MuCell micro-foaming technology has been proposed very early, but it has not been adopted on a large scale due to high cost and unattractive surface effect of the finished products. In addition, it has entered the Chinese market relatively late and has no experience in China, which makes MuCell difficult to promote in the experience-oriented Chinese injection molding industry.
Mr. Chen Chihui, manager of Yizumi New Materials and New Technology Testing Center, said: "Most customers have some understanding of micro-foaming technology, but it is not deep. They want to know how molds and products are designed, whether the product structure is reasonable, and to what extent the appearance can be done etc., so they can predict the problem of production and reduce the risk of research and development."
As a result, Yizumi is the first to consider the ability to build CAE simulation analysis – using Moldex 3D software to simulate the entire injection molding process, optimize product design, mold design and injection molding process, perform mold flow analysis, optimize gate design, and even perform simulation of special molding processes.
CAE simulation analysis has higher requirements for engineers' comprehensive ability. Chen Chihui said that in addition to training engineers, Yizumi also cooperated with GK Concept of Germany to provide customers with a complete CAE simulation analysis report to improve mold design efficiency and reduce R&D risk.
Demand for microfoam molding is rising
Earlier this year, Chen Chihui received several customer consultation calls, and some hoped to bring the mold for trial as soon as possible. "The demand for micro-foaming technology in the domestic market is rising, especially in the auto parts industry. The automotive industry has been challenging lately, which forces the auto parts suppliers to develop new technologies and processes.”
The automotive industry has entered a winter and the industry is focusing on micro-foaming technology, especially for new energy vehicles. According to relevant industry insiders, new energy vehicles should be developed, and in terms of power supply there is no essential breakthrough yet in battery technology. To improve the mileage of the car, further lightweighting is one of the better methods. Micro-foamed materials have great advantages in reducing cost, improving component quality and reducing weight, and are receiving more and more attention from auto parts manufacturers.
Since 2018, Yizumi has conducted more than 10 technical exchanges with different auto parts companies, and provided them with process simulation analysis report, mold trial verification and small batch trial production. Chen Chihui knows the needs of customers clearly: " The Customers are not just buying a set of equipment, but the entire technical service, from product design, raw material selection, mold design, to equipment selection, automation package, a complete solution.”
This allows Yizumi to move from upstream equipment supply to the front end of customer product pre-research. One of the customers, Changchun Huatao Automotive Plastics needs to win a micro-foaming project of a the automobile company. Yizumi participated in the project pre-research with technical analysis ability and assisted the customer to win the project.
As of now, Yizumi has provided several FoamPro solutions for Zhejiang Normal University, Fujian Engineering College, Changchun Huatao Automotive Plastics, Belgium Prince & Weiss and other customers, covering all-electric injection molding machine FE120, D1 series two-platen injection molding machine 900D1, 500D1 and DP series two-platen injection molding machines, such as 500DP, 1000DP, 1700DP, etc. The products have been put into use for the production of auto parts for Audi, BMW, Toyota and other automotive parts and lightweight experimental research.
Developing wide-platen series two-platen injection molding machine
The FoamPro solution has been successfully marketed, enhancing the confidence of Yizumi in the foaming process. To further promote the application of FoamPro, Yizumi will also develop a new product, the wide-platen series two-platen injection molding machine (900-2400T). Thanks to the use of MuCell technology, the customer's clamping force requirements for the injection molding machines are greatly reduced, and the new wide-platen series two-platen injection molding machine can increase the platen width by 20%~30% compared with the same clamping force injection molding machine, which is convenient for customers to produce larger foaming products or adapt to more cavity molds to increase production.
In addition, based on FoamPro's application experience in physical foaming, Yizumi will launch a chemical foaming project this year. It is understood that chemical foaming is the use of chemical methods to produce gas to foam the plastic, and the chemical blowing agent added to the plastic is heated to decompose and release the gas to foam.
Mr. Chen said that this year, Yizumi will support customers to do more foaming process analysis and testing, improve the development and marketization of physical foaming and chemical foaming, and provide more solutions for customers to achieve lightweight design.
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