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Compression Molding
Defining manufacturing constraints
In a channel recommender job, manufacturing constraints let you specify practical limits for how cooling channels can be manufactured in your mold.

Compression Molding
- Compression molding overview
  Use SimForm to perform thermal cooling analyses for your plastic compression mold designs. These analyses help you identify hot spots on the plastic part and develop cooling layouts to improve part quality and reduce cycle times.
- Setting up a simulation workflow
  You can set up and run a SimForm project by uploading your CAD file, categorizing components, selecting materials, and running simulations.
- Navigating the app interface
  The SimForm interface allows you to create and access projects and jobs, as well as add and manage users and account credits.
- Using projects and jobs
  Use projects and jobs in SimForm to manage and organize your mold design tests.
- Setting up a simulation
  Use the setup page to categorize and define your model components properties for the solver to identify them.
- Defining mold properties
  Defining mold properties based on your analysis type ensures that the SimForm solver correctly identifies the mold components in your CAD model and considers their material properties in the thermal analysis.
- Defining plastic part properties
  Categorize your plastic part components and define their materials to allow the SimForm app solver to identify them.
- Defining cooling channels
  In a channel assessment job, if your model contains cooling channels, you must define the components that represent them so the solver can identify them.
- Defining manufacturing constraints
  In a channel recommender job, manufacturing constraints let you specify practical limits for how cooling channels can be manufactured in your mold.
  - Define manufacturing constraints
    Specify the manufacturing parameters of your mold in a channel recommender job to ensure that the generated cooling regions are feasible for real-world manufacturing.
- Running a simulation
  When running a simulation, the solver relies on specific assumptions and automated processes to ensure accurate and efficient results.
- Viewing results
  The results page allows you to view and explore the thermal analysis results of your job after its simulation is completed.
- Tutorials
  These examples are designed to help you become familiar with some of the major features available in SimForm.
- Glossary

Defining manufacturing constraints

In a channel recommender job, manufacturing constraints let you specify practical limits for how cooling channels can be manufactured in your mold.

These parameters ensure that the channel recommender solver produces realistic recommendations that can be built using CNC drilling or additive manufacturing.

When defining manufacturing constraints, you control:

The coolant inlet temperature.
The minimum distance between cooling channels centerlines and the plastic part surface to maintain manufacturability and mold integrity.
The diameter of the cooling channels you intend to manufacture.

The solver accounts for the specified constraints during optimization. It filters out layouts that do not meet your limits and prioritizes feasible regions that comply with your manufacturing standards.