A visualisation of the results of a thermoforming process simulation in the plastics industry

Abstract

This paper presents the SIMViewer computer program allowing users to visualise the results from the T-SIM simulation software made by Accuform in the field of plastics thermoforming. The main feature is to visualise particular thermoforming process steps of a plastic sheet in a three-dimensional space including all geometric parts of the defined model like a forming die and optional plunger. SIMViewer provides a projection of scalar quantities that characterize the thermoformed region. It is mainly focused on presenting the thickness distribution, thermoforming temperature, stress, strain and other scalars applied on the plastic sheet. This application was developed in C++ programming language, the graphical area was implemented by the OpenGL library and the user interface was created by using the MFC application framework.