Mold Mesh Generation by Stitching Various Sources Incrementally

Autodesk Moldflow is a simulation package for plastic injection molding. As part of the solutions for Digital prototyping, it helps CAE analysts and manufacturers optimize the design of plastic parts and injection molds. In general, models of the plastic parts are created at the first stage of product optimization and the major concern is the manufactured quality of the parts. Once the product design is satisfactory, optimization may be extended to mold design. However, the challenge is that models of the mold geometry may not yet exist in the analysis models. The plastic parts sit inside the mold geometry and have contact interfaces. If the analysis model is replaced by a new assembly which includes the mold components, all analyses will have to be re-run. In addition, it is also common that part geometry is optimized as a result of the part analyses. In order to extend analyses to molds based on legacy meshes for plastic parts, we provide an approach to generate mold meshes incrementally by stitching new CAD or STL bodies of the mold with existing part meshes.