Material suggestion

[anfegoga]

Hi:

I'm trying to do a simulation and my problem is that i can´t find the right material. I need make a simulation with a polycaprolactone (a bio polymer) with a molecular weight of 80000 and Aldrich Manufacturer. This material has a melt temperature of 60°C and a melt flow index extremely small (7), approximately. Do someone have any update of material database with this material or similar?. Do someone have any sugestion of material?. My part is similar to a hair curler, with very thin wall (0,8mm), diameter of 10mm and length of 40mm and is very important to do a simulation closely to reality.

Thanks for your help

[raalteh]

Hi anfegoga,

You are indicating that accurate simulation results are critical here. This implies that the material data is critical here. I would strongly suggest you to use the exact material grade, with the material indicators as 'Gold'. The question you posed to the forum was not explicit on which exact material grade you are referring to (a grade name would help here), but ... Certainly I would not suggest you use a 'similar' material, particularly not based on an MFI. Relying on a 'similar material' creates a huge amount of uncertainty in the analysis results. Even if, in hind sight, the material would perfectly match the what you would see on the machine, you don't know this upfront. With this uncertainty cast, any analysis result produced upfront has significant doubt cast on it, and a bad result may steer you in the wrong direction.

If your supplier does not have sufficient data on the exact material grade, the Moldflow Polymer Labs, and a few other labs, offer testing services for characterizing the material you are using. With properly characterized materials used, the ability of the software to predict goes up drastically!

Hanno