Aachen
September 2019
MAGMATIP 58
RECOMMENDED HANDLING OF HIGH
PRESSURE DIE CASTING PROJECTS
In this MAGMATIP you will be shown how to generate a mesh for a project with
shot chamber. Moreover, you will learn what to look out for when converting an
older project.
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© Copyright 2018, MAGMA GmbH, Aachen,
Germany. All rights reserved.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1.0 INTRODUCTION TO MESH GENERATION ............................................................... 2
1.1 Check The Mesh Quality ......................................................................................................... 2
1.2 Coarsening of the Die .............................................................................................................. 3
2.0 RULES FOR THE SHOT CHAMBER .......................................................................... 5
2.1 Geometry and Mesh Perspectives .......................................................................................... 5
2.2 Definition Perspective .............................................................................................................. 7
2.3 Velocity of the 1st Phase ......................................................................................................... 7
3.0 INLET DEFINITION OF 5.3 PROJECTS ..................................................................... 8
4.0 CONTACT .................................................................................................................. 9
1
1.0 INTRODUCTION TO MESH GENERATION
Due to the thin wall thicknesses and complexity of die-cast parts, the quality of the mesh is of
high importance. All functions required for the mesh generation are documented in detail in
the basic training material.
This MAGMATIP only lists some important quality criteria that you should pay particular
attention to during mesh generation.
1.1 CHECK THE MESH QUALITY
To check the quality of your mesh, you should make sure to show and evaluate the 'Mesh
Quality' criterion. This mesh result indicates all critical mesh elements in your mesh. This
allows you to see at a glance where the critical elements are and where to improve the mesh
if required.
Moreover, you should use the 'Aspect Ratio' result to check the mesh. To obtain a
qualitatively adequate mesh, we recommend you to comply with the parameters given in
Table 1.
Table 1: Recommendations for a qualitatively adequate mesh
Maximum Length of
Parameter Sets Maximum Aspect Ratio
neighboring Elements
Mold 3 2
Runner 3 1.66
Tempering Channel 3 1.66
Shot Chamber 3 1.66
Casting 3 1.66
Gate 3 1.66
The mesh criterion 'Aspect Ratio' describes the ratios between length, width and height of a
mesh element. The smaller the 'Aspect Ratio' value, the more even is the mesh. If the
'Aspect Ratio' value is one, the resulting mesh element is a cube.
The criterion 'Maximum Length of neighboring Elements' defines the ratio between two
neighboring mesh elements. For a value of two, the neighboring cell is only allowed to be
either twice or half as large as the neighboring mesh element.
2
Figure 1: 'Aspect Ratio'
Figure 1 shows the mesh criterion 'Aspect Ratio' for a sample geometry. You can see the
casting with a complete casting system. In this case, the maximum 'Aspect Ratio' value is
2.633, thus being sufficiently good.
Please note:
If you choose the classic mesh generation method, you can directly enter these two parameters, and
the parameters are automatically complied with. This also applies to the 'Min. Wall Thickness' method.
Here, these parameters are automatically considered in the background. However, if you opt for the
'Equidistant' meshing method, you need to consider these parameters yourself. If, for instance, you
choose an 'Equidistant' mesh generation of 1 mm for the gates, for the other parameter sets belonging
to the „melt groups“, the mesh element dimensions must not exceed 3 mm. Thus you make sure that
the 'Aspect Ratio' value is met. If you define a coarser mesh than the one just described, this will
impair the length/width/height ratio. Within the parameter set for the die, the mesh element dimensions
must not exceed 3 mm to ensure that the recommendations are met.
1.2 COARSENING OF THE DIE
After this step, you can specify settings that allow you to summarize several mesh elements
to one mesh element. Thus you obtain an unstructured composed mesh that features a
smaller number of mesh elements than the Cartesian mesh it is based on.
During the summarizing process, eight mesh elements are merged to one large mesh
element. This allows you to create a fine basic mesh that adequately depicts the contours.
Afterwards, through coarsening, you can gradually further summarize the mesh towards the
edge with increasing distance from the contour.
3
Figure 2: Coarsened mesh
Coarsening is only allowed in the die or in the associated die elements; here, 3 coarsening
loops are admissible. In Figure 2, you can see an example of coarsening the die.
Please note:
When importing a project from 5.3, please remember to activate at least the values for the
coarsening of the die.
4
2.0 RULES FOR THE SHOT CHAMBER
When setting up a simulation with a shot chamber, you should make sure to additionally
observe some rules that will be described in the following chapter.
2.1 GEOMETRY AND MESH PERSPECTIVES
If the geometries of the materials in the shot chamber (biscuit, shot chamber and plunger) do
not have identical triangulations, errors may occur in the mesh. This can lead to problems
during the simulation. If this problem occurs, the error message shown in Figure 3 comes up.
