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SOLIDWORKS Plastics Course Overview

The SOLIDWORKS Plastics course is designed to teach participants how to use SOLIDWORKS Plastics, a specialized simulation software tool, to optimize their plastic part designs for manufacturability. This course aims to help users maximize quality, avoid rework, and decrease time to market by providing an in-depth understanding of SOLIDWORKS Plastics’ capabilities in predicting and managing the injection molding process.

About SOLIDWORKS Plastics:

SOLIDWORKS Plastics is a comprehensive tool for computer-aided design (CAD) that supports the prediction of how melted plastic flows during the injection molding process. It serves as an ideal companion to other SOLIDWORKS products, such as SOLIDWORKS Electrical Schematic for system engineering and SOLIDWORKS 3D CAD for manufacturing and plant layout, facilitating seamless integration across different stages of product development. By predicting manufacturing defects such as weld lines, air traps, short shots, and sink marks, you can change the part or mold geometry, the processing conditions, or the plastic material itself to eliminate or minimize them, saving energy, material, time, and money. The SOLIDWORKS Plastics course covers all the features and functions of both SOLIDWORKS Plastics Professional (for part designers) and SOLIDWORKS Plastics Premium (for mold designers).

Skills Learned:

  • Predicting and managing the injection molding process
  • Detecting manufacturing defects such as weld lines, air traps, short shots, and sink marks
  • Optimizing mold design for uniform wall thickness and reduced defects
  • Implementing precise control systems for temperature, pressure, and cooling time
  • Designing and optimizing family molds for efficient production
  • Understanding and applying hot runner systems in mold design
SOLIDWORKS Plastics Training

Course Duration

2 Days  (7 hours/day)

Prerequisites

SOLIDWORKS Essentials Course

Experience with the Windows® operating system

SOLIDWORKS Advanced Part Modeling

Onsite Training

Course Examples

Filling & Sink Mark Analysis
Assess part quality and quickly adjust designs to eliminate visual defects
Warpage Analysis
Analyze part cooling, warpage, and residual stresses
Cooling Channels
Design the entire mold with cooling lines and optimize cycle times
Hot Runner Analysis
Design manufacturing schemes for large plastic parts and control the flow of material with valves and hot runners
Short Shot Analylsis
Run plastic filling analysis to determine if part will fill and eliminate defects from short shots
Multi-Cavity Runner Balancing
Optimize designs and manufacturing for multi-cavity family molds and balance material flow with runner balancing

SOLIDWORKS Plastics Course Syllabus

Lesson 1: Basic Fill Analysis

  • Injection Process
    • Number of Injection Units
  • Element Types
    • Shell Elements
    • Solid Elements
  • Injection Units
  • Plastic Material Database
  • Boundary Conditions
  • Injection Location
  • Create Mesh
  • Simulation Type
    • Cool
    • Fill
    • Pack
    • Warp
  • Fill Results
    • Fill Time
    • Weld Lines
    • Results Advisor
  • Exercise 1: Basic Fill Analysis

Lesson 2: Detecting a Short Shot

  • Fill Properties
    • Defining Fill Properties
    • Filling Time and Injection Pressure Considerations
    • Report File
  • Flow Front Central Temperature
    • Pressure at End of Fill
  • Configurations
    • Thickness Change
  • Exercise 2: Short Shots

Lesson 3: Automation Tools

  • Duplicate Study
  • Plastics File Management
  • Batch Management and Controls
  • Compare Results
  • Report
  • Exercise 3: Design Changes

Lesson 4: Injection Locations and Sink Marks

  • Injection Location Rules
    • Positioning the Injection Location
    • Single vs. Multiple Injection Locations
  • Predict Fill Pattern
  • Injection Location Advisor
  • Sink Marks
  • Visibility Commands
    • Measure
    • Minimizing Sink Marks in Ribs
    • Nominal Wall Thickness Advisor
  • Exercise 4: Minimizing Sink Marks (1)
  • Exercise 5: Minimizing Sink Marks (2)

Lesson 5: Materials

  • User-Defined Material Database
  • Resin Properties
  • Temperature Properties
    • Melt Temperature
    • Mold Temperature
    • Ejection Temperature
  • Polymer Types
    • Thermoplastic
    • Thermoset
  • Thermal Properties
    • Specific Heat
    • Thermal Conductivity
  • Rheological Properties
    • Transition Temperature
    • No-Flow Temperature
    • Juncture Loss Coefficient
    • Viscosity
  • PVT Data
  • Thermo-Mechanical Properties
    • Thermal Expansion Coefficient
    • Elastic Modulus
    • Poisson's Ratio

