Product innovation has gained momentum at Bottero, a specialist in the glass industry, which used modeFrontier to optimise a high-performance mold-motion mechanism.
The optimisation platform, developed by Esteco, allowed engineers in the structural and fluid dynamics simulation department to achieve the perfect balance between optimal geometry and mechanism stability.
The recent launch of E-MOC, a family of mold opening and closing mechanisms (MOC), has challenged the hollow glass industry. Esteco says E-MOC introduces a new cooling concept, granting the possibility to achieve the proper temperature profile, according to the type of process required for the application field.
'The innovative idea behind E-MOC design is the result of our R&D team’s work: numerous constraints were limiting the possibility of changing the machinery design, so modeFrontier, the multi-objective optimisation platform, came to our help,' said Marcello Ostorero, structural and fluid dynamics simulation department manager at Bottero.
The mechanism had to be equipped with a universal mold holder providing efficient cooling and, when mounted, it had to be readily accessible and installable on both new and existing machines. The optimal system performance called for a smooth and precise mold motion, with fast closing time, and maximum closing and clamping forces.
'Due to the intricate nature of the required mechanism, the systematic optimisation approach proposed by modeFrontier was the only way to obtain a functioning high-performance design,' said Ostorero.
'ModeFrontier managed to find a fine balance between a high number of rigorous constraints and adjust the model geometry to the most important mechanism specifications so as to increase its efficiency and quality, while successfully driving a number of software, each solving a single aspect of the problem, integrated in a single workflow.'
