This year's REX/PSI user meeting (REX = computer-aided extruder design, PSI = Paderborn injection molding simulation) brought together numerous representatives from industry and science, including company representatives from Arburg GmbH & Co. KG, Arenz GmbH, BASF SE, Battenfeld-Cincinnati Germany GmbH, BB Engineering GmbH, Brückner Maschinenbau GmbH & Co. KG, Covestro Deutschland AG, Hosokawa Alpine Aktiengesellschaft, IANUS Simulation GmbH, KraussMaffei Extrusion GmbH, Lindauer Dornier GmbH, Netstal Maschinen AG, Reifenhäuser Extrusion Systems GmbH, Sumitomo (SHI) Demag Plastics Machinery GmbH, Windmöller & Hölscher KG, Wittmann Battenfeld GmbH & Co. KG and Yizumi Germany GmbH. The meeting took place in hybrid form, as it did last year.
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.
At this year's user meeting, the current version of the simulation program for single screw machines REX 17.1 and PSI 15.1 was presented. With the aid of these software programs, the theoretical evaluation of machine behavior and thus an optimization of barrel and screw configuration as well as of process parameters can be realized for single-screw extrusion as well as for the plasticizing units of injection molding machines without extensive experimental investigations. For the most part, analytical equations are used, which enable short simulation times of less than one minute. The project will start in September 2023 in its now 18th project phase, in which the software will be improved in calculation scope, user-friendliness and result presentation through numerous projects.
The following topics were presented:
- Mixing quality and pressure-throughput-behaviour of metering sections (Jan Landgräber).
- Improvement of material degradation calculation (Christoph Schall)
- Implementation of fiber breakage in PSI (Maximilian Scholle)
- Engineering Service: Processing of recycling material in injection molding (Leon Schmidt)
- Axial movement of the screw - Measurement of closing time (Felix Knaup)
- Conceptual design of periphery in REX (Dorte Trienens)
- Current software development (Nils Kretzschmar)
- Migration - REX3D to Microsoft Windows (Marius Dörner)
