensure that the cavity will fill.
Unfortunately, multiple injection locations can introduce additional
weld lines.
8 Add multiple Injection Locations.

Add two more injection locations on the same edge. Make them
roughly equally spaced as shown.
9 Rerun analysis.
Run a Flow + Pack analysis, replacing the current analysis.
10 Clipping plane mode.
Check the result Fill Time using Clipping Plane Mode.
157
11 Design changes.
Change the rib thickness in the part from 10mm to 3mm.
Remesh and reanalyze the part.
158
Lesson 10

 Create runner elements using Runner Channel Design.
 Create runner elements using the Runner Wizard.
 Balance runners using the Runner Balancing command.
159
Multiple Cavity This lesson follows the process of

Molds creating runner elements using the
Runner Channel Design and the
Runner Wizard commands. We will
also balance a runner system using the
Runner Balancing command.
Process
 Multiple cavities
We will open a model with multiple cavities which is connected by a
sketch of the runner system.
 Runner Channel Design
Using the sketch connecting the two cavities, we will create a runner
system using the Runner Channel Design feature.
 Clamp Force
In order to keep a mold closed during the injection molding process, an
enormous amount of force must be exerted to keep the cavities
together. The clamping force is often considered a key parameter for
part manufacturability. Methods for analyzing this clamping force will
be discussed. We will then complete the simulation and analyze the
results.
 Runner Wizard
We will start with a model which is mostly complete and create runner
elements using the Runner Wizard. The Runner Wizard does not
require a sketch or preexisting geometry for creating runner elements.
 Runner Balancing
We will use the Runner Balancing command to automatically size the
runner diameters for equal flow in dissimilar cavities.
Procedure We will start with a two cavity model connected by a sketch. We will
use the Runner Channel Design command to create runner elements
and analyze the mold. We will then open a partially completed study of
a different two cavity mold. We will setup a runner system on that
model using the Runner Wizard. Finally, we will balance a runner
system of a third two cavity mold.
1 Open part file.

Open Multiple Cavity Molds from
the Lesson10\Case Study folder.
This part consists of two bodies
connected by a sketch.
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Mold Layouts Mold layouts can have different types of arrangements. Some mold
layouts are better than others with regards to end product results. A
good mold layout achieves equal flow lengths to each part cavity.
In the arrangement seen below, the part cavities do not have the same
flow length from the sprue. The red arrows show a much longer path
from the sprue to the outer cavity than the black arrows.
In the arrangement seen below, all of the part cavities have the same
flow length from the sprue and, theoretically, should fill more evenly.
Note Adding part cavities using powers of two (2, 4, 8...16) into the mold
allows you to maximize the parts per cycle while maintaining equal
flow lengths to each part cavity.
161
2 Review the sketch.

A sketch has been created ahead of time. This sketch will be used as the
basis for the runner system. Review the sketch.
Note The sketch has been split to form two horizontal entities. This is a
necessary step when using the Runner Channel Design feature.
3 Mesh the model.
Specify the following settings:
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Channel Design Runner Elements, as discussed in Runner Elements on page 133, are
used to distinguish between cavity systems and runner systems. In
Lesson 8: Gate Blush, we modeled a runner system using
SOLIDWORKS features which were then specified as Runner
Elements. However, this is only one of three ways to specify a runner
system. In this lesson we will explore two methods for setting up the
runner system using the Channel Design command; through
Runner Channel Design and the Runner Wizard Channel Design.
Where to Find It  PlasticsManager Tree: Expand Mesh and double click
Channel Design
 CommandManager: Mesh Drop-down > Channel Design
 Menu: Tools, SOLIDWORKS Plastics, Mesh, Channel Design
Runner Channel When using the Runner Channel Design option,
Design runner geometry must be designed using 2D or 3D
sketches made from lines and arcs. Sketch entities
must be connected to the cavity geometry using
relations such as Coincident or Pierce.
These sketch entities are then used in order to
create the components of the runner system; the
sprue, runner and the gate.
In our model, the sketch entities have been created beforehand.
Sprue
Runner
Gate
Note The runner sketch geometry can be designed before or after meshing. If
you are using a Shell mesh, you will not have to remesh the cavity but
you will have to mesh the runner system and will be prompted to rerun
the analysis. If you are using a Solid mesh, you will have to remesh the
cavity when creating the mesh for the runner system. Adding a new
Injection Location will also be required for both mesh types.
163
Runner Types Within the Runner Channel Design command, the runner cross
section can be specified to have the following profiles.
Circle Square Half Circle
Rectangular Trapezoid Ellipse
Element Count The runner Element Count can be increased (Fine) to improve the
results, or decreased (Coarse) to reduce the CPU time of the Plastics
solver.
Line Mesh Fine Line Mesh Coarse
164
4 Runner.
Click Channel Design .
Click Runner.
Click Circle (this option specifies the profile).
Enter the value 6 mm for 1st Point > D1 and enter
the value 8 mm for 2nd Point > D2.
Enter 9 for the Element Count.
Select the vertical line (the sprue) and click
Assign.
5 Reverse taper.
In the Channel Design PropertyManager click
1,Circle,D1=6.00,D2=8.00 and click Flip
Dimension. The taper direction is reversed, the
resulting draft allows for the sprue to be ejected from the mold.
165
6 Remaining runners.
Add runners to the remaining four lines using the sizing shown and set
the Element Count to 4.
When all the runners are completed, click OK .
4 4
4
1.0 1.0
Note The horizontal runner is not tapered. It is 4mm at all sections.
Searching for Polymers can be selected by family, company or by searching for the
Polymers name of the polymer. You can also search using custom options such as
material groups or limits on material property values.
166
7 Searching for a material.

Click Polymer .
Click Find .
Enter the text stylac 120 and click Find.
Click (P) Asahi Chemical / STYLAC 120 and close the dialog.
Click OK.
If the runner is hidden, click
Runner Visibility .
Add an injection location to the top of the sprue
as shown.
Click OK .
167
Clamping Force The clamp force is the amount of force required to keep the mold
closed during the injection molding process. This force doubles with
two cavities. (Likewise, the force increases by a factor of four with four
cavities.)
Clamp Force Limit Each injection molding machine has a maximum clamping force it can
exert. As mentioned in Definition Fill Setting Parameters on page 36,
the Clamp Force Limit defines the machine’s maximum clamping
force.
Clamp Force The Clamp Force command is used to define two parameters, the
Clamp Force Direction and Excluded Elements.
The Excluded Elements section
is used to define the locations of
the model that do not contribute to
the clamping force such as
locations on the model that are
molded by slides.
Where to Find It  PlasticsManager Tree: Boundary Conditions, Clamp Force

 Command Manager: SOLIDWORKS Plastics > Clamp Force
9 Define Clamp Force Direction.

Click Clamp Force .
Click Clamp Force Direction.
Specify Y as the Clamp Force Direction.
Click OK .
Note We did not specify any Excluded Elements because every location on
the model contributes to the clamping load.
168
10 Fill settings.
Click Fill Time and enter 0.6 sec.
Click Injection Pressure Limit and enter 150 MPa.
Observe the Clamp Force Limit which is set to 100 Tonne by
default but do not make any changes.
Click OK .
11 Run analysis.
Click Flow .
12 Fill Time.
View the Fill Time result and notice both cavities fill equally.
169

View the Pressure at End of Fill plot.
14 Clamping Force.
Click XY Plot .
Click Clamp Force. This parameter appears once the Clamp Force
Direction has been defined.
Click OK .
170
Runner Wizard The Runner Wizard is another way to create a runner system for
Channel Design common runner layouts. These layouts are listed below:
Edge Gate Submarine Gate Banana Gate
1-Side Layout Star Layout 2-Side Layout
Using the Runner Wizard is the fastest way to create a runner system.
However, it is limited in the sense that there are only six gate and
layout types available.
Note A sketch is not required when using the Runner Wizard.
1 Open part file.

Open Runner Wizard from the Lesson10\ Case Study folder.
This part consists of two bodies.
171
2 Review Simulation.
A simulation has been partially setup with the following settings:
 Mesh, Shell - 1.5 mm
 Polymer - PA6, BASF / CAPRON 8200
 Fill Settings - Filling Time 1.0 seconds
3 Runner Wizard.
Click Channel Design .
Click Runner Wizard.
Specify a 1-Side Layout.
Select the two locations on the model
indicated by the sketch points.
Specify the parameters below.
Sprue (S)
 Direction: Auto
 Diameter (SD1): 4
 Length (SL): 80
 Element Count: 4
Runner (R)
 Diameter (RD): 6
Gate (G)
 Diameter (GD1): 6
 Length (GL): 8
Click OK twice.
172
4 Setup gate location.

