Smart Molding International 4-2021

software 40 smart_molding international 4/2021 P lastics mold making has its unique design and manufactur - ing process. Frequent design changes and short delivery time make the situation even more challenging. Also, due to the high entry barriers of this industry, knowledge and skill gaps tend to occur. Under these cir - cumstances, the preservation and in - heritance of design experiences are ex - tremely critical for enterprises today. PLM focuses on managing the over - all product lifecycle. It does not pro - vide comprehensive features to bring design and engineering data together. The industry needs a platform to help acquire design andmolding knowledge, and organize them in readable, search - able, and visualizable formats for fu - ture utilization. However, useful tools for tracing the design-optimization pro - cess, instant sharing and visualization of simulation results, comparing mold tryout and quality inspection data are missing in most PLM systems. Every new plastic part and mold de - velopment involves many stages and different talents, such as product de - sign, mold design, moldmanufacturing, mold tryout, and production. When re - ceiving a new project from an internal request or external customer via PLM, the design manager usually holds a preliminary Design for Manufacturing (DFM) meeting to determine the part requirements for preparing a quote. Numerous design and simulation itera - tions will then be performed in order to decide the gate number, locations, and sizes, improve flow balance, optimize runner system and water circuits, esti - mate cycle time and deal with potential shrinkage and warpage problems, etc. After the final mold design is concluded, the mold steel is cut and assembled for the first mold tryout (T0). Before T0, it would be very helpful to receive advice from simulations in order to optimize process conditions. Tool debug, part optimization, and mold tryouts are further proceeded to yield acceptable parts with competitive cost. The above-mentioned process is crit - ical to the long-term competitiveness of each company. However, different engineers oversee various stages in the whole process, and their data is usu - ally stored in many different software, hardware, or file systems. To ensure a streamlined workflow and traceability, it is necessary to integrate and system - ize these scattered data on one single platform. Different from general PLM systems, iSLM is a web-based platform that can record various mold design data, such asmaterial data, machine specifications, Moldex3D CAE analysis projects, mold information,mold tryout conditions, and molding results, etc. Users can access this datamanagement platform through a browser on any device anywhere. Only one click is needed to upload Moldex3D projects to iSLM. The sys - When it comes to useful tools that can enhance teamwork efficiency, we usually think of the Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) systems. However, for the plastic part and mold designers, general- purpose PLM systems might not be satisfactory enough. The reason is that they cannot fully cooperate with the time-demanding yet complicated plastics mold development process, and it is usually too costly for small and medium-sized enterprises to adopt. Why a dedicated system for plastics mold development is indispensable iSLM completes product development lifecycle management with its comprehensive capabilities to trace the design-optimization process and acquire molding knowledge (All pictures: CoreTech System)