Facilitating the Understanding Of the Injection Mold Design Process

A tutorial is available that teaches the mold functions and design options available for injection molds for the optimum molding results. This self-paced CD provides users with the opportunity to gain the necessary injection mold design understanding to function in today’s fast-paced engineering environment while displaying the technology in detailed animation.

The Injection Mold Design Interactive Tutorial was developed by Dealey’s Mold Engineering, Inc. (Williams Bay, WI)—a consultant that specializes in plastics technical engi-neering and management from art to part. According to President Bob Dealey, the tutorial offers an alternative to expensive seminars and books, which are often geared to the more experienced.

The tutorial contains 50 interactive and 100 animated phases of the mold design process. The subjects covered include: viewing of the part, detailed fill analysis, parting line selection, ejector systems, venting, mold material selection, and machining and assembling of the mold.

 

Contents for Mold Design

Dealey explains that identifying and separating the mold design process into individual and logical technologies was the first step in the development of an interactive animated technique. “Several options were studied and the most logical method was determined to divide the process into about 50 steps to present the technology of plastic injection mold design and options available to the participant,” he states.

The following were the major categories identified: nomenclature of the mold; means for examining the part; mold flow filling and cooling analysis; parting lines; shrinkage of plastic; mirror imaging; mold actions; ejection methods; pocket and mounting methods; mold base styles; mold materials; SPI mold classifications; SPI mold finish standards; old plating; gates and runners; runnerless molding systems; cooling of cavity and core; sizing of the mold base, cavity and core; development of mold base drawings; a mold design checklist; mounting the mold into an injection molding machine, sampling and approving the mold; and successfully passing a test and then receiving a certification of completion.

 

Tutorial Advantages

“Mold actions can function in real time animation,” Dealey emphasizes, “which allows the participant to view in detail the mold component movement taking place deep inside the mold. An injection molding machine is included to identify those components referenced in the tutorial to better understand the interaction between the mold and the injection molding machine.

“The injection mold design process is little understood by the non-process involved engineer,” Dealey adds. “To better understand the importance of individual mold design elements, the interaction of the various design elements can be illustrated and animated. This is especially important in the filling and cooling of plastic in the injection molding cycle.”

Dealey concludes, “This individualized, selected cost-effective learning method is an opportunity for engineering, manufacturing, purchasing, management and technical personnel to acquire technical mold design skills to enable greater participation on any mold or new product team. Any approach to learn these skills will be productive. Learning in a self-paced, interactive and animated method is both a time- and cost- effective, interesting approach for state-of-the-art, skill-set acquisition.”