Numerical Simulation of the Pre-Drawing and Air-Bulging Thermoforming Process for In-Mould Decoration Films

Based on CF-DSGZ viscoelastic constitutive for in-mould decoration films, an ABAQUS/Explicit user material subroutine called CF-IMD is developed. Numerical simulation of the pre-drawing and air-bulging thermoforming process for an IMD product of a deep-cavity box is studied in the paper. Comparison of simulated results and experimental data is done to validate CF-IMD material subroutine. Finally, finite element analysis of the pre-drawing and air-bulging thermoforming process for an IMD product of a large-scale, deep-cavity notebook-cover is carried out, and technological parameters obtained from simulation are applied on actual production so that high quality product has been acquired.