The advanced virtual design of parts and assemblies in plastic and advanced composite material

CRIT has organized a technology seminar, addressed to member companies and companies of the Accredited Suppliers Network, with the collaboration of AlmaTec (a company that develops and resells software solutions to support engineering design in various industrial sectors). The meeting will see the intervention of Proplast (a consortium of companies and research subjects specialized in R&D and training services in the area of ​​plastic material transformation, materials engineering, product engineering) and LATI Industria Termoplastici SpA (global provider of high technology solutions for the thermoplastic industry), with as many case studies resulting from direct experiences in the subject of the meeting.

Abstract

The design of complex systems, mechanical and otherwise, carried out in a completely parametric virtual environment has been known for decades and is regularly applied by industries to design and develop the products that they will put on or have already put on the market. The next step on the road to modernizing the product design and development process is the introduction of the integrated virtual design methodology (VPD): it uses the virtual / digital models created in the CAD to perform all the functional checks and not the product that, otherwise, they must be carried out through costly, complex, long and dangerous physical test campaigns (tests of structural strength, fatigue, mechanical operation, feasibility, molding, noise, vibration, …).

In this event, attention will be focused on the material front, applying the VPD methodology for the resolution of complex analysis models related to assemblies formed by parts in plastic, reinforced plastic and / or multi-layer composite material.

In particular, the problem will be tackled as a whole, through the illustration of practical cases, starting from the simulation of the forming process (injection, molding, crushing of elastomers / rubbers, …) up to the structural analysis of the parts / assemblies of the model, simulating the characteristics of materials through the DIGIMAT technology / software (which works in co-simulation with FEM analysis software).

Thanks to DIGIMAT technology the design of materials and the evaluation of their mechanical characteristics can be done in a completely digital environment, even before physically producing the material itself: composite, plastic, elastomer, … whatever it is. The synergy with FEM analysis software, then, allows to digitally simulate these characteristics without the need to carry out physical measurement test campaigns to obtain the data to be used in the analysis itself. The speeches of the day will highlight how the correct application of this virtualization methodology in the product development phase allows to reach the physical prototype with the almost certainty that the same respects the project requests, thus guaranteeing the more than tangible cost reduction and of the risks of the design itself.