In case this error occurs, the mesh in the shot chamber is not consistent with the surrounding
components (biscuit, plunger), as shown in the bottom left image.
Figure 3: Error message – shot chamber
Therefore, if you carry out a simulation with shot chamber, it makes sense for you to check
already in the Geometry Perspective whether the materials 'Biscuit', 'Shot Chamber' and
'Plunger' have the same triangulation. If you use the 'HPDC Shot Chamber' function, there is
normally no problem (see Figure 4).
5
Figure 4: Triangulation of the materials 'Biscuit', 'Shot Chamber' and 'Plunger'
If you wish to use a user-defined shot chamber, you should make sure to check these
parameters. To do so, you need to select the materials 'Biscuit', 'Shot Chamber' and 'Plunger'
in the Geometry Perspective and change the 'Drawmode' to 'Shaded + Edges'. If the
triangulations do not match each other, you can change this by double-clicking on the project
name in the geometry tree and changing the value of the triangulation here. Note that when
using geometries based on STL data, this is not possible due to the defined triangulation.
Open the dialog with a double click.
Adjust the value of the triangulation until it fits.
Is not possible with STL data!
Figure 5: Changing the triangulation of the geometry model
6
2.2 DEFINITION PERSPECTIVE
In the shot curve calculator you have either two input fields or only one for the temperature,
depending on whether you calculate with or without shot chamber. The dialog will then look
as shown in Figure 6. Always check the selected temperature to make sure it corresponds to
your simulation set-up.
Without shot chamber
With shot chamber
Figure 6: Dosing temperature
2.3 VELOCITY OF THE 1ST PHASE
During the simulation of the shot chamber, melt may splash from the pour hole of the shot
chamber. Figure 7 illustrates this phenomenon. In such a case, the simulation may be
aborted. This happens because the velocity of the plunger of the 1st phase is too high in the
shot curve calculator ('Acceleration profile') (this particularly becomes apparent for constant
velocities under 'Constant velocity'); therefore, you should make sure to reduce the value
accordingly here. If no more melt splashes out of the shot chamber, the simulation will run
without any problems.
Splashing melt
can lead to problems.
Figure 7: Simulation of the 1st phase
7
3.0 INLET DEFINITION OF 5.3 PROJECTS
If you have not worked with the 'HPDC Inlet' function in older MAGMASOFT® versions or
have changed the inlet thickness manually, problems may arise in the inlet definition while
converting the project in MAGMASOFT® 5.4. This problem is illustrated in Figure 8.
When you open the 'HPDC Inlet', When you leave the dialog, With "edit sel inlet_height -1", you
it looks right at first. the display gets wrong. can disable this function.
Figure 8: Inlet definition
You can change the inlet thickness in the command line in the Geometry Perspective. To do
so, you need to enter "edit sel inlet_height_{value}" with the corresponding height {value}. If
this has already been done in the converted project, you need to disable this function as
shown in Figure 8.
8
4.0 CONTACT
If you have any questions, please contact us.
MAGMA Gießereitechnologie GmbH MAGMA Engineering Asia-Pacific Pte Ltd.
Kackertstr. 11 25 International Business Park
52072 Aachen, Germany #02-24/25 German Centre
Phone: +49 241 889010 609916 Singapore
Fax: +49 241 8890160 Phone: +65 65643435
[email protected] Fax: +65 65640665
www.magmasoft.de [email protected]
www.magmasoft.com www.magmasoft.com.sg
MAGMA Engineering Korea Co., Ltd. MAGMA Engineering Branch Office India
Suite 902, Hyundai 41 Tower 2nd floor Aparajita Arcade,
917-9 Mokdong, Yangchun-gu Flat no. # 3-5-900/1, Opp: Pantaloons Store,
Seoul 158-723, Korea Himayath Nagar Main Road,
Phone: +82 2 21683575 Hyderabad - 500 029, India
Fax: +82 2 21683585 Phone: +91 40 66636516
[email protected] Fax: +91 40 66636517
www.magmasoft.co.kr [email protected]
www.magmasoft.co.in
MAGMA Foundry Technologies, Inc. MAGMA Engineering (Suzhou) Co., Ltd.
10 N. Martingale Road, Suite 425 Room 1515 CIQ Tower
Schaumburg, Illinois 60173, USA No. 98 Suhui Road, Suzhou Industrial Park
Phone: +1 847 9691001 Jiangsu Province, 215021 China
Fax: +1 847 9691003 Phone: +86 512 62725820
[email protected] Fax: +86 512 62725825
www.magmasoft.com
[email protected] www.magmasoft-china.com
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