Case Studies

Virtual Process Chain for RTM Battery Housings with Proxxima™ Resin Systems

Fiber-reinforced composites are a promising solution for structural BEV battery housings, combining high specific stiffness, corrosion resistance, and tailorable thermal behavior compared with metallic solutions. Together with ExxonMobil and Fraunhofer ICT, Simutence developed a virtual process chain for Proxxima™ resin systems, covering kinetic simulation, draping, RTM filling with a dedicated reactive viscosity model, and structural validation against industrial load cases. Critical air entrapment risks in the initial design were identified and resolved virtually before tool manufacturing, and the first physical shots filled the mold exactly as predicted.

Additive Manufacturing and 3D Skeleton Winding for Thermoplastic Composite Structures

Combining additive manufacturing with continuous fiber reinforcement opens a mold-free route to load-adapted thermoplastic composite structures for prototypes, small series, and industrial components. In the publicly funded confidentAM project, Simutence developed a virtual design and engineering workflow covering load-path-oriented fiber skeleton definition, AM core optimization, FEA validation, and thermal winding simulation with SimuQuick. Two industrial demonstrators confirmed the approach: a modular gripper system achieving 69% weight reduction and a thermoplastic E-MTB damper rocker with 30% weight reduction and a 20% lower CO2 footprint compared to the aluminum reference.

Macroscopic Draping Simulation for Non-Crimp Fabrics (NCF)

Modeling draping on the macroscopic level is essential for efficiently simulating industrial-scale components. Most simulations of NCF have been conducted at the mesoscopic level, where the fibers and the stitching are captured discretely. More recently, NCF models have also been developed at the macroscopic level by KIT-FAST and made available through SimuDrape. This macroscopic approach for NCF draping simulation has been adopted in the public-funded project ELECTRA and applied to a complexly shaped aerospace structure.

Virtual Process Chain for LFT-Tape-Sandwiches

Underbody structures in battery electric vehicles (BEV) protect batteries against damage from below. Impact events, in particular, represent special challenges, as a significant energy amount must be absorbed within minimal deformation tolerances.

Within protECOlight, a significantly ribbed geometry was then investigated in a large process campaign to better understand the mechanisms of rib filling on top of the LFT-tape-sandwich and through the tape.

Virtual Process Chain for SMC Materials

In a collaboration project with Blackwave, the Simutence virtual process chain for SMC materials has been validated for the rim of a lightweight airplane.  

Simutence uses an in-mold characterization approach to accurately characterize both the viscosity and the wall slip of the SMC. The acquired data is used to parameterize flow models built into commercial molding simulation software, such as Moldflow. 

Benchmark of SMC molding Simulation Tools

There are a variety of different approaches for SMC molding simulation. In a collaboration project with Volkswagen (VW)  and the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), different molding simulation tools have been benchmarked for a honeycomb structure. Therefore, the prediction accuracy for the press force and the filling pattern was validated against experimental tests.

Molding Simulation for Glass Mat Thermoplastics (GMT)

In this case study, a molding simulation for GMT materials is presented. The considered material is TEPEX® flowcore 102-RGR2400/47%, a GMT with an engineering polymer, i.e. PA6, which is manufactured by Lanxess, Bond Laminates. 

The results originate from a collaboration project between General Motors Research & Development, the University of Western Ontario (UWO), and the Institute for Vehicle System Technology (FAST) of the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) and have been published previously by Dörr. 

3D Skeleton Winding (3DSW) Lightweight Structures

The 3D skeleton winding (3DSW) technology uses injection overmolded fiber skeletons. The amount of continuous fibers is reduced drastically by using load path-appropriate fiber skeletons. In combination with an optimized overmolding structure cost-efficient lightweight structures are achieved.  A CE-certified winding cell as well as a virtual optimization and validation approach for 3DSW structures have been developed in the Korean German ZIM project ACCORD.

Warpage simulation for thermoplastic injection molding

SimuWarp was benchmarked in a collaboration project with the Robert Bosch GmbH. Material cards for different materials have been generated and the results of warpage predictions were correlated to experimental tests. A good agreement between simulation and experiments proves the prediction accuracy of SimuWarp.

Thermomechanical thermoforming simulation for thermoplastic tapes

The prediction accuracy of SimuDrape for the prediction of manufacturing defects in thermoforming simulation was validated thoroughly. This included a comparison of a fully-coupled thermomechanical analysis including the prediction of crystallization kinetics over a purely isothermal thermoforming simulation, showing a high prediction accuracy, especially for the thermomechanical approach.

Advanced Virtual Process Design for Overmolding Processes

A sequential approach consisting of thermomechanical thermoforming simulation using SimuDrape and subsequent overmolding simulation in Moldflow was developed. This enables us to predict the temperature field during thermoforming and to consider it during overmolding simulation. A sensitivity study reveals that the temperature in the blank is sensitive to the temperature achieved in the overmolding interface and thus is critical for the interface strength.