Add a gate to the top of the sprue.
Click OK .
5 Run analysis.
Click Flow .
6 Fill time.
Plot the Fill Time.
Family Mold A family mold is a special type of

Layout multi-cavity mold containing two or
more different parts which may
eventually form an assembly. In a
family mold, paired parts have the
same color and characteristics
because they are created from a
single shot.
Paired parts rarely have the same volume and fill characteristics, so the
runner system of a family mold must be artificially balanced to ensure
uniform pressure distribution in each cavity. Once this is achieved, the
parts will shrink uniformly and fit together.
173
1 Open the mold layout file.

Open Runner Balancing from the Lesson10\Case Study folder.
A simulation has already been setup on the part, consisting of two
bodies connected by a runner system.
2 Review the simulation.

A simulation has been partially setup with the following settings:
 Mesh, Shell - 2.5 mm with .25 mm mesh control on the small
holes of the speaker.
 Polymer - Asahi Chemical - STYLAC 120
 Fill Settings - Filling Time of 2.5 seconds and Injection
Pressure Limit of 150 MPa
 Injection Location - top of sprue
3 Run analysis.
Click Flow .
4 Fill Time.
Click Fill Time. The lower body fills before the upper body.
174
Click the Max slider and move to the instant where the lower body
completely fills.

Plot Pressure at End of Fill. Notice that the pressure required to fill is
quite high and the pressure distribution in the two cavities is unequal.
Click OK .
175
Using Runner- The Runner-Balancing command is used to automatically adjust the

Balancing runner diameters to balance the flow between cavities.
Where to Find It  PlasticsManager: Expand Boundary Conditions and click
Runner Balancing
6 Original thickness distribution.

Click Runner Balancing and click Show Thickness
Distribution. This shows the current diameters graphically.
176
7 Runner-Balancing settings.
Clear Show Thickness Distribution.
Specify the following settings:
 Max Iteration = 10
 Max Diameter = 10
 Min Diameter = 2
 Max Diameter (Inlet) = 2
 Min diameter (Inlet) = 0.8
Click Calculate. The following message
shows:
Do you want to start the runner
balancing analysis?
Click Yes.
Note The study takes over two hours to complete on a 64-bit computer.
8 Completion message.
When the analysis is complete, a message appears noting the time
difference for fill time and the pressure difference before and after
runner-balancing. Review the message and click OK.
177
9 Balanced thickness distribution.

Click Thickness Distribution. The diameters of the runners and gates
have changed to balance the flow.
Click OK .
Note The sprue diameter is not changed, only the runners and gates.
10 Results.
View Fill Time to see the results of runner balancing.
178

Plot Pressure at End of Fill.
Click OK .
179
Exercise 10: Create a multiple cavity mold with

Multiple Cavity runners using the part provided.
Molds This lab uses the following skills:
 Multiple Cavity Molds on
page 160
 Runner Wizard Channel Design
on page 171
Units: Metric, SI
1 Open a part file.
Open Runner Wizard Four Cavity from the Lesson10\Exercises
folder. The part contains 4 bodies/cavities.
2 Setup Simulation.
Start the simulation with the parameters shown below.
Mesh Shell 1.5mm
Polymer PA6, BASF / CAPRON 8200
Fill Settings Filling Time 1.0 seconds
3 Runner design.
Use the Runner Wizard with a Star layout and specify the following
parameters:
Sprue (S) Units:
 Direction: Auto
 Length (SL): 80
180
Gate (G)
4 Add injection location.

Add an injection location at the top of the sprue.
5 Run analysis.
6 Fill time.
Show the result plot for Fill Time and animate it.
181
Runner-Balancing
Exercise 11: Create a multiple cavity mold

Runner- with runners and balance the
Balancing runners using the part provided.
This lab uses the following skill:
 Family Mold Layout on
page 173
 Using Runner-Balancing on
page 176
Units: Metric, SI
1 Open a part file.
Open Runner Balancing from the Lesson10\Exercises folder.
2 Mesh limit.
Mesh the cavities using a Shell Mesh making sure that the meshing
process creates less than 10, 000 triangles.
3 Polymer.
Add the polymer PC, Bayer / MAKROLON 1143.
4 Runner design.
Use Runner Design to add Runners with diameters as shown below.
Use an appropriate Element Count for all the segments. Add an
Injection Location at the top of the sprue and run a Flow analysis.
6
6 6
1 8 1
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Runner-Balancing
5 Fill time.
Review the Fill Time results. It is clear that the cavities are unbalanced,
the smaller cavity completely fills before the larger cavity.
6 Runner balancing.
Click Runner Balancing and use the following settings:
 Max Iteration = 10
 Max Diameter = 10mm
 Min Diameter = 2mm
 Max Diameter (inlet) = 2mm
 Min Diameter (inlet) = 1mm
Click Calculate.
7 Thickness distribution.
Check the new thickness distribution in the runner, noting the
differences in diameters.
183
Clamp Force
Exercise 12: In this exercise, you will analyze the

Clamp Force clamping force of a part with tabs created
from sliders. You will also find an
appropriately sized injection molding
machine.
This lab uses the following skill:
 Machines on page 20
 Clamping Force on page 168
 Clamp Force Limit on page 168
Units: Metric, SI
1 Open a part file.
Open slider from the Lesson10\Exercises folder.
2 Shell Mesh.
Create a Shell Mesh with a 2.5 mm Triangle Size.
3 Polymer.
Add the polymer ABS, Asahi Chemical / STYLAC 120.
Apply an Injection Location to the top of
the model as shown.
5 Clamp Force Limit.
Click Fill Settings and browse out to
Machine Database .
Select Allrounder A 270 A 350-70(D18).
Click the Clamping Unit tab.
Note the Camping Force of 35.1264 Tonne.
Note This is considered a small machine. Some machines within the

database, such as the MX Series KM 4000 MX 40000, have a
Clamping Force of over 4,000 Tonne.
Close the Machine Database page.
Click Clamp Force Limit and enter 35 Tonne.
Click OK.
184
Clamp Force
6 Clamp Force.
Click Clamp Force .
Click Clamp Force Direction and click Y.
This part will be manufactured with a sliders to mold the inner tabs.
The locations where the sliders abut the mold will not contribute to the
Clamp Force. Therefore, we will exclude these faces.
Click Excluded Elements and
select all the elements on the faces
as shown.
Click Apply.
Repeat the procedure for the three
remaining tabs.
Click OK.
7 Flow Analysis.
Run a Flow study.
8 Analyze the Results.
Observe the Clamp Force XY Plot.
Is a larger machine required? If so, find a suitable machine within the
Machine Database for this part.
185
Clamp Force
186
Lesson 11
Symmetry Analysis

 Make use of symmetry to save computational time for a part with
multiple cavities.
 Create local mesh refinement automatically.
187
Symmetry Analysis
Symmetry This lesson follows the process of

Analysis setting up symmetry within a
multi-cavity mold. Running an
analysis on a multi-cavity mold
can be computationally intensive.
To reduce the processing time, we
can take advantage the symmetry
which is often seen in multi-cavity
molds.
Process
 Set Symmetry Runner
Setup symmetry on the runner system within the Solid Mesh
procedure.
 Symmetry Face
Setup symmetry on a cut model using the Symmetry Face command.
 Automatic local refinement of mesh
Use the Automatic option to automatically apply mesh controls to
small features of a model.
Procedure This lesson features two case studies. In the first case study, we will
setup symmetry on the runner system within the Solid Mesh
command. In the second case study, we will setup symmetry by cutting
a model in quarters and using the Symmetry Face command on the
symmetric faces.
Case Study1: Using symmetry analysis for runners created with the Channel Design
Runner Design feature.
1 Open a part file.

Open Symmetry Analysis CS1 from the Lesson11\Case Study
folder.
188
Symmetry Analysis
2 Start Meshing.
Click Solid , Manual.
Click Runner and Cooling System Design.
Click Next .
3 Runner design.
Click Runner.
Enter the diameters and the element counts as shown in the image
below. Specify 3 elements for the gate.
Click Next .
Note “EC” stands for Element Count.
189
Symmetry Analysis
4 Mesh.
Click Next to accept the cavity and the runner domains.
Set the Triangle Size to 2.5mm and click Automatic under
Local Refinement.
Click Mesh.
Note The Automatic setting for Local Refinement will apply refinement to
the model where the overall triangle size may not be sufficient to
accurately represent the model geometry. This setting may increase the
number of elements substantially in some cases.
5 Symmetrical Runner.
Click Next to accept the surface mesh.
Click OK at the Summery page.
Click Next on the Mesh Editing page.
Click Tetrahedral on the Solid Mesh page and click Next .
Click Symmetrical runner and click Edit.
190
Symmetry Analysis
Under Symmetrical runner setting click 1/4 Symmetry (H-Type).
The multi-cavity mold with the H type

runner system is displayed.
Click OK .
6 Solid Mesh.
Click Hybrid and Create Mesh.
Note Due to the use of symmetry, the sprue is only 1/4 of the full-round and
the primary runner is only 1/2 of the full-round runner. The simulation
will be mirrored about the symmetry faces.
Click Next .
Click Next on the Section Clipping page.
Click OK on the Solid Mesh Quality page to complete the mesh.
191
Symmetry Analysis
7 Settings.
Use the following settings:
 Units - Metric, SI
 Polymer - Asahi Chemical STYLAC 120
 Fill Settings - Injection Pressure Limit = 140 MPa
Select the center node at the top of the
sprue and click Add Location.
Click OK .
9 Flow Analysis (optional).
Click Flow .
Analyze the results.
Note The analysis takes over 2 hours on a 64 bit machine with 16GB RAM.
The full four cavity analysis took over 13 hours on the same machine.
192
Symmetry Analysis
Case Study2: Symmetry analysis with solid body runners.

