| Abstract | Intermittent extrusion blow molding is increasingly being used in polymer forming processes for the production of complex thermoplastic industrial parts with short cycle times. During this process residual stresses caused by inhomogeneous cooling and relaxation of polymer chains, often result in shrinkage and warpage of the final part. One challenging quality requirement of industrial blow molded parts is geometric tolerances. Therefore part deformation, due to cooling and solidification, needs to be controlled and optimized according to specific design criteria. In particular, the complex design shapes of plastic fuel tank (PFT) shells exacerbate these challenges which need to be resolved upfront, in the early stages of product development and tool design. Consequently, the development of an accurate simulation tool, well suited for industrial applications, to predict thermoplastic part deformations due to cooling and solidification, has become essential for part designers to help achieve an efficient production with minimum manufacturing cost. The aim of this work is to present the latest advancements in predicting the shrinkage and warpage deformation of a curved PFT, designed for agricultural machinery, using NRC’s BlowView software. This case study validation considers the entire blow molding stages (i.e., polymer flow in the die, parison formation, inflation, and finally in and out of mold cooling during part solidification). The simulation results, in terms of thickness distribution and displacements, are compared to an actual scanned part using the best fit technique in order to exemplify the accuracy and reliability of the modelling approach. |
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