In addition to the general-purpose ANSYS CFD solvers, ANSYS Inc also provides niche fluid dynamics solvers which have been tailored to particular industries. ANSYS POLYFLOW is a specialised tool that provides advanced fluid dynamics technology for engineers working with rubber and other polymers, as well as glass, metals and cement processing. The ANSYS POLYFLOW technology is used by leading manufacturers around the world to design and optimise a variety of manufacturing processes that involve extrusion, thermoforming, blow molding, glass forming, fiber drawing and concrete shaping.
By using ANSYS POLYFLOW technology to run virtual tests of their particular process, in some cases engineers have been able to save hundreds of thousands of dollars and months of mantime by reducing the number of physical prototypes required to achieve a satisfactory extrusion die design. In other cases, engineers have drastically improved the quality and durability of thermoformed or blown products by ensuring there is minimal variation in material thickness in the final product.
Particularly for engineers working with rubber extrusion processes, ANSYS POLYFLOW offers a unique inverse die design capability which can save weeks of time compared to traditional build-and-test methods. Similarly, the quality of blown or thermoformed products can be improved by running systematic “what if?” analyses with ANSYS POLYFLOW inside the ANSYS Workbench, rather than spending days or weeks making expensive changes to the physical production line.