Symmetry Face
1 Open Symmetry Analysis CS2.
Open the part Symmetry Analysis CS2 from the Lesson11\
Case Study folder.
The four cavities and the runner system are all modeled as individual
solid bodies.
2 Change configuration.
Click ConfigurationManager .
Activate the Symmetry
configuration.
This configuration cuts the model
with 1/4 symmetry.
193
Symmetry Analysis
3 Meshing.
Click Solid and click Next .
Select the runner body from the Set Domain Type list, click Runner
and click Apply.
Click Next .
Set the Triangle Size to 2.5mm and click Automatic under
Local Refinement.
Click Mesh.
Click Next .
Finish the mesh with Tetrahedral, Hybrid elements.
Symmetry Face The Symmetry Face command is used on faces where flow and heat
transfer are both symmetrical. The Symmetry Face command is only
available for use with solid elements. It can greatly improve solve
times.

Symmetry Face
4 Symmetry Face.
Click Symmetry Face .
194
Symmetry Analysis
Draw a box around the sprue.
Repeat the procedure for the primary runner. Draw a box inside the
runner.
Zoom in to any remaining unselected areas on

the runner and click on the elements
individually.
Make sure not to include any surface of the
part cavity. In case any elements from the part
cavity are selected, click Delete and repeat
the above procedure.
Rotate the model and select the other side of the sprue.
195
Symmetry Analysis
Click Apply.
All the symmetry faces would be highlighted in
red.
Click OK .
5 Settings.
 Polymer - Asahi Chemical STYLAC 120
 Fill Settings - Injection Pressure Limit = 140 MPa
Select any node at the top of the sprue
and click Add Location.
Click OK .
7 Flow Analysis (optional).
Click Flow .
196
Lesson 12

 Understand the purpose of a hot runner system.
 Setup a hot runner system.
 Understand the how valve gates operate and why they are used.
 Setup valve gates.
197
Valve Gates and This lesson follows the process of

Hot Runners setting up an analysis with hot
runners and a valve gates in order to
fill a part which is very long.
Process
 Hot Runners
Valve gates are used exclusively with hot runner systems. The first
stage of the process will be to define a hot runner system.
 Valve Gates
Automatic valve gates will be added to the relevant locations.
Procedure Define a Solid Mesh for the cavity and runner system. Apply material,
and hot runners. Define a gate and valve system. Analyze the results.
1 Open a part file.

Open flower bed from the
This part consist of two bodies which
make up the cavity and the runner
system.
2 Mesh.
On the Domains page, specify the runner body using a Runner
domain.
Specify a 3 mm Triangle Size for the cavity and runner domains.
Use default settings for the remainder of the meshing process.
3 Settings.
 Polymer - (P) Ticona / HOSTALEN GC 7260
 Fill Settings - Fill Time - 15 seconds
 Fill Settings - Clamp Force Limit - 1,200 Tonne
198
4 Gate location.
Specify a Pointer Diameter of 20 mm at the top of the sprue.
Click OK .
Hot Runners In a typical two or three plate molding operation, plastic is injected
from the machine to the sprue and runner system before it is injected
into the cavity. Once cooled, the sprue, runner and cavity are ejected
from the mold. The sprue and runner are often separated, reground and
used again. However, the properties of the resin degrade after it has
been reground. Further complications occur when the plastic is not neat
(filled with fiber or with dye added). To solve this problem, hot runner
systems are used.
In a typical hot runner system, heating coils keep the resin in the runner
system at a controlled temperature. In these systems, the sprue and
runner are never ejected, thereby reducing waste and have the added
benefit of producing parts with exceptional surface finish. However,
hot runner systems do add considerable upfront and maintenance costs
to the mold, so they are not used all the time.
Where to Find It  PlasticsManager Tree: Boundary Conditions,
Filled Hot Runner
5 Hot Runners.
Click Filled Hot Runner .
Click Temperature and enter 230 °C. This is the temperature the
runner system will be heated to. It is also the Melt Temperature of
Ticona / HOSTALEN GC 7260.
All runner elements are
automatically selected when
the Filled Hot Runner
command is activated.
Elements that have been
selected within the command
appear magenta in color.
Click Apply. The elements
turn red, indicating their
temperature is now
controlled.
Click OK .
199
Note The Filled Hot Runner command can be used to control the
temperature of any element in the model. The process is similar to that
seen in Symmetry Face. on page 194.
Valve Gates Multiple gates are required to fill larger parts. However, when multiple
gates release plastic at the same time, weld lines are created where the
flow fields meet. Weld lines, as mentioned earlier, cause surface defects
and structural weakness. To fix this problem, valve gates are used. (A
valve gate is a gate with an on/off switch.) Valve gates can produce
parts with high levels of surface finish and strength (such as car
bumpers).
With valve gates, the filling process starts with at least one gate open.
The rest of the valves start closed. Once flow inside the cavity reaches
one of the closed gates, the valve opens, releasing additional resin into
the cavity. This process continues with additional valves if the part is
long enough. By using valve gates, the flow field remains continuous,
thereby reducing weld lines.
Where to Find It  Click Injection Location and under Type and Selection click
Control Valve.
Note Hot runner systems are always used with valve gates.
6 Valve gates.
Under Type and Selection click Control Valve.
Under Valve Open Range click Automatic.
Click Automatically Add Valves .
The following warning will appear:
This message means that at least one valve will need to be edited or
deleted so that flow can make its way into the cavity.
Click OK.
200
7 Modify gates.
Select the top valve from the list.
Under Valve Open Range click
Volume Ratio (%) and leave the default 0% to
100% range.
Click Add Valve.
This ensures that the first valve will remain
open throughout the entire fill process.
Click OK .
201
8 View Results.
The simulation takes approximately 24 hours to run.
A video of the fill time is included in the Case Study folder. Open and
view Fill.mp4.
Notice how the flow originates from the open valve. As the flow travels
past the second valve, it turns on and extends the flow further. The
same happens to the third and fourth valves.
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Lesson 13

 Setup and analyze thermoset plastics.
 Understand the reaction injection molding process.
203
Reaction Reaction injection molding, or

Injection RIM, is a process by which a resin
Molding goes through a chemical reaction
in order to harden. These types of
resins are also known as thermoset
plastics. This lesson follows the
process of simulating a thermoset
material as it is injected into a
mold.
Process
 Thermoset Plastic
There are several predefined thermoset plastics in the database. We will
select a thermoset plastic and observe the material properties to see
how they differ from that of a thermoplastic material.
 Fill Settings
Thermoset Plastics require different fill settings because heat must be
added to the mold rather than taken away.
Procedure Open a part, and mesh with shell elements. Apply a thermoset material
to the cavity. Specify Fill settings. Run the analysis and analyze the
results.
1 Open a part file.

Open Thermoformed Gasket from the
2 Mesh.
Click Shell .
Specify an element size of 1 mm.
Use default settings for the remainder of the meshing process.
204
Reaction Reaction injection molding, or RIM, is a process by which two reagents

Injection are mixed together and injected into a heated mold to react and solidify.
Molding Materials used in the reaction injection molding process are classified
as thermoset plastics. Once cured, thermoset plastics can have
impressive heat and chemical resistance.
An important difference between thermoset plastics and conventional
thermoplastics is that thermoplastic materials are injected into a mold
hot then cooled while in the mold. With thermoset plastics, the process
is reversed. Also, thermoplastics can be reground and re-melted while a
thermoset plastic cannot.
Note Silicones and polyurethanes are common thermoset plastics.
3 Material.
Click Polymer and click Sort by Family.
Click LSR. (LSR stands for “liquid silicone rubber”.)
Click WACKER/SiliconesElastosil LR 3003/70.
Click the Polymer-Material Parameters tab.
Note Because this is a thermoset material, the Melt Temperature is lower

than the Mold Temperature and Ejection Temperature.
Click OK.
205
4 Fill Settings.
Click Filling Time and enter 5 seconds.
Notice that the melt comes into the mold at
85°C and is heated by the mold walls which
are maintained at 183°C.
Click OK .
5 Pack Settings.
Notice how the parameter,
Pure Cooling Time, indicates that the part
will cool after packing. This is a misnomer.
The part will actually be heated during this
time.
Click OK .
6 Gate.
Add a gate to the cavity as indicated in the picture.
Click OK .
7 Run analysis.
Click Flow + Pack .
206
8 Temperature at End of Fill.

