EHTC 2009

Use of HyperForm for Plastic Products: Comparison of HyperForm One Step/HyperForm INCREMENTAL

Aurore Claverie, Mecaplast

MECAPLAST Group is one of the European leaders in automotive equipment. The Group designs, develops and manufactures parts and complete systems for vehicle Body and Engine.

For the development of plastic parts, Mecaplast uses Hyperworks. Some of Mecaplast products like trunk trims are made by forming. As Hyperform is available in the Hyperworks platform, Mecaplast decided to test its efficiency on plastic forming even if the software is presented as “a complete solution for stamping” and “a comprehensive FE-based sheet metal forming simulation framework.” The first step was to make an appropriate material characterisation to obtain values usable by Hyperform. The second step was to study the possibilities of Hyperform in terms of pre-processor, in order to be in accordance with the real process. To achieve that goal, the incremental method was the most appropriate. This method is fairly accurate but the calculation is time-consuming. We decided to compare Hyperform incremental method and Hyperform One-Step. Hyperform One-Step could be useful for the tool design and would allow an earlier size optimization of the blank in the project.

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