P L A S T C O M P E T E N C E C E N T E R AG

Plastic specialist slashes time and costs with NXNX Mold Wizard helps even the experts

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Experts in plasticPlast Competence Center (PCC) specializes inplastic technology, offering product design,prototyping, manufacturing of null series (initialbatch) and series production. It also providesR&D evaluation, installation and optimization ofproduction processes, including quality assurance.PCC is the partner of a manufacturing firm thatdevelops thermoplastic products and injection-molded thermoset plastic parts, components(plastics/metals), complete hardware and highlyefficient tools for injection moldings.

Engineers at PCC follow the “principles ofplastic molding” as they develop tooling,knowing that violation of these principles resultsin production problems such as sink marks.“Huge costs for unnecessary and time-consuming corrections arise through smallviolations of certain construction principles and rules during the design phase,” says DominiqueBurkard, project leader for product development at PCC. “And here arises the question of whythese defects are not given thought beforehand and corrected in time.”

Advanced tools prevent problemsThe experienced PCC design team knows that errors can be avoided through a thoroughdevelopment process, ultimately saving time and money for the customer. The team has alsolearned that great cost savings can be achieved by creating quality CAD data. For this reason,parts are built in a process-based manner using NX. Reshaping, radii and other such needs aremodeled in a segment. If necessary, the 3D model is designed as “mid-tolerant.” Data created in

Issues:

Reduce cost of plastic parts by optimizing tool design andmolding process

Increase accuracy of molddesign data

Approach:

Create 3D mold designs usingNX™ Mold Wizard software

Apply 3D geometrydownstream for flowsimulation, rapid prototypingand tool construction

Results:

Tool construction time reduced by 25 percent

Exceptional accuracy in mold design

Low defect rate

Plast Competence Center strives to reduce the cost of customers’ plastic parts by designingoptimized molds and molding processes.

www.siemens.com/plmSiemens PLM Software

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Solutions/Services

NX

NX Mold Wizard

Client’s primary business

Plast Competence Centerspecializes in all phases of plasticinjection mold design as well as

installation and productionprocess optimization.

www.plastcc.ch

this way can, on one hand, be directly incorporated in theproduction of the stereolithography models or prototypes and,on the other hand, in the construction of the tools.

PCC also uses NX Mold Wizard, an advanced, automatedsystem for mold design. Since installing Mold Wizard, PCC has been successful at reducing mold construction time by 25 percent versus conventional methods. Another outcome is a very high degree of detail and a low defect rate.

Accurate design data provides opportunitiesPCC’s designers recently used NX and Mold Wizard to design ahand-operated box for EROWA AG. The number of piecesdeveloped was so low that a technically sound injection moldcould be produced, with the design providing completefunctionality and an attractive shape. Designers modeled theouter form as a 3D model in NX. For customer reviews, theycreated 3D images using NX photorealistic renderingcapabilities and generated stereolithography models from NXdata. Tooling was designed using Mold Wizard and the 3D molddesign was imported into CAM software for tool-pathgeneration.

“Accurate CAD data is important because in the future, 3Ddata will be used directly for the tool construction,” says Burkard.“The result is an expenditure shift to the construction of tools,for example the creation of electrode data, which, thanks toMold Wizard, is possible in an efficient way. And, last but notleast, the data can be used during the development of plasticcomponents for the R&D calculations and flow simulations.”

Significant savingsBurkard points out, “Huge costs for unnecessary and time-consuming corrections arise throughsmall violations of certain construction principles and rules during the design phase. Mold Wizardvirtually eliminates such violations, saving significant time and money.”

Client location

Zofingen Switzerland

ContactSiemens PLM SoftwareAmericas 800 498 5351Europe 44 (0) 1276 702000Asia-Pacific 852 2230 3333www.siemens.com/plm

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