An analysis of four mould flow analysis software tools evaluated on several factors including ease of use, functionality, costs of the licence and run time of the simulation.
Software used for consideration:
- Moldex3D eDesign R16
- Autodesk Moldflow Insight Standard 2019
- VISI Flow
- SolidWorks Plastics Premium
All software’s will be trialled using the same parts and will be evaluated based upon several factors:
- Ease of use:
- The rate of smoothness, accessibility and the ability to have a good work flow.
- The inclusion of online (or included) help files and/or tutorials
- Results and ease of interpretation of results (can I understand what is presented! Does it meet our requirements? Can it advise on mould settings?)
- Functionality:
- Family mould tooling (Multiple cavities of different components g. kits on sprues, and still be able to use gate and runner wizards) single part analysis is only suitable for part design and offers little in the way of mould tool development advancement
- Insert over moulding, for observing effects of inserted (over moulded) metal inserts on model, e.g. warpage effects and non-uniform shrinkage
- Geometry advice (runner, gate and cooling channel advisors)
- Incorporation/simulation of tooling parts (plates, cooling etc.)
- Run time of the simulation
Read the full report conducted by Pritchard Patent Product Co Limited here: Mould Flow Analysis Software Evaluation Report (PDF)