Ultradur High Speed, a high-flow PBT that BASF introduced last year, has now become the company's first engineering plastic to receive an "eco-efficiency" label after a third-party review of the material's energy-saving potential. The material contains nano-scale additives that reduce its viscosity by roughly 50 percent — without sacrificing other properties. This easy flow has implications for molders trying to fill thin wall parts or cut cycle times. But it also has an environmental benefit in the form of energy savings. Extra flow can reduce the amount of energy needed to make a given part — by reducing molding machine temperatures, molding pressures and cycle times. The savings can be significant, according to an eco-efficiency review conducted by the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology. Energy usage from reducing molding machine heats and pressures can be 20 percent less than a comparable higher viscosity polymer. Cycle time reduction, with its obvious energy implications, can fall by 30 percent. For more information on Ultradur, go to http://rbi.ims.ca/4933-533.
A next-generation guided ammunition system for intercepting enemy fire that Lockheed Martin is developing for the Army has hit its targets in an initial series of tests by the company.
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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