This year's REX/PSI user meeting (REX = computer-aided extruder design, PSI = Paderborn injection moulding simulation) brought together numerous representatives from industry and science, including company representatives from Arburg GmbH & Co. KG, BASF SE, Battenfeld-Cincinnati Germany GmbH, BB Engineering GmbH, Breyer GmbH Maschinenfabrik, Brückner Maschinenbau GmbH & Co. KG, Covestro Deutschland AG, ETA Kunststofftechnologie GmbH, IANUS Simulation GmbH, Lindauer Dornier GmbH, Next Generation Recyclingmaschinen GmbH, Sumitomo (SHI) Demag Plastics Machinery GmbH, Windmöller & Hölscher KG, Wittmann Battenfeld GmbH & Co. KG and Yizumi Germany GmbH. As in the previous year, the meeting took place in hybrid form.
The foundation stone for the development of the simulation software REX was laid a good 30 years ago by Prof. em. Dr.-Ing. Helmut Potente. Since 2007 Prof. Dr.-Ing. Volker Schöppner is responsible for the further development.
The latest versions of the simulation programmes for single-screw machines, REX 18.0 and PSI 16.0, were presented at this year's user meeting. With the help of these software programs, the theoretical assessment of machine behaviour and thus the optimisation of barrel and screw configuration as well as the process parameters can be implemented for both single-screw extrusion and the plasticising units of injection moulding machines without the need for time-consuming experimental investigations. For the most part, analytical equations are used, which enable short simulation times of less than one minute. The project entered its 18th project phase in September 2023, in which the software is to be improved in terms of calculation scope, user-friendliness and presentation of results through numerous projects.
The following presentations were given
- Thermal and compositional mixing effects of Cross Hole Mixing Sections (Jan Landgräber)
- New features in PAM (Felix Hanselle)
- Implementation of a melt quality prediction model (Dorte Trienens)
- Improvements in melting modeling (Felix Knaup)
- Model improvements (Christoph Schall)
- Current software development (Nils Kretzschmar)
- Expansion of the 3D CFD simulations to include additional shearing parts (Marius Dörner)