Cylindrical and thin-walled plastic parts can give design engineers a real headache. When made from reinforced plastics, the former often have a weak spot at their knit lines and can all too easily go out of round as the part shrinks. The latter can be so difficult to fill that you may end up compromising with thicker walls or beefier part features than you would like. And thin-wall parts often have to run on specialized molding machines that can drive up piece-part costs.
You may think the only place to solve both of these classic plastic design problems is on the drawing board. But recent advances in injection molding technology have also contributed solutions that play out on the shop floor. Solvay Advanced Polymers (Alpharetta, GA) has developed a patented molding process that makes cylindrical parts stronger and rounder. And Engel GmbH, an Austrian manufacturer of molding systems, has patented a way to make thin-wall parts even thinner by compressing the molten plastic before injecting it into the cavity. Here's a closer look at both developments.
Almost every automaker has had to 'pick a side' when it comes to alternative fuel options and ways to divest from a reliance on gasoline. Fiat is looking to back compressed natural gas or liquid propane as an interim solution.
Designing and filling a new type of water bottle might take less engineering work, but the description will help kids understand how science, math, and engineering influence their lives even through things that seem mundane.
Against a backdrop of mounting product complexity and a need to keep a lid on development costs, companies are recognizing a need to make simulation a more integral part of the design process. In response, vendors in the CAD world are building out CAE functionality as part of their CAD suites while simulation vendors are building tighter integrations to leading CAD tools. Keith Meintjes, Ph.D., Practice Manager, Simulation and Analysis at CIMdata, Inc., joins Design News CAD Editor Beth Stackpole in this radio program to explore the new face of integrated CAD and CAE, how companies are benefitting from this tighter partnership between platforms, and how integrating CAE earlier in the development cycle pays off in optimized product designs.
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