Overview Resources

Altair® Inspire™ PolyFoam

Polyurethane Foam Simulation

Rigid and flexible polyurethane foams, also known as cellular or expanded polymers, surround us. Their important attributes like lightweight, adaptable strength per unit weight, and insulation characteristics, as well as their inherently high sustainability make them attractive for an increasingly wide range of industrial and household applications.

Inspire PolyFoam provides a modern integrated approach to streamline design for manufacturing (DfM) of flexible molded foam components and rigid foam panels. Placing simulation in the hands of designers and product engineers early in the development cycle enables easy exploration of options that deliver improved products, and reduced scrap and tooling rework costs.

Virtual testing, validation, correction and optimization of designs can be easily performed through a five-step setup workflow to evaluate molded foam part manufacturability, mitigating common manufacturing defects caused by shrinkage and porosity long before a mold is made.

Altair offers a comprehensive set of solutions to develop innovative, manufacturable products faster from the initial part design and understanding the entire molding process, to efficiently analyzing and optimizing the performance of complex parts.

Inspire PolyFoam Overview Video

Why Inspire PolyFoam?

Reduce Product Development Costs, Improve Part Quality

Predict and fix manufacturing problems earlier with rigid and flexible foam product designs. Reduce costly mold trials and reject rates by understanding the entire process and identifying manufacturing defects.

Make Better Product Design Decisions Early

Improve bespoke foam products with faster, more informed product design cycles and fewer iterations, assuring design for manufacture.

Deliver Production-ready Tools on Time and on Budget

Transition from "know how" to "know why," eliminating costly mold prototypes and reducing mold trials and process feasibility when changes can still be made.

Key Features

Create Part Design

Improve an imported 3D part design for manufacture and create an initial mold with components.

Mold/Part Configurations

Test and optimize different configurations – like fixed, moving, or sequential gates and nozzles; foam injection directions; and mold vents, inserts and tilt – in seconds.

Advanced Physics

Supported physics include injection, filling, foaming, curing, and cooling. A simulation typically runs in a few hours on a regular laptop.

Defect Prediction

Easily detect common manufacturing defects such as air traps, porosity, weld lines, and turn-up.

Multi-foam Support

Simulate injection of more than one foam in any mold or process simultaneously, to aid design of comfortable products.

Material Properties

Use existing material database properties and add your own proprietary materials securely by partnering with Altair.