However, unlike in other plastics processing processes, such as in the case of injection molding, the existing modeling tools for extrusion-blowing have several limitations, the most restrictive being the impossibility of simulating all the phases of the process in an interconnected way, which has limited the impact of modeling tools in this process.

The Extrusion Blow Molding Simulator project, which results from an association of skills between the Logoplaste Innovation Lab and the University of Minho, aims at the development and experimental validation of computational tools capable of simulating all phases of the multi-layer extrusion-blow process, using suitable models to mimic the behavior of plastic materials. All the simulators developed will be validated experimentally, using prototype tools to be developed within the scope of the project. The possibility of modeling all stages of the process will also allow the implementation of optimization methodologies, and resort to approaches related to artificial intelligence to obtain representative models of the process. The advantages of the simulation/optimization tools developed will be quantified on a semi-industrial scale, in representative products of the packaging sector. These tools are expected to have a significant impact on the reduction of product development time and product quality. In order to increase the impact and dissemination of the project results, the codes will be implemented in the open computational and free distribution library OpenFOAM.