Aug 8 2013
Cimatron Limited and CoreTech System Co., Ltd. (Moldex3D) together announced today an agreement to deliver an integrated cooling simulation tool within CimatronE to address the growing design needs for more efficient cooling systems in the plastics industry.
It is well-known the conventional cooling design with drilled straight channels cannot cool down complex plastic parts evenly and efficiently, often resulting in poor part quality and extended cycle time problems. With the introduction of laser sintering technology, mold cores and inserts manufactured by 3D printing can keep the cooling channels close to the core/cavity surface as much as possible so as to achieve even and efficient cooling. The new integration will provide CimatronE users a convenient and powerful tool to evaluate the benefits and return-on-investment (ROI) of conformal cooling approach.
The cooling analysis capabilities will be delivered as an optional add-on in the next release of Moldex3D eXplorer for Cimatron. It will extend the power of Cimatron users from performing mold filling analysis to optimizing cooling channel layout. Designers can design in Cimatron environment mold cores and inserts with conventional channels, baffles and bubbles, and/or incorporate complex conformal cooling channels to enhance cooling in critical regions. With Moldex3D proprietary auto-mesh technology, complex cooling channel mesh models can be automatically constructed for analysis. Based on the 3D cooling analysis results from Moldex3D, users can accurately identify hot or cold spots, mold temperature, required cooling time, and cooling efficiency of a mold before cutting or “printing” the steel, and promptly revise the design in CimatronE to improve the cooling performance.
“The new cooling analysis integration with Moldex3D will help our customers to design higher quality molds with improved cooling and shorter cycle times using advanced 3D printing (Additive Manufacturing) technologies as well as traditional milling and drilling technologies.” said Ira Bareket, Vice President of Sales and Marketing at Cimatron. “The ability to support analysis of conformal cooling will place our customers at the forefront of mold production technology.”
“It is our pleasure to extend the integration with Cimatron.” stated Venny Yang, President of CoreTech System (Moldex3D). “Moldex3D is dedicated to develop with the idea and insistence upon molding innovation to deliver users easy-to-use yet most accurate molding solutions. We are glad to provide Cimatron the full support on cooling design and advanced conformal cooling analysis capability to leverage 3D printing technology.”
The new capabilities will be available to end users with the next CimatronE release.