Effects of production parameters on the vacuum formed product finish

Rimowa是高端聚碳酸酯和铝制行李箱制造业的领导者。该公司采用了一种创新的制造工艺，包括将加热的聚碳酸酯片材真空成型到金属模具上。每年，Rimowa都会因为有缺陷的真空成型部件而损失数百万美元，这些部件在角落处有皱纹和厚度不均匀。在Engage资助的支持下，UW研究团队使用商业有限元软件Abaqus开发了整个真空成型过程的有限元模型。使用这种先进的模型，在成品中看到的皱纹被重新计算。目前Engage Plus赠款提案的目标是使用有限元模型研究表面缺陷的解决方案。

Rimowa is a leader in manufacturing of high-end polycarbonate and aluminum suitcases. The company uses an innovative manufacturing process that involves vacuum forming of heated polycarbonate sheet on to metallic moulds. Every year, Rimowa loses millions of dollars because of defective vacuum molded parts that have wrinkles and non-uniform thickness at the corners. The UW research team, with the support of the Engage grant, developed a finite element model of the entire Vacuum forming process using commercial finite element software Abaqus. Using this advanced model, the wrinkles that are seen in the finished products were recreated computationally. The goal of the current Engage Plus grant proposal is to investigate the solutions to the surface defects using the finite element model.