Click Central Temperature at End of Fill.
Note This plot shows the part heating in the mold; the opposite of a
thermoplastic material.
207
9 Pure warming time.

View the Central Temperature at Post-Filling End.
Is the part warm enough to be ejected? Or does it need more time to

cure in the mold?
208
Lesson 14
Using Inserts

 Simulate over-molding of plastic or metal inserts.
 Define cavities and inserts.
 Assign materials to inserts.
 Hide and show inserts.
209
Using Inserts
Using Inserts Plastic can be injected over metal or plastic

to create a single part made of multiple
materials; a process called ‘over-molding’.
This lesson follows the simulation of an
over-molded component with multiple
copper inserts.
Process
 Cavities and Inserts
We will use domains to distinguish between the cavity bodies and the
insert bodies.
 Materials for Inserts
We will assign material properties to the inserts. Inserts can have metal
or plastic material properties.
 Hiding Cavities and Inserts
We will use the hide/show functionality to toggle the visibility of the
cavity and the inserts in order to get a better view of the results.
Procedure The part contains nine solid bodies, eight of which will be modeled as
copper inserts. Flow will be calculated through the cavity. We will
analyze the results by examining both the cavity and the inserts.
1 Open a part file.

Open Using Inserts from the
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Using Inserts
Cavities and Solid bodies are classified using domains in SOLIDWORKS Plastics.
Inserts We have already covered Cavity and Runner domains in
Lesson 8: Gate Blush and in this lesson, we will focus on Insert
domains. An Insert is a component which is held inside a cavity while
melted resin is allowed to flow around it. This results in a single part
made of multiple materials held together by plastic. While Cavity
domains are always assigned polymer materials, Insert domains can be
assigned metal or polymer material properties.
Note Inserts must be meshed with Solid elements. Shells are not supported.
2 Mesh.
Click Next .
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Using Inserts
3 Hide.
Select the first body in the list and click
Hide.
The remaining bodies will be specified as Inserts.

4 Insert Domains.
Select all the visible bodies from the list.
Click Insert.
Click Apply.
5 Show Cavity.
Show the remaining Cavity domain.
Click Next .
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Using Inserts
6 Mesh.
Complete the mesh by specifying a .50 mm Triangle Size and Hybrid,
Tetrahedral Elements.
Tip The elements between the domains must be matched (have shared
nodes). If there are any Unmatched Elements, they must be analyzed
and fixed.
Materials for Materials are applied to inserts through the Inserts command. Inserts
Inserts can be polymers or metals.
The Metal database includes:
 Aluminum Alloys
 Copper Alloys
 Iron
 Other Alloys and Metals
 Non-metals
 Steel
 Titanium Alloys
 Zinc Alloys
Metals can be added to the User-Defined database by following a
similar process to the one outlined in Lesson 5: Materials.
Where to Find It PlasticsManager: Expand Material, Insert and select Polymer or
Metal
213
Using Inserts
7 Specify insert material.

Click Insert and click Metal.
Select Copper Alloys - Copper.
Click OK.
8 Specify cavity material.

Click Polymer .
Browse out to the PBT class of materials.
Select (P) Generic material / Generic material of PBT.
Click OK.
9 Fill and pack settings.
Set the following fill and pack settings options:
 Fill Settings , Filling Time - 0.4 seconds
 Pack Settings , Pressure Holding Time - 3 seconds
 Pack Settings , Pure Cooling Time - 20 seconds
214
Using Inserts
Insert Settings The Insert Settings dialog allows you to specify the Insert Part Initial
Temperature and the Mold Wall Temperature of the inserts.
Where to Find It PlasticsManager: Boundary Conditions, Insert Settings
10 Insert settings.
Click Insert Settings .
Specify the following parameters.
 Insert Part Initial Temperature - 20°C
 Mold Wall Temperature - 60°C
Click OK .
Specify a Pointer Diameter of
1.2 mm to a node on the face as
shown.
Click OK .
12 Run analysis.
Click Flow + Pack .
Note The analysis takes a little over 30 minutes to run.
215
Using Inserts
13 Fill time.
View Fill Time.
Click Isosurface .
Note The ‘hook” volume fills slowly and is the last volume to be filled.
Ideally, the hook should fill at the same time as the tips of the cavities
near the inserts. A design change may be needed to achieve a balanced
flow with uniform pressure distribution. Users are encouraged to plot
results such as Pressure at End of Fill to see if the cavity has filled
evenly.
14 Temperature at end of fill.
View Temperature at End of Fill.
Click Clip Plane .
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Using Inserts
Hiding Cavities Use Hide/Show Domain to hide and show cavities and inserts
and Inserts when viewing the results. All cavities or all inserts can be toggled
between hidden and shown.

Hide/Show Domain > Cavity/Insert > 1
15 Hide cavity.
Click Hide/Show Domain .
Click Cavity and 1.
The cavity is now hidden. View
Temperature at End of Fill with Clipping
Plane Mode toggled off to see the inserts
alone.
Click OK .
217
Using Inserts
16 Show cavity.
Click Hide/Show Domain . Then
click Cavity and click 1 to toggle on the
visibility of the cavity.
17 X-Y Points.
Click XY Plot .
Use a Reference Plane with XY Plane
orientation.
Add the seven points inside and outside
the insert cross section as shown.
#1
#7
#4
#2
#3
#6
#5
Note Points #1 - #3 are inside the cross section of the insert (metal). Points
#4 - #7 are outside cross section of the insert but inside the cross
section of the cavity boss (polymer).
218
Using Inserts
18 Nodal temperature.
Plot the Nodal Temperature using the points. The points on the insert
are colder than those on the cavity.
Note Since the inserts are made of copper, they heat up very fast due to the
high thermal conductivity of copper. Plastic inserts would behave
differently.
219
Using Inserts
220
Lesson 15
Multi Shot Mold

 Understand the multi shot molding process.
 Setup a two cavity domain analysis.
221
Multi Shot Mold
Multi Shot Mold In a multiple shot molding process,

resin is injected into a mold. Then,
a section of the mold wall is
removed and replaced to form a
second cavity against the original
cavity. A second material is
injected into the new cavity,
causing the two materials to form a
single part. In this lesson we will
simulate the injection molding
process of a plastic handle with a
rubber finger grip molded into it.
Process
 Domain Order
In a multiple shot molding process, the domain of each cavity must be
defined.
 Materials
The materials for each of the domains must then be specified.
 Fill and Pack Settings
The fill and pack settings must be defined for each of the cavities.
Procedure Open the part. Assign domain order through the Solid mesh command.
Assign material to each of the domains. Apply gates to the two
domains. Specify Fill settings. View the Pack settings. Run a Flow
analysis.
1 Open a part file.

Open Two Shot from the Lesson15\Case Study folder.
The part consists of two bodies.
2 Mesh the model.
Click Next .
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Multi Shot Mold
Multi Shot Mold In more complicated molds, such as tail lights on cars or toothbrush
handles, a body will be molded with one type of plastic then molded
over with a second type of plastic. There are several ways to do this.
One way is to have the part ejected from the first cavity then rotated
into the mold of a second cavity. With another method, a section of the
first cavity will open and fitted with another mold cavity. Both these
operations are variations of multiple shot injection molding. Multiple
shot injection molding is an expensive operation but can be used to
create impressive plastic components.
Domain Order In order to specify a second cavity with a second material, a second
domain must be specified. This is done on the Domains page of the
Mesh PropertyManager. Once a separate domain has been specified,
separate Polymer, Fill and Pack Settings can all be assigned to that
domain.
3 Domain order.
Select the top Cavity from the list.
(The gripper part of the handle.)
Under Domain Group, click the
drop down and select 2.
Click Apply.
The gripper changes color from
tan to orange. There are now two
cavity domains.
Click Next .
4 Finish mesh.
Complete the mesh with a 2.5 mm
Triangle Size and Tetrahedral
Hybrid elements.
223
Multi Shot Mold
5 Polymer for domain cavity 1.

Click Polymer .
At the top, under Domain click Cavity (Part) 1.
Click ABS Generic material /Generic material of ABS.
6 Polymer for domain cavity 2.

