Mold Flow Analysis

Viking Plastics has been utilizing MoldFlow since the early 2000s. MoldFlow is an essential element of any injection molding design project.

Before tooling production begins, Viking Plastics uses MoldFlow software to analyze the proposed mold design to ensure that the mold will be capable of producing the strongest, most uniform parts from each cavity. Using either a Viking-generated or customer-supplied part design, a computer model of the mold is constructed. The Moldflow software then uses this model and the processing characteristics of the specified resin to predict how the resin will flow through the mold and into the cavities. This allows various key molding attributes, such as melt temperature, pressure profile or time-to-fill, to be studied and optimized “virtually” before the mold is built. Instead of being discovered during the initial mold trial, Moldflow points out potential tooling-related molding problems and allows them to be corrected prior to cutting steel. In this way, costly and time-consuming tooling rework is avoided.

MoldFlow is not used on every application. Based on the product geometry and tolerance requirements, Viking Plastics will make suggestions for the inclusion of flow analysis costs into the program. Working with the flow analysis service provider, Viking Plastics engineers provide real world inputs into the process to obtain the most accurate results.