| Moldflow Plastics Laboratories (MPL) has long been committed
to strengthening its ties to the material supplier community in
the interests of providing Moldflow customers with the broadest
range of high-quality data for CAE simulations. The introduction
of the Web-based MPL/Data Fitting 1.0 utility gives material suppliers
the ability to create material data files that can be imported directly
into Moldflow Plastics Insight (MPI) and Moldflow Plastics Advisers
(MPA) software. The new utility eliminates delays caused by waiting
for MPL staff to perform data fitting services and provides an easy
way for material suppliers to enhance services to their own customers
who require material data for Moldflow simulations.
Robert Newman, Moldflow's director of material technology and responsible
for MPL operations, notes, "Now material suppliers can compile
data and fit model constants for their own materials directly. This
means the most current and accurate material data can be presented
to Moldflow customers worldwide, as soon as the data becomes available
from the supplier."
Dr.-Ing. Anka Bernnat of BASF AG CAE Service group is using MPL/Data
Fitting 1.0. She says she has seen good results and is generally
satisfied with the accuracy of the data she has fitted herself using
the new utility. "While the fitting results are comparable
to those achieved with BASF's internal fitting tools, it is more
convenient to use Moldflow's, as data are in a directly usable format.
The user interface to import data also is handy to use."
Dr. Bernnat commented that BASF customers frequently request data
to perform Moldflow simulations for materials that are not yet included
in the public Moldflow material database. She has already used MPL/Data
Fitting to provide data in Moldflow's UDB format to some of her
customers. She and her customers have been pleased with the fast
turnaround afforded by the Web-based utility. "The disadvantage
at the moment is that a lot of customers still prefer to work with
ASC files, which cannot be exported directly," explained Bernnat.
"But that's a question of time."
Allowing material suppliers to fit their own raw data to Moldflow
models benefits the material suppliers themselves, as well as their
own customers and Moldflow customers generally. Bernnat stated that
being able to provide fitted data on demand "is seen as a plus
for our customers - they can run their analysis without time delay
if they do not first need to contact a third party to get the data."
She continued, "To make it a real plus, the data must be reliable,
and changes must be entered in the public database within a short
time. Hence, it is necessary that customers can download updates
of the database often."
Material suppliers who use the MPL/Data Fitting utility can flag
materials that are approved to be included in subsequent releases
of the Moldflow Material Database, which streamlines the process
of database update and revision. Moldflow customers can find database
updates available for download from the Moldflow Customer Resource
Center (MPI customers) and the Moldflow Community Center (MPA customers). |
| MPL/DATA FITTING 1.0
BENEFITS
-
Material suppliers are able to ensure
the accuracy of converting their raw material data for
use in Moldflow software
-
Material suppliers can convert their
raw material data as soon as it is available, avoiding
delays caused by manual conversion methods
-
Allows Moldflow users access to
the converted material data as soon as it becomes available
from the material supplier
-
Automates the process of material
suppliers adding new material grades to the Moldflow Material
Database
Plot Viscosity Data
Plot pvT Data
Plot Thermal Conductivity Data |
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