Under Domain click Cavity (Part) 2.
Click DuPont Engineering Polymers / Alcryn 2080 BK.
Click OK.
224
Multi Shot Mold
7 Fill Settings.
Under Domain, toggle between Cavity (Part) 1 and Cavity (Part) 2.
Note The Fill Settings change between the two cavities. The default
Fill Settings are derived from the material applied to each cavity.
Click OK .
8 Pack Settings.
Under Domain, toggle between Cavity (Part) 1 and Cavity (Part) 2.
Note The Process Parameters of the Pack Settings change between the
two cavities in a manor similar to the Fill Settings. However, we will
not run a Pack analysis.
Click OK .
9 Hide Cavity 2.
Click Cavity and click 2.
225
Multi Shot Mold
10 First injection location.

Specify a 3 mm gate to the location indicated.
Click OK .
11 Show Cavity 2 and hide Cavity 1.
Click Cavity and click 2. Cavity 2 is now shown.
Click Cavity and click 1.
12 Second injection location.
Specify a 3 mm gate to the location indicated.
Click OK .
13 Show both Cavities.
Use the Hide/Show Domain command to
show both cavities.
14 Run Flow simulation.
Click Flow .
226
Multi Shot Mold
15 Fill time.
View Fill Time with Isosurface Mode .
Click Play to view the animation.
Notice how Cavity 1 fills before Cavity 2.

Click OK .
227
Multi Shot Mold
228
Lesson 16

 Understand the basic premise of gas assisted plastic injection
molding.
 Setup and analyze a gas assisted plastic injection molding
simulation.
229
Gas Assisted Gas assisted injection molding is a way

Molding to reduce the thickness of parts that
would otherwise be thick in nature. In a
gas assisted molding process, a resin is
injected into the cavity so that it is
about half way filled. A gas is then
injected into the mold, pushing the
resin to the outer walls. This lesson
follows the simulation of a gas assisted
injection molding process.
Process
 Set Co-Injection
In gas assisted injection, two materials are injected into the same
cavity. This requires a Co-Injection setup when defining materials, the
second material being gas.
 Gate Injection
Once a co-injection is defined, gates must be setup to specify how
much of each material will be injected from each gate.
 Fill Settings
Co-Injection requires special setup with regards to Fill Settings.
Procedure Open a part. Mesh the model with solid elements. Set the plastic
material and co-injection with nitrogen gas. Specify the gate locations
and material percentage amounts. Set the Fill Settings. Run a Flow
analysis. Analyze the results.
1 Open a part file.

Open Bathroom Handle from the
230
2 Mesh the model.

Click Solid .
Specify Non-Orthogonal Voxel, Hexahedral
elements. Use all other default parameters.
Click OK .
Gas Assist Plastic parts are designed to be thin in order to reduce cooling times,
reduce warping and limit the amount of plastic used. However, there
are instances when a plastic part must be thick. In these cases, gas
assisted injection molding can be a solution. In gas assisted injection
molding, resin is injected into the cavity so that it is about half full. Gas
is then injected into the partially filled mold. Once resin comes into
contact with the walls of the cavity, it tends to stick; allowing the gas to
stay in the center of the part. The gas is then used to pack the part
during the packing stage. Nitrogen is often used as the gas because it
does not react with most resins.
Material Selection In the case of a gas assisted injection molding process, two materials
must be specified for the same domain; one resin the other gas.This is
accomplished through the Set Co-Injection command.
Where to Find It  PlasticsManager Tree: Material, Polymer, Set Co-Injection
3 Set first material.

Click Polymer .
Expand ABS and select Asahi Chemical / Stylac 120.
231
4 Set Co-Injection material.

Click Set Co-Injection .
Click the drop down next to the Set Co-Injection command and click
2nd. This allows the second material to be specified.
Expand GAS and select Others / Nitrogen.
Click OK.
Note Once the materials have been specified using Co-Injection, the
Injection Location command is then used to specify how much of
each material will be injected into the cavity. In our case, half the cavity
will be filled with resin and half the cavity will be filled with nitrogen
gas. This will be performed next.
232
5 Specifying a 50% fill with ABS.

Scroll down to the bottom of the
Injection Location PropertyManager.
Under 1st Material Injection Range, specify
the fill range from 0 to 50.
Specify a 7 mm Pointer Diameter.
Select a location on the model to add the gate as
indicated in the image below.
Click Add Location.
6 Specify a 50% fill with Nitrogen.

Under Injection System click the drop down
and click 2.
Under 1st Material Injection Range, specify
Under 2nd Material Injection Range, specify
Specify a 7 mm Pointer Diameter and add the
gate as indicated in the image below.
Click OK .
233
Note In a true gas assisted injection molding operation, nitrogen is injected

through the runner system. For the sake of expedience, a runner system
was not modeled here.
7 Fill Time.
Specify a Fill Time of 7 seconds.
Note that the Injection System can be
specified at the top of the PropertyManager.
There is also a Co-Injection section towards
the bottom. Explore these options.
Click OK .
8 Flow.
Click Flow .
The simulation takes approximately 30
minutes to run.
9 Fill Time.
Click Fill Time.
Click Clip Plane .
Click Play to animate the results.
From the animation, it is very difficult to see the nitrogen filling the
cavity.
234
10 2nd material Fill time.

Click 2nd material Fill time.
This plot shows the nitrogen and how it is predicted to fill the cavity.
11 Animate 2nd material.
Click Isosurface .
Click Play to animate the results.
The animation shows that for the first few seconds of fill, no nitrogen
enters the cavity. Once the nitrogen does come in, it pushes the ABS
material to the outer walls.
235
236
Lesson 17
Cooling Analysis

 Understand the cooling process in the injection molding cycle.
 Run a cooling analysis and interpret the results.
237
Cooling Analysis
Cooling This lesson focuses on how to

Analysis accurately model cooling throughout
the injection molding process by
simulating the thermodynamic effects
of cooling channels, baffles, bubblers
and the mold.
Process
 Cooling Channels
Specify the cooling channels using an existing sketch and the Channel
Design wizard.
 Virtual Mold
A Virtual Mold needs to be defined in the Solid mesh in order to
perform a cooling analysis.
 Cooling model
There are four separate cooling models available. We will explore these
models and run simulations with two of them.
 Cool Analysis
We will perform an Cool analysis and analyze the results.
Procedure Create cooling channels and a virtual mold. Define materials to the
cavity, the mold and the cooling fluid. Specify the Cool Settings.
Define the cooling model for the system. Run a Cool analysis and
analyze the results. Create a new simulation with baffles and bubblers.
Run an additional Cool analysis using a separate cooling model.
Important! A Cooling Analysis can only be performed using the SOLIDWORKS

Plastics Premium package or higher. SOLIDWORKS Plastics Premium
functionality will be featured throughout the remainder of this course.
1 Open a part file.

Open Cooling Analysis from
folder.
From the View drop-down,
enable Sketches. Two
sketches which will be used to
model the cooling channels
are now visible.
238
Cooling Analysis
Cooling Cooling occurs throughout all stages of the injection molding process;
from the fill stage through ejection. The rate of cooling has a significant
effect on part dimensions and influences part defects. If a part can be
cooled uniformly, the residual stress within the part can be reduced,
thereby minimizing the risk of warpage and cracking.
The cooling process starts when heat is transferred from the hot, liquid
resin to the mold walls of the cavity. The heat is then conducted
through the metal cavity to cooling channels. Pumped fluid (often
water or oil) runs through the cooling channels convecting heat away
from the mold. The positioning and properties of the mold material and
cooling channels are, therefore, an important consideration in mold
design.
Cooling So far, we have assumed that the mold walls stay at a constant
Channels and temperature as specified by the Mold Temperature parameter in
Mold Bodies Fill Settings . However, the mold temperature is never constant; it
changes with time and location. In order to accurately model the
temperature of the walls of the cavity, the cooling channels and the
mold bodies must also be modeled.
There are two ways to model the mold and the cooling channels. First,
they can be modeled using conventional SOLIDWORKS geometry
then specified as cooling channels and molds through the
Assign Domains command. The second way is to start with a sketch
which follows the profile of the cooling channels then use the Runner
and Cooling System Design and the Virtual Mold Generation
features. These options allow the mold and the runner system to be
created through the Solid Mesh PropertyManager.
Where to Find It PlasticsManager: MESH, Solid, Manual select Runner and Cooling
System Design and Virtual Mold Generation
2 Solid mesh.
Click Runner and Cooling System
Design.
Click Virtual Mold Generation.
Click Next .
239
Cooling Analysis
3 Channel Design.
Window select the two sketches.
Enter 10 for D1 and D2.
Enter 3 for the Number of Elements.
Click Assign.
The cooling channels are displayed in blue.

