Research and Development
Plastic Technology Center - the engineering sector of the Dr. Reinold Hagen Stiftung - is a private, non-profit research institute
Dr. Reinold Hagen Stiftung operates the ´Technology Center Plastic´, a non-profit research institute in the area of plastic engineering.
Topics of our current R&D activities are
- the development of more efficient process and product simulations. For example by connecting different simulation steps with new interfaces and better consideration of process depending material data
- tasks of process engineering, for example concerning the forming of the parison or questions about the description of the welding seam in blow molded articles or about shrinkage behaviour and warpage ( local strains or residual stresses)
Current Research Project: VMAP - A new Interface Standard for Integrated Virtual Material Modelling in Manufacturing Industry
Extrusion blow moulding is the standard manufacturing method for hollow plastic parts like bottles, cans, fuel tanks and large containers. The engineering workflow consists of different steps, starting with the blow moulding process up to the structural design and virtual or physical testing of the article. It is widely accepted that material information (local material states like wall thicknesses, residual stresses, local strains, temperatures, etc.) should be transferred from one design or simulation process to the following ones (process simulation→ cooling simulation → shrinkage and warpage → different product analysis steps). However, the currently available export and import facilities of the simulation tools and the capabilities of transformation tools (the small arrows ‘→’) are limited and a large amount of material information cannot be passed and used in a proper way.