Sigma Engineering and Momentive Performance Materials collaborate to optimise material data for silicone elastomers in order to make process simulation with SIGMASOFT Virtual Moulding more reliable.
Sigma
The challenge is to produce high-precision components with high requirements that simultaneously exhibit the highest thermal expansion and the greatest compressibility of all elastomers. The more precise the material data and understanding of the material, the better the predictions made by the simulation.
The use of standardised laboratory values for the definition of material laws in the simulation is not sufficient to describe the complex behaviour of components. The observation and consideration of process parameters during processing is not yet part of conventional material data. In the future, it will be necessary to use data from real injection moulding processing in order to refine and calibrate the material data. This improves the reliability of the simulation results as well as the material data.
“We are very much looking forward to working together with SIGMA Engineering,” says Holger Albrecht, vice president and head of the elastomer business unit at Momentive. “The more precise the material data in LSR processing, the more accurate the simulation can be. This is certainly an advantage for companies in the silicone processing industry - because there is potential for far-reaching optimisations in the manufacturing process.”