Simulation commissioned by Corvaglia Mould AG

Corvaglia Mould AG is a leading producer of closure solutions for beverage bottles and other application areas. In order to guarantee both quality and efficiency in an injection moulding machine, a tight control of parameters such as injection process duration, temperature, cooling efficiency and fatigue strength is of vital importance. A quick way of expanding the knowledge of the process had to be found and integrated into a new development strategy for use by Corvaglia Mould AG.

The analysis rapidly pinpointed the most critical locations and allowed the further study of the sensitivity of process parameters to variation of control or design parameters. The utility of CFD and FEM simulations in the development of injection moulding machines has been demonstrated and represents a faster and advantageous alternative to “trial-and-error” experiments or tests. The modelling know-how, including a customized tutorial, have been transferred from CADFEM to Corvaglia Mould AG, who is now successfully using simulation.

In order to resolve the physics phenomena in a large assembly of many injection nozzles efficiently , a multiphysics modelling process has been developed in Ansys Workbench, which includes fluid (Fig. 1) and structural models (Fig. 2). The cooling efficiency of channels connected in series and in parallel, the temperature distribution in the whole machine and the evolution of structural stresses were calculated over time at the most critical locations (Fig. 3). The importance and influence of parameters such as the geometry of the mechanical components, the process parameters and the cooling efficiency on component stresses and transient thermodynamic phenomena have been analyzed through a parametric study.