Injection Molding

notes on micromolding

A while back we had a visit from a top-flight micromolder. Below are my notes I probably should have put this