The requirements for blow molding technology are constantly increasing: Higher energy efficiency, reduced material costs, and excellent product quality are now critical success factors. BBM, a leading company in the development of blow molding systems, has tackled this challenge in cooperation with IANUS. With the help of CFD simulations and artificial intelligence (AI), significant improvements in the design of helical flow distributors were achieved, leading to optimized processes and significant savings.

Read BBM case study: Optimizing Blow Molding Technology: BBM & IANUS Revolutionize Helical Flow Distributors with CFD & AI

"The IANUS simulation opened new doors for us while also allowing us to make the appropriate connections for IANUS. Therefore, the partner package can be considered a true win-win situation, which we do not want to miss. The core point of the partner package, which provides us the necessary flexibility as an SME, is to handle individual simulations as well as complex overall projects externally and jointly. We look forward to further cooperation.”

- Bernhard Schulte, Managing Director | BBM

One of the biggest challenges in blow molding technology is the homogenization of the temperature distribution in the helical flow distributor. Uneven temperatures can lead to visible weld lines, dead zones, and other surface defects that significantly impair product quality. At the same time, a shortage of skilled workers and time-consuming simulations increase the pressure on development departments. With the IANUS solution, a partner package was developed to automate the thermal and volumetric balancing of helical flow distributors, significantly reducing BBM's workload.

The advantages of this solution are self-evident: By using parametric CFD models and AI-based optimizations, the purge times were reduced by 80%. This means savings of up to €14,000 per material change for BBM at a throughput rate of 3.5 tons per hour. At the same time, the scrap rate was significantly reduced, not only improving the quality of the products manufactured but also making resource use more efficient. The fully automated simulation of the helical flow distributors is conducted in just a few hours – a process that previously took several days.

The collaboration between BBM and IANUS offers much more than mere process optimization. With the help of the partner package, BBM was also able to develop parametric models for different scenarios, which are used for AI training and rapid case studies. This not only enables more efficient design of new distributor models but also the comparison and optimization of existing series. BBM's customers benefit from even more powerful systems and increased flexibility in production.

The partnership between BBM and IANUS not only revolutionized blow molding technology but also laid the foundation for future innovations. In the next development stage, an AI-supported design assistant will be developed to propose the optimal helical flow distributor in just a few minutes based on trained data. This groundbreaking technology will allow BBM to further accelerate the development process while continuously improving the quality of their systems.

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