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Digital Plastics
PEP is very involved with digital engineering issues in general, and is especially interested in two areas with strong innovation potential: innovative digital design solutions and techniques for process analysis and modelling.
LINE 1: Multidisciplinary digital design
The advent of high-performance calculation facilities, and the option of sharing them, means that it is now possible even for small and medium-sized businesses to have access to innovative simulation facilities for digitally designing their products. This is enabling businesses to explore a wide range of potential solutions.
PEP's R&D projects are developing and investing in these solutions and this technology to serve the plastics engineering industry.
LINE 2: Controlling advanced plastics engineering processes
Plastics transformation techniques are becoming complicated, and it is increasingly difficult to control the efficiency of production processes and product quality.
Controlling an industrial process first requires thorough understanding of the cause and effect relationships existing between manufacturing parameters and the product quality obtained.
Controlling processes via data analysis and modelling is an aspect of digital engineering, which aims to understand the function and dysfunction of injection processes.
This expertise is not often found in today's plastics engineering businesses. PEP and its partners (SISE and Kistler) are providing the profession with their expertise and technology (PSP, CoMo Injection).
Current projects:
The digital plastics programme was set up in 2009, and is currently supervising several R&D projects directly addressing these issues:
- MODITERE (ANR – 2010-2013): creating an iterative geometric modeller to generate fractal forms. The aim of this research is to construct innovative mathematical models for geometric filling.
- IMD3D (FUI – 2009-2012): developing in-mould decoration technology.
- aiR (In-house project – 2010-2011): developing a production reporting support application.
- PLAST-X (DGCIS Métrologie – 2010-2012): transferring CRS X-ray tomography technology to the field of plastics engineering.
- SolaireDUO (OSEO ISI – 2009-2012): developing dual solar-panel technology.
What is multidisciplinary digital design?
Multidisciplinary digital design solutions enable all design goals and constraints (thermal, mechanical, hydraulic, etc.) to be gathered together. These solutions are an innovative way to reach unexpected solutions that human beings alone would not have discovered.