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VARIMOS Real


   

Better machine settings, conclusive mold tryouts

 

VARIMOS Real helps machine setters to get the most out of their molds. Find better machine settings through systematic DOE-based sampling, know whether a mold correction is needed, and monitor quality during serial production.


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Trial and error sampling is an old-fashioned way of working. VARIMOS Real is more efficient and gets you better results, conclusively!
Trial and error mold tryouts are an inefficient way of working. There's a better way: VARIMOS Real.

Get a demo!

15 minutes with an expert and you'll find out everything you need!

Schedule free Consultation

Sebastian Sutter-1

 

BENEFITS OF DOE-BASED TRYOUTS
WITH VARIMOS REAL

Improve
cycle time, quality

Using an efficient DOE approach to mold tryouts, VARIMOS Real can often improve part quality AND cycle time simultaneously.

It's not either or!

Better results

Find better
machine settings

The built-in AI will suggest the best possible machine settings, in order to optimize the quality features you tell it to improve. 

As a matter of fact, you can also optimize other production line settings like hot runner controllers, temperature controllers, gas assist controllers, etc.
Machine settings

Assess
Robustness

How much can settings change, before you violate tolerances?

VARIMOS Real's Process Window Analysis will show you how wide your process window is.

Is your injection molding process robust?

Better time planning
for tryouts

You'll know in advance how many trials you will need, thanks to the systematic DOE. No more trials than necessary!

Because tryout time is now predictable, you can plan your machine and production time more smoothly.

Plan your machine time

First time right

Get conclusive results, the first time around.
Reliably find the best feasible result. 
 
No more uncertainty, whether you could find a better setting, if only you ran more trials.
Prove whether a mold correction is needed. No more endless discussions.
First time right

Understand
cause and effect

VARIMOS Real is not a black box. It will not only suggest an optimal solution, but also show you how quality changes, if you change machine settings.

Understand cause and effect

Refine
simulated optimum

Get high-quality starting values for your parameters, based on simulations with CADMOULD and the simulation version of VARIMOS.

Then, validate, refine and improve machine settings in real life, using a VARIMOS Real DOE.

Improve

VARIMOS Real: From... To...

 

CONCLUSIVE ANSWERS, BETTER RESULTS

VARIMOS Real helps you to get the definitive answers you need:

  • What are the best machine parameters?
  • At optimal settings, will I be able to meet my tolerances? Will I need a mold correction?
  • Are there ways to reduce cycle time, without sacrificing quality?
  • How robust is my process? How wide is my process window?
  • Which machine settings have the biggest impact on part quality?
  • How would results change, if I changed machine settings?

Super Simple Results

Interactive results:
not a black box!

VARIMOS Real doesn't just present you with a single black-box "optimum" solution. Rather, it makes a suggestion, and then you can play around, change parameter settings, and instantly see what would change, if you did it differently.

What if...?

Simply change the machine parameter sliders on the left, and instantly see what will happen to your results, on the right. The results update in real-time. 

Sensitivity answers the question: How do your parameters influence part quality? You can interactively vary the parameters using simple sliders and immediately see how that will impacts your results.

This allows you to see at first glance which machine parameters have the biggest impact on results, and which don't matter much.

This analysis will also help you to understand tradeoffs. For example, if you lengthen the cooling phase, sometimes this can improve shrinkage and warpage, but worsen cycle time. VARIMOS Real makes these tradeoffs very apparent, so that you can discuss them with your colleagues and customers, and make a well-informed decision, all things considered.

VARIMOS Real will help you to find optimal injection molding machine settings. 

But its recommendation is not a black box: you can also change the settings, and VARIMOS Real will show you in realtime, how your quality and cycle time will change, if you do things differently.

Best of all: since these predictions are based on real-world measurements, there is no simulation uncertainty!

How far could a machine parameter change, before you violate part tolerances? Use the  Process Window Analysis toolkit in VARIMOS Real to find out.

Ideally, you'll want your part quality measures to be in the center of their tolerance range. This gives the most robust process because it maximizes distance to the tolerance limits.

VARIMOS Real's Process Window Analysis shows you the admissible settings range around your optimal settings. It tells you how far a setting could be changed, without violating quality tolerances. The wider this admissible settings range is, the more robust the injection molding process is. Conversely, if your part quality features are too close to their tolerance limits, then even small variations of the process can cause quality problems, resulting in a robustness issue. 

Get conclusive results about robustness with the Process Window Analysis tool -- no more guesswork!

See it in action, for free!

15 minutes with an expert and your questions will be answered!

