Numerical Evaluation of Press Forming Parameters and Mould Geometry in Wood Plastic Composite (WPC) Products

The purpose of this paper is to investigate factors associated with press-forming of Wood Plastic Composite (WPC) products. The WPC material is a novel, feasible, and economic way to use recycled thermoplastics. Due to the complexity of the fiber-polymer interaction, numerical simulation and thus prediction of WPC behavior in forming have been challenging. Up to now, press moulds have had to be empirically validated. In this paper, we explore the possibility of predicting material behavior using Autodesk Moldflow.