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Compression Molding
Tutorials
These examples are designed to help you become familiar with some of the major features available in SimForm.
Comparing cooling designs
In this tutorial, you will compare the thermal performance of conformal and conventional mold cooling designs.
Define the mold
Categorize your mold components to allow the solver to identify them. You will then define their materials.

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.
- 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.
  - Setting up and running a conventional cooling design
    In this tutorial, you will perform a mold cooling analysis for a conventional cooling design.
  - Comparing cooling designs
    In this tutorial, you will compare the thermal performance of conformal and conventional mold cooling designs.
    - Create a job
      Create a job within an existing project and upload the mouse shell conformal cooling design.
    - Define the mold
      Categorize your mold components to allow the solver to identify them. You will then define their materials.
    - Define the plastic part
      Categorize your plastic part components to allow the solver to identify them. You will then define their materials.
    - Define the cooling channels
      Define all the cooling channels, and identify inlets and outlets for each channel.
    - Run the simulation
      Start the solving process.
    - Compare results
      Enable the compare jobs mode and compare the thermal results of the conformal and conventional cooling designs.
  - Running a feasibility analysis
    In this tutorial, you will perform a feasibility analysis for a model of a computer mouse shell plastic part design.
  - Extracting cooling channels
    In this tutorial, you will learn how to extract and define the inlets and outlets of your cooling channels directly from your mold without using physical CAD bodies.
  - Running a basic mold analysis
    In this tutorial, you will learn how to set up, solve, and interpret results of a basic mold analysis.
  - Creating and using recommended regions
    In this tutorial, you will generate recommended regions and export them into a channel assessment job.
  - Learning videos
- Glossary

Define the mold

Categorize your mold components to allow the solver to identify them. You will then define their materials.

You will categorize the mold components into two mold groups, one for the mold cavity and one for the mold core. This allows you to view the results of each mold group separately.

In the display window, select the mold cavity.
In the Mold Group 1 card, click add to assign the cavity as a part of the mold group 1.
Click expand to view the list of added components for verification. If necessary, you can click remove to remove a categorized component from the mold group.
In the Mold Group 1 card, click hide to hide the categorized component to verify that your components are correctly categorized.
Repeat steps 2 and 3 to select the sprue bushing and add it as a part of Mold Group 1.
In the display window, select the mold core.
In the Mold Group 2 card, click add to assign the core as a part of the mold group 2.
In the Mold Group 2 card, click hide to hide the categorized component.
Repeat steps 6 and 7 to select the ejector pins and add them as a part of the Mold Group 2.

You must categorize all components in contact with the plastic part into one of the mold groups to ensure accurate temperature results. Excluding them from the analysis creates additional sources of cooling that distorts the temperature results and the cooling time estimation.
In each Mold Group card, make sure P20 Mold Steel is selected from the Select Material list as the mold material.