Lesson 6: Mesh Manipulation

  • Local Mesh Refinement
    • Advanced Mesh Control and Options
  • Edit/Review
    • Mesh
    • Mesh Analysis
    • Mesh Triangles
    • Mesh Nodes
  • Element Issues
  • Leader Lines
  • Solid Mesh
    • Solid and Shell Mesh
    • Tetrahedral Elements
    • Hexahedral Elements
    • Specifying the Mesh Type
  • Solid Mesh Size
    • Hybrid Tetrahedral Parameters
    • Hexahedral Parameters
  • Exercise 6: Mesh Repairs

Lesson 7: Detecting Air Traps

  • Air Traps
    • Dieseling Effect
    • Plot Ranges
    • Thickness Analysis
  • Venting
    • Venting Analysis
    • Venting Locations
  • Solver Settings
  • Exercise 7: Air Traps

Lesson 8: Gate Blush

  • Runner Elements
    • Domains
  • Gate Blush
    • Shear Stress
    • Reducing Gate Blush

Lesson 9: Packing and Cooling Times

  • Flow/Pack Switch
  • Pack Stage
    • Pack Settings
  • Pack Analysis
  • Pack Results
  • X-Y Plot
    • Volumetric Shrinkage at End of Packing
  • Clipping Plane Mode
  • Iso Surface Mode
  • Cooling Times
    • Temperature at Post-Filling End
    • Nodal Temperature
  • Exercise 8: Packing and Cooling Times
  • Exercise 9: Optimizing Cooling Time
  • Multiple Injection Locations

Lesson 10: Multiple Cavity Molds

  • Mold Layouts
  • Runner System
  • Runner Channel Design
    • Runner Types
    • Searching for Polymers
  • Clamping Force
    • Clamp Force Limit
    • Clamp Force Command
  • Family Mold Layout
  • User Runner-Balancing
  • Exercise 10: Multiple Cavity Molds
  • Exercise 11: Runner-Balancing
  • Exercise 12: Clamp Force

Lesson 11: Symmetry Analysis

  • Symmetry
  • Cyclic Symmetry
  • Exercise 13: Half Symmetry
  • Exercise 14: Symmetry Face
  • Exercise 15: Cyclic Solid
  • Exercise 16: Symmetric Jetting

Lesson 12: Valve Gates and Hot Runners

  • Hot Runners
  • Valve Gates
    • Control Valve

Lesson 13: Reaction Injection Molding

  • Reaction Injection Molding

Lesson 14: Using Inserts

  • Inserts
  • Metal Material Database
    • Insert Settings
    • Hiding Cavities and Inserts

Lesson 15: Multi Material Overmolding

  • Multi Material Overmolding
  • Assigning Injection Units

Lesson 16: Co-Injection Molding

  • Thick-Parts
    • Co-Injection
    • Gas Assist
    • Water Assist

Lesson 17: Bi-Injection Molding

  • Copy and Paste
  • Bi-Injection
  • Injection Start Value

Lesson 18: Cooling Analysis

  • Cooling
    • Cooling Simulation
  • Cooling Channels and Mold Bodies
  • Baffle
  • Bubbler
  • Cooling Simulations
    • Cooling Input
    • Mold Wall Temperature
  • Cooling Parameters
  • Cooling Analysis
  • Cool Results
  • Exercise 17: Cooling Analysis

Lesson 19: Warpage Analysis

  • Shrinkage
    • Reducing Shrinkage
  • Warpage
  • Warp Parameters
  • Warp Results
  • Reducing and Fixing Warped Parts
    • Thermal Contributions to Warping
    • Typical Warp Shapes
    • Residual Stress

SOLIDWORKS Plastics Course Schedule

SOLIDWORKS Motion Training

SOLIDWORKS Motion Simulation Class

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SOLIDWORKS Simulation Premium Nonlinear Class

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SOLIDWORKS Simulation Essentials Training

SOLIDWORKS Simulation Essentials Class

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SOLIDWORKS Simulation Professional Training

SOLIDWORKS Simulation Professional Class

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SOLIDWORKS Flow Simulation Training

SOLIDWORKS Flow Simulation Class

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SOLIDWORKS Flow - Government
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SOLIDWORKS Motion Training

SOLIDWORKS Motion Simulation Class

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