AniForm says that the software tool enables engineers to simulate and analyse composite forming processes with great ease by combining a new graphical user interface with AniForm Core, AniForm’s well-known and improved finite element solver.
According to the company, AniForm Suite is tailored to the forming process of fibre reinforced sheet material, such as laminates comprising woven fabrics and uni-directionally reinforced pre-pregs. An improved understanding of the laminate forming process is obtained by fast and intuitive visualisation of the simulation results.
The software predicts fibre paths, changing ply thickness, adverse fibre stresses, wrinkling, and other phenomena that appear upon forming. Anticipating these phenomena in the early design phases allows for efficient product and process optimisation, leading to a reduction of product development costs and lead times.
The current suite version consists of AniForm PrePost 1.0 and AniForm Core 2.1.1. AniForm PrePost has a pre-processing mode enabling the engineer to set up new simulations quickly. Importing pre-defined lay-ups and material properties reduces modelling times significantly. The post-processing mode is used to analyse simulation results. AniForm PrePost invokes simulations by pushing the models to AniForm Core, which then simulates the process.