TALK TO AN EXPERT

Julius Kaschub neu-1

 

Trial-and-error mold tryouts are inefficient

Here's why:

Wasted opportunities

Even if you've found a setting that's better than where you started, is it really the best setting possible? 

We often find that with a systematic tryout approach using VARIMOS Real, you will find better solutions that improve cost, quality and speed!

Wasted opportunities

Inefficient learning

How do you know when to stop? How many trials will you need to conclusive results? How will you know in advance?
 
Also, it's difficult to learn causally. If you make multiple changes at once, how do you know which of them made the key difference?
 
The result is, you'll waste time, energy and material, because you're learning inefficiently.
Inefficient learning

Waste of material

If you don't get the results you want, you're likely to keep trying. Inefficient tryouts result in lots of scrap material!

Waste of material

Waste of time

If you don't get the results you want, you're likely to run more than one tryout session. This means multiple interruptions of productive time.

It's hard to know when to stop, because you don't know for sure whether a better solution exists.

Waste of time
 

How does VARIMOS Real work?

VARIMOS Real: how it works

 

  • PLAN: Tell VARIMOS Real which machine settings you can vary and how you want to measure the part quality. (Almost all types of settings and quality characteristics are accepted: see FAQ). If you've simulated in advance, your simulated optimum serves as a starting point. VARIMOS Real designs an efficient design of experiments (DOE / Design of Experiments). The plan is efficient: no more trials than necessary! You know in advance how many experiments you will need. This makes it easier to plan your production and machine time in advance.
  • TRY: You run your sampling plan on the machine to produce trial parts
  • MEASURE: You evaluate / measure the quality of the produced trial part.
  • ANALYZE: VARIMOS's AI learns cause and effect. It shows you the effects of parameters on quality. You  can see the width of the process window, to evaluate robustness.
  • OPTIMIZE: The AI in VARIMOS makes a suggestion for optimal parameters. However, it's not a black box suggestion. You can edit the settings to do a what-if analysis. You'll  see instantly what will happen if you do things differently. You discuss and refine the solution with your customers and colleagues.
  • RESULT: You have now found the optimal machine settings. These are the best results achievable with this mold. If the quality at these optimal settings is good enough, no mold correction is necessary.

Tired of discussing whether you need a mold correction?

Sometimes, during sampling, you will find that your injection molded parts are not yet perfect. The questions is: do you need to change the mold, or are there ways to fix quality, by adjusting machine settings?

Often times, management will ask you to try a few more settings -- because maybe there is a better way, and corrections can be avoided.

Get conclusive answers, after exactly one tryout session

The truth is, however, that you cannot actually try all possible combinations of parameters. Injection pressure profiles, temperature control, clamping forces, etc. all have an impact, and there are infinite possible combinations of settings.

VARIMOS Real helps you resolve this question definitively, using a design of experiments (DOE) approach. VARIMOS Real uses a model to predict part quality results for any parameter combination within the min/max range of settings you used during tryouts. There is even the possibility to estimate part quality outside the tryout space (extrapolation).

The advantage: You waste less time, material and energy, and your results are conclusive the first time.

Any questions? Talk to us!

15 minutes with an expert and you'll find out everything you need!

Schedule free Consultation

SIMCON expert

 

CADMOULD VARIMOS - REAL Value Chain-1

 

BETTER TOGETHER: CONNECTING ENGINEERING TO THE SHOP FLOOR

SIMCON believes in a better together philosophy. You'll get superior results if you combine the best simulation technology in part and mold engineering with the best sampling technology on the shopfloor.

Engineering should pre-optimize parts, molds and process using plastic injection molding simulation. The VIRTUAL variant of VARIMOS helps your colleagues in part and mold engineering to explore more options, quickly. The result is an optimized part and mold design, and a first hypothesis on optimal machine parameters.

These pre-optimized parameters should then be tested, refined and improved during mold tryouts, using VARIMOS REAL. Here, the experimental design is not simulated, but physically carried out on the machine. This eliminates any remaining simulation uncertainty. Your results are real-world results. Using VARIMOS Real, you determine the final parameters, to do a final optimization of quality and cycle time, before you go in to serial production.

It's important that you then give feedback to engineering. Engineering need to  know what you've changed and why. This way, machine setters can help engineering to learn from real-world results and use that information to work even better in the future. Engineering and mold setters help each other out. They're better together!

 

 

FAQ

Frequently asked questions and answers about VARIMOS

 

Questions?

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You want details?

Check out our 40-page product brochure for a much more detailed description of our modules and functionality

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