Click Next .
Note The parameters specified in the

Channel Design page set the initial mesh
(similar to Surface Mesh) for the cooling
channels.
4 Virtual Mold.
Under Based On, click Size.
 X: 160
 Y: 130
 Z: 330
Click Add and Next .
240
Cooling Analysis
5 Category.
The part cavity, the cooling channel and the mold are correctly listed on
the Domains page.
Click Next .
6 Surface Mesh.
Set the Cavity Triangle Size to 1.5mm and click
Mesh.
Click Mold, set the Triangle Size to 15mm and
click Mesh.
Note The parameters specified in the Channel Design page set the
Surface Mesh for the mold and the cavity.
Click Next .
Click OK on the Summary page.

Click Next on the Mesh Editing page.
241
Cooling Analysis
7 Solid Mesh Cooling Channels.

Click Tetrahedral on the Solid Mesh page
and click Next .
Click Advance.
Set Ring Count (Na): to 4.
Set Ring Cut Count (Nb): to 10.
Set Length ratio (Lr): to 0.5.
Click OK .
8 Solid Mesh Mold and Cavity.

Click Cavity/Insert/Runner, Hybrid and
Create Mesh.
The cavity is now meshed with solid elements.
Click Mold, Tetrahedral and Create Mesh.
The mold is now meshed with solid elements.
The section plot shows the part cavity, the cooling channel and the
mold meshed with solid elements.
Click Next and click Next again.
Click OK to complete the mesh.
242
Cooling Analysis
Coolant Molds are cooled with a variety of fluids, including water, water/glycol
mixtures and oil. In many cases, water is the ideal fluid to use because
it is cheap and has a high specific heat which means that it can absorb a
lot of energy without a large change in temperature. Coolant material is
defined through the Coolant command.
Where to Find It  PlasticsManager Tree: Material, Coolant
Mold Heat is conducted from the cavity to the cooling channels through the
mold. Therefore, the mold material heavily influences the thermal state
of the system. Molds can be made of aluminum (for low cycle molds)
or steel (for high cycle molds). The mold material is defined through
the Mold command.
Where to Find It  PlasticsManager Tree: Material, Mold
9 Polymer.
Click Polymer .
Search for and select SABIC Innovative Plastics CYCOLAC 28818E.
Click OK.
10 Coolant.
Click Coolant .
Click Water.
Click OK.
243
Cooling Analysis
11 Mold.
Click Mold .
Click Steel - 420SS.
Click OK.
Cool Settings The Cool Settings control the relevant thermal properties of the
system. These parameters include: Melt Temperature, Air
Temperature, Min. Coolant Temperature, Average Coolant Flow
Rate and the Mold Open Time.
The Melt Temperature is the temperature of the resin when the cool
simulation starts. When Flow or Flow + Pack results are present, the
part temperature can be read from the result file. This will be covered in
Cool on page 247.
Min Coolant Temperature is the initial temperature of the coolant in
each channel.
The Average Coolant Flow Rate is the parameter which is used to
specify the flow rate of coolant through the system. The flow rate
should be high enough to achieve turbulence through the pipes because
heat transfer increases significantly with turbulent flow.
The Mold Open Time is the amount of time that the mold remains open
while the part is being ejected.
When the Eject Temperature is specified, the cooling time is assumed
to be unknown and is solved for during the simulation.
click Cool Settings
244
Cooling Analysis
12 Cool settings.
Click Cool Settings .
 Inlet melt Temperature - 250°C
 Min Coolant Temperature - 25°C
 Air temperature - 25°C
 Average Coolant flow rate - 200 cc/s
 Mold Open Time - 5 sec
 Eject Temperature - 100°C
Click OK .
Cooling There are four models available for solving Cool simulations;
Simulations Cool Flow Field, Cool Pipe, Cool Entrance and
Mold Wall Temperature. Only one model can be active in a
simulation. If more than one model is setup, the highest priority model
is used.
Cool Flow Field The Cool Flow Field model is the highest priority model and is also
regarded as the most accurate and computationally demanding. The
Cool Flow Field model solves for the fluid flow within the cooling
lines using a fully three dimensional CFD (computational fluid
dynamics) approach. Multiple inlets and outlets can be solved for using
this model.
Cool Flow Field
Cool Pipe The Cool Pipe model is the second highest priority model and is
regarded as the second most accurate and computational demanding.
The Cool Pipe model solves for the fluid flow using a more simplified
method than the Cool Flow Field model. In order to use the Cool Pipe
model, the channels must first be created from sketches using the
Runner and Cooling System Design command. In this model, a
single inlet and outlet must be defined.
245
Cooling Analysis

Cool Pipe
Coolant Entrance The Cool Entrance model is the third highest priority model. This
model does not directly solve for the fluid moving through the
channels. Rather, it models the heat transfer by determining the
affective convection load from the inlet temperature and the flow rate
of the cooling fluid.
Cool Entrance
Mold Wall The Mold Wall Temperature model is the lowest priority model. This
Temperature model is used to define the temperature of the mold wall at the cavity.
Cooling lines are not directly solved for with this model.
Mold Wall Temperature
13 Coolant Flow Field Pipe 1.

Click Cool Flow Field .
Click the drop down under
Gravity Downward Directions and click +Z.
Click Pipe 1 from the list.
Specify the following parameters:
 Flow rate - 200 cc/s
 Inlet Temperature - 25°C
Click Apply.
Click Set Inlet and Outlet.
Click Inlet and select the elements on the end of the
pipe as shown in the image below.
Click Select.
Click Outlet and select the elements at the end of the
pipe as shown in the image below.
Click Select.
Outlet Pipe 1 Inlet
246
Cooling Analysis
14 Coolant Flow Field Pipe 2.

Follow a similar process, using the same parameters
as specified in step 13 on page 246 for Pipe 2.
Define inlet and outlet conditions for Pipe 2 as
shown in the image below.
Click OK .
Cool Analysis As stated earlier, resin begins to cool as soon as it touches the mold
walls and continues to cool through ejection. Depending on the
sequence of the analyses which are performed (Cool, Fill, etc.), data
can be exchanged between solvers.
Cool When a Cool analysis is performed first, it is assumed that the cavity is
initially filled with resin at Melt Temperature (as specified in
Cool Settings ). If a Flow analysis is then performed, the thermal
settings from the Cool analysis will be used as input for the Fill
analysis. However, if a Fill analysis is performed first, the thermal
settings from the Fill analysis will be used as input for the Cool
analysis. Therefore, a final analysis should be run in this order:
Flow --> Cool --> Flow --> Pack --> Warp
Where to Find It PlasticsManager: Expand RUN and double-click Cool
247
Cooling Analysis
15 Cool.
Click Cool .
Note The analysis takes 50 minutes to run.
Cool Results The Cool Results include:

 Part Cooling Time
 Cycle Averaged Temperature
 Temperature at End of Cooling
 Cycle Averaged Part Temperature
 Part Temperature at End of Cooling
 Cycle Averaged Mold Temperature
 Mold Temperature at End of Cooling
 Cycle Averaged Heat Flux
 Cycle Heat Loading
Note The term End of Cooling refers to a result as measured just before
ejection. The term Cycle Averaged refers to a result which has been
averaged over the entire time in the mold.
PlasticsManager: Expand RESULTS and click Cool Results
16 Cool Results.
Disable Mold Visibility and
Cooling Channel Visibility from
the CommandManager.
Click Cool Results .
Click Part Cooling Time.
Click Clipping Plane Mode.
The maximum cooling time is about
18 sec at the thicker sections.
The cooling time could be reduced by
making the walls thinner or by drawing
more heat from the thicker regions.
248
Cooling Analysis
17 Temperature at End of Cooling.

Click Temperature at End of
Cooling.
Click Isosurface and set the

Min to 100.
The areas displayed have a
temperature higher than the
recommended part ejection
temperature. Minimizing the
thickness of these two areas will
reduce the overall cooling time
and consequently, the manufacturing cycle time.
18 Heat flux.
Click Cycle Averaged Heat Flux and enable
Cooling Channel Visibility .
Note The image shows where the channels are drawing the most thermal
energy out of the system which can be useful if the channels need to be
redesigned.
Click OK .
249
Cooling Analysis
19 Heat removed from cooling channel.

Expand Open Report Text File.
Click Cool Text.
Scroll down to the bottom to locate Cooling
stage results summary.
Baffle A Baffle is a special type of Cooling Channel where the cooling fluid
is channeled closer to the cavity. This allows a localized region of a
cavity to be cooled at a higher rate.
250
Cooling Analysis
Bubbler This type of cooling channel is similar to a Baffle, but is actually two
differently sized diameter channels, one inside the other. The smaller
diameter inner channel is slightly shorter than the wider outer channel.
The cooling medium will typically be pumped up through the inner
channel and then spray outward into the top of the outer channel. The
cooling medium then flows downward in between the outer and the
inner channels, exiting when it reaches the bottom where it rejoins the
primary cooling channel.
21 Open part file.

