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Design Evaluation
Designing a plastic part that is structurally sound, functions properly, appears cosmetically pleasing, and is able to be molded and assembled to other parts, can be extremely challenging. The engineers at The Madison Group have a broad and deep understanding of the important aspects required to ensure part success, including:
- Appropriate materials to use for specified structural requirements and conditions.
- Assembly methods of plastics, including welding, bonding and fastening.
- Additives to enhance part performance and longevity.
- Design methods to help make certain loads will be supported and the part can be molded.
- Intricacies of molding a plastic part.
- Molding simulation: mold filling, fiber orientation, cooling, warpage, and more.
- Part lifetime prediction.
- Structural analysis.
- Environmental effects on plastics: how to test and account for these effects.
- Temperature behavior of plastics.
- Failure analysis if a part does not perform correctly.
- Preventive measure to increase part longevity.
- Testing to understand material behavior.
- Tests to understand how and help guarantee the part will perform as expected.
The Madison Group can assist your team to help achieve success first part out.
Structural Analysis (FEA)
As plastics are being integrated and used in more performance demanding applications designers and engineers need a method of evaluating the design of a part to ensure it will perform for its intended lifetime. The Madison Group uses structural finite element analysis (FEA) to help predict how the part will respond while in service. Due to the relatively complex nature of polymers, structural analysis allows our engineers to quickly and efficiently evaluate each aspect of your plastic part:
- Material selection
- Part design
- Processing
- Installation
- Service conditions
These factors are inter-related and need to be considered collectively. The Madison Group’s extensive knowledge of these factors allows for solutions to be found quickly and helps bring its clients to market faster.
Information that is commonly extracted from these analyses includes:
- Displacement
- Temperature profile
- Stress
- Creep behavior
- Strain
- Processing induced anisotropy
Physical Prototype Testing/ Engineering Mechanics
A significant step in any design validation process is the testing of physical prototypes. Important information can be gained about the influence of the material, part design, and manufacturing on the end product. The Madison Group can assist customers in the design and custom testing of manufactured parts to help determine:
- Mode of failure
- Maximum load to break
- Strain to break
- Chemical compatibility
CT Scanning
A critical aspect of any part design is to ensure the part has been manufactured to print. The presence of voids and out-of-tolerance dimensions can lead to unforeseen stresses on the part that may affect the performance of the part. Computed Tomography (CT) scanning of physical parts allows for a non-destructive method to evaluate the quality of the entire manufactured product (Both internal and external features). The output of the scan is a three- dimensional computer image that can be digitally sliced and used to provide information on:
- CAD to part dimensional analysis
- Void detection
- Non-destructive evaluation of assemblies
- Non-destructive evaluation of component fit and function
- Non-destructive evaluation of weld joints