Open Bubblers baffles from
folder.
From the View drop-down,
enable Sketches. Two sketches
which will be used to model the
cooling channels are now visible.
This is the same model geometry as Cooling Analysis but with new
cooling line sketches.
22 Solid Mesh.
Click Next .
251
Cooling Analysis
23 Baffles.
Under Channel Parameters click Baffle.
Under D1 click 10.
Click the sketch entity as shown in the image
below and click Assign.
252
Cooling Analysis
24 Bubbler.
Under Channel Parameters click Bubbler.
Under D1 click 12 and under D2 click 8.
Click the sketch entity as shown in the image
below and click Assign.
25 Cooling Channels.
Under Channel Parameters click General.
Specify 10 mm cooling channels with 3 element segments for the
remainder of the sketch entities.
Click Next .
253
Cooling Analysis
26 Setup Simulation.
Follow step 4 on page 240 through step 12 on page 245 to setup the
simulation.
27 Cool Pipe.
Click Cool Pipe .
Click Pipe 1 under Selections.
Click Inlet Temperature and enter 25 °C.
Click Flow rate enter 200 cc/s.
Click Apply.
Click Pipe 2 under Selections.
Click Inlet Temperature and enter 25 °C.
Click Flow rate enter 200 cc/s.
Click Apply.
If the direction of the flow is not as shown in the
image below, select the pipe and click
Reverse Flow.
Click OK .
28 Run the Simulation (Optional).

Click Cool .
254
Cooling Analysis
29 Results.
255
Cooling Analysis
Exercise 13: Calculate the cooling times for a part

Cooling simulated using the Cool Entrance
Analysis method for part cooling.
 Cooling Simulations on page 245
 Cool Results on page 248
Units: Metric

1 Open a part file.
Open Cool Entrance from the Lesson17\Exercises folder.
This is the same model from the first part of Lesson 17: Cooling
Analysis. We will use the Coolant Entrance model to simulate cooling
with this part.
2 Review the simulation.
The simulation has already been partially setup following steps 2: Solid
mesh. through 12: Cool settings. of the Lesson 17: Cooling Analysis
lesson.
Review the setup.
3 Cool Entrance.
Click Cool Entrance.
Under Inlet Temperature enter 25 °C.
Under Flow rate enter 200 cc/s.
Click Select through.
Windows select all the elements on the
screen.
Click Apply.
Click OK.
4 Run analysis.
Run a Cool analysis.
5 Results.
Compare the solution time and results to those obtained in step
16: Cool Results. on page 248. Is the improved accuracy in results
achieved using the Coolant Flow Field method worth the increase in
solution time in this case?
256
Lesson 18
Warpage Analysis

 Understand shrinkage and warpage of an injection molded plastic
part.
 Run a warpage analysis and interpret the results.
257
Warpage Analysis
Warpage This lesson follows the process of

Analysis analyzing a part to see how much it is
predicted to warp after it is ejected from
the mold. Excessive shrinking and
warping may lead to undesirable
dimensions of the final part.
Process
 Insert, Cooling Channel, Mold and Runner Systems
A solid mesh will be created on a part with an insert, cooling channels,
a mold and a runner system.
 Cooling, Flow, Pack and Warp analysis
The simulation will be setup and run to analyze the part using the Cool,
Fill, Pack and Warp solvers.
Procedure Mesh the part with solid elements. Specify Fill, Pack, Cool, and Warp
settings. Specify cooling using the Cool Entrance model. Run a
Cool+Flow+Pack+Warp analysis. Analyze the part and determine how
warping could be reduced.
1 Open a part file.

Open Warp Analysis from the Lesson18\Case Study folder.
Activate the 3-Insert_Warp_start configuration.
It includes an insert, and a runner system modeled as solid features.
The cooling channels are currently modeled as sketches.
258
Warpage Analysis
2 Solid mesh.
Click Next .
3 Cooling Channels.
Assign the following Cooling Channel parameters on the two
sketches as shown:
 Cooling Channel type: General
 D1: 10 mm
 D2: 10 mm
 Number of Elements: 4
Click Next .
4 Mold Size.
Click Based On and click Coordinate.
Specify the following parameters:
 X-Direction Bounds: -225 ~ 225
 Y-Direction Bounds: -50 ~ 75
 Z-Direction Bounds: -100 ~ 150
Click Add.
Click Next .
259
Warpage Analysis
5 Domains.
Apply the appropriate domains to each of the bodies. There should be a
Cavity, a Runner, an Insert, a Cooling Channel and a Mold Domain.
Click Next .
6 Mesh Control.
Click Assign Size.
Specify a .5 mm mesh to the four faces of the gate and the single face at
the split line where the cavity and the gate meet.
Use the Mold Visibility and Runner Visibility commands when
making the selections.
Click OK .
260
Warpage Analysis
7 Shell Mesh.
Mesh the Cavity, Insert and Runner domains with a Triangle Size set
to 2 mm.
Click Mesh.
Click Mold.
Set the Triangle Size to 15 mm.
Click Mesh.
Click Next .
Proceed to the Solid Mesh page.
8 Solid Mesh Cooling Channels.
Click Tetrahedral.
Click Next .
Click Advance.
Mesh the Cooling Channels with the following parameters:
 Ring Count: 3
 Ring cut count: 6
 Length ratio: .5
Click OK .
261
Warpage Analysis
9 Solid Mesh.
Click Cavity/Insert/Runner.
Click Hybrid.
Click Create Mesh.
Click Mold.
Click Tetrahedral.
Click Create Mesh.
Click Next .
Complete the mesh using default parameters.
10 Materials.
Set the Materials as shown below:
 Polymer - PA6- BASF / ULTRAMID B3EG6
 Coolant - Water
 Mold - Steel - 420SS
 Insert - Metal, Other Alloys - Magnesium Alloy
11 Fill and pack settings.
Set the following fill and pack settings options:
 Fill Settings , Filling Time - 4 sec
 Fill Settings , Melt Temperature - 260 °C
 Fill Settings , Injection Pressure Limit - 150 MPa
 Pack Settings , Pressure Holding Time - 8 sec
12 Insert settings.
Click Insert Settings and specify the following parameters:
 Insert Part Initial Temperature - 25°C
 Mold Wall Temperature - 90°C
Click OK .
13 Cool Settings.
Click Cool Settings .
Click Air Temperature and enter 25 °C.
Click OK .
262
Warpage Analysis
14 Coolant Entrance.
Click Coolant Entrance .
Click Select through.
Window select the entire cooling system.
Use the default parameters and click Apply.
Click OK .
Shrinkage Shrinkage is inherent in the injection molding process. It occurs

because the mold is filled with hot resin under high pressures and then
cools to room temperature. This reduction in temperature can cause the
molded plastic part to shrink by as much as 20%, depending on
material. See Lesson 9: Packing and Cooling Times for more details.
Reducing There are several ways to reduce shrinkage, including:
Shrinkage Increasing Packing Time

 Increasing Packing Pressure
 Decreasing barrel temperature
 Decreasing coolant temperature
 Increasing cooling time
Warpage Shrinkage is a contributing factor for part warpage. However, warpage
is more complicated. Parts warp because of the combination of in-mold
residual stress and nonuniform shrinkage. (If a part shrinks uniformly,
as opposed to non-uniformly, it will not warp but become smaller
instead.) The factors which contribute to warpage, include:
 Variation of temperature as the part cools in the mold
 Variation of pressure of the melt in the mold
 Variable rates of shrinkage dependent on molecular and fiber
orientation
Warp Settings The Warp Settings specify the conditions of the part at ejection.
Ambient Temperature is the environmental temperature the part
experiences after it is ejected from the mold.
Gravity Direction is the direction in which the part would be dropped
from the mold.
Where to Find It PlasticsManager: Expand INPUT, Process Parameters and double-
click Warp Settings
263
Warpage Analysis
15 Warp settings.
Click Warp Settings and specify the
following:
 Ambient Temperature = 25°C
 Gravity Direction = -Y dir
Click OK .
Specify a 11 mm Pointer Diameter at
the end of the sprue as shown.
Click OK .
17 Cool+Flow+Pack+Warp.
Click Cool+Flow+Pack+Warp .
Three simulations will run starting with a Cool analysis, moving onto a
Flow+Pack analysis, followed by a Warp analysis.
The simulations should take approximately 2 hours to run.
Warp Results The Warp Results include:

 Total Stress Displacement
 In-mold Residual Stress Displacement
 Quenching Thermal Stress Displacement
 Total Stress Displacement (without fiber)
 Sink-Mark Profile
 In-mold Residual Von Mises Stress
 De-Molding Residual Von Mises Stress
Warp Results
264
Warpage Analysis
18 Total Stress Displacement.

Click Warp Results .
Click Total Stress Displacement.
Note This plot shows the total amount the part is predicted to warp after if
comes out of the mold and cools to room temperature (25 °C). Keep in
mind that this is a self equilibrated system (meaning, there are no
restraints). Therefore, this plot as is may show different values when
run on a separate system. This is to be expected.
265
Warpage Analysis
19 Set Reference.
Click Set Reference.
Click Based on plane.
Click First Reference.
Select the node on the vertex of the fillet as shown.
Click Apply.
Follow the same process for the Second Reference and
Third Reference as shown.
Note The plot now shows a zero displacement location (First Reference).
266
Warpage Analysis
20 Deformation Scale.
Click Deformation Scale and set the value to 10.
The shape the part takes as it warps is now obvious.

Set the Deformation Scale back to 1.
Reducing and As mentioned as mentioned in Warpage on page 263, there are several
Fixing Warped contributing factors for what makes a part warp. These factors will be
Parts analyzed systematically.
Thermal There are two thermal contributions for warpage. First, is nonuniform
Contributions to part cooling. Second is the dependence of the thermal expansion
Warping coefficient on the molecule and fiber orientation. The Quenching
Thermal Stress Displacement plot and the Total Stress
Displacement (without fiber) plot can be used to isolate the
contributions of these effects.
Typical Warp There are three typical shapes a part can take as it warps.
Shapes
Witch Hat Chip Taco
Witch Hat This shape occurs when there is higher shrinkage on the outside of the
part.
Chip This shape occurs when there is higher shrinkage at the center of the
part.
Taco This shape occurs when there is higher shrinkage on one side of the
part.
267
Warpage Analysis
21 Quenching Thermal Stress Displacement.

Click Quenching Thermal Stress Displacement.
Note This plot shows the contribution of warpage due to temperature

differences. These displacements appear to be significant - 1.4 mm max
compared to 1.9 mm of Total Stress Displacement fixed at the
References shown.
268
Warpage Analysis
22 Pack Results.
Click Pack Results and click Volumetric Shrinkage at End of
Packing.
Set the Min to 7.5 and click Isosurface Mode.
Note The region in blue indicates areas that will shrink more than 7.5%.
Remember, a part will warp when it shrinks at an uneven rate.
Predicting the direction of warp can also be analyzed by examining
how a part cools. Hotter regions of a part will shrink at a higher rate,
causing the part to warp into the direction of higher temperature.
269
Warpage Analysis
23 Total Stress Displacement (without fiber).

Click Total Stress Displacement (without fiber).
This plot shows that without the contributions to fiber orientation, the
part warps even further.
270
Warpage Analysis
24 Flow Results.
Click Fill Time then click Fiber Orientation.
Move the Vector Number slider and the Vector Length slider to the
middle.
Note For BASF / ULTRAMID B3EG6 the thermal expansion coefficient

parallel to the fiber orientation is 2.25e-005 1/°C and 6.67e-005 1/°C
normal to fiber orientation.
Residual Stress The filling and packing stages of the injection molding process occur
under very high pressures. As the part cools, and is eventually ejected,
these pressures can have a significant effect on part warpage.
Minimizing residual The process conditions and design factors that reduce shear stress
stress during cavity filling will help to reduce flow-induced residual stress.
In general, the following factors lower the residual stresses:
 Longer fill time
 Shorter flow path
 Uniform wall thickness
 Uniform cooling of all surfaces
 Higher material and mold temperature
271
Warpage Analysis
25 In-Mold Stress.
Click In-mold Residual Stress Displacement.
This plot shows the amount of displacement which is due to in-molded

stress.
272
Warpage Analysis
26 De-Molding Residual Von Mises Stress.

Click De-Molding Residual Von Mises Stress.
This plot shows the stress which remains in the part after it is ejected
from the mold (de-molded).
273
Warpage Analysis
27 Sink-Mark Profile.
Click Sink-Mark Profile.
The sink mark results from warp analyses take into account the in-mold
stress as well as the out-of-mold cooling stress. The sink mark profile
obtained from warp analysis is, therefore, more realistic than the
prediction from flow analysis.
274
Index
A I pack 143, 248, 264

adviser 27 input race-tracking 118
air trap 118 material 18 report text file 38
analysis Insert 211 short shot 39
flow 22 insert sink marks 68
hide and show 217 volume shrinkage at packing
B Inserts 213 end 145
Baffle 250 Isosurface Mode 147 weld lines 26
Batch Manager 53 run analysis 22
Birefringence 143 J runner
Bubbler 251 Jetting 151 balancing 176
cross-section 164
C M runner-balancing 176
cavity material 18
hide and show 217 Material Properties 80 S
Clamp Force Limit 168 Materials 18 Shear Stress 134
Clamping Force 168 Melt Temperature 83 short shot 34
colors mesh Shrinkage 263
images in manual 4 surface element 15 SolidWorks
configurations 41 Mesh Editing 97 editing 42
Cool Flow Field 245 mode Specific Heat 84
Cool Pipe 245 plastics to modeling 41 surface mesh 15
Cool Results 248 Mold 243 Symmetry Face 194
Cool Settings 244 Mold Temperature 83
Coolant 243 Mold Wall Temperature 246 T
Coolant Entrance 246 Thermal Conductivity 84
Copying Settings 52 P Thermal Expansion Coefficient 87
Packing and Cooling 140 thermoset plastics 205
D Part Ejection Temperature 83 Triangle Size 16
design change 41, 42 Product 81
Design Changes 41 PVT Data 86 U
Domain Order 223 User-defined Database 81
Duplicate Study 51 R
Race-tracking 118 V
F Reaction Injection Molding 205 Venting 122
File Management 52 Resin Properties 82 Viscosity 85
results
G adviser 27 W
Gas Assist 231 air trap 118 Warpage 263
gate animate 25
add automatically 65 dieseling effect 118 X
multiple 157 ease of fill 28 X-Y Plot 143
Gate Blush 134 fill time 24, 38, 43
Glass Transition Temperature 83 flow 23
flow front central temperature 39
275
Index SOLIDWORKS Simulation
276

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SOLIDWORKS Plastics

SYSPRICE - REVENDA SOLIDWORKS

Dassault Systèmes SolidWorks Corporation

Heat Transfer Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84

More MySolidWorks.com enables you to be more productive by connecting

Hopper Liquid Resin

SOLIDWORKS SOLIDWORKS Plastics makes use of a process called the finite

Model Mesh Elements Results calculated through mesh elements

There are three packages of SOLIDWORKS Plastics; Standard,

SOLIDWORKS SOLIDWORKS Plastics Standard is the package geared towards the

Upon successful completion of this lesson, you will be able to:

Basic Flow In this lesson, we will perform an

2 Open the part file.

User Interface Commands used in SOLIDWORKS Plastics can be found in three

Element Types As stated in Introduction: SOLIDWORKS Plastics on page 7, flow is

Shell Elements A Shell mesh is generally used on thin

4 Select the mesh type.

Note The options presented in the Shell Mesh PropertyManager are

This triangle size does not result in an accurate

The mesh looks much better. In the next step,

The Plastics The PlasticsManager Tree contains

The defult setting is Default Machine.

9 Add an injection location.

Click Add Location.

Running a Flow As mentioned earlier, the process of creating an analysis in

Batch Manager If the Analysis Manager dialog is minimized, the

Click Isoline off.

Results Adviser The Results Advisor is a pop-up

16 Save and close the file.

Exercise 1: Perform a basic flow analysis using the part

Upon successful completion of this lesson, you will be able to:

Detecting Short This lesson follows the process of predicting

1 Open a part file.

Definition Fill Within the Fill Settings, there are several

Filling Time and The Fill Time heavily influences

6 Report text file.

7 Flow front central temperature.

8 Pressure at End of Fill.

Design One advantage of performing simulations early in the design process is

Simulations Design changes made to the SOLIDWORKS part while using

11 Mesh, injection location and material.

15 Pressure at End of Fill.

Note In the injection molding process, additional pressure losses occur

Exercise 2: Detect short shots and make repairs using

Procedure Follow the procedure below.

Mesh Shell 2mm

Polymer PS, (P) Asahi Chemical, Asahi-PS 404

It is clear that the cavity does not fill properly.

10 Pressure at End of Fill.

Upon successful completion of this lesson, you will be able to:

1 Open a part file.

2 Model manager folder.

6 Copy parameters across simulations.

8 Change gate location for Duplicate 2.

9 Add batch job for Duplicate 1.

11 Run all the simulations.

12 Analyze the results.

Where to Find It  PlasticsManager: Expand RESULTS and double-click

21 Close all files.

Exercise 3: Analyze and make design changes using the

Procedure Follow the procedure below.

Upon successful completion of this lesson, you will be able to:

Injection This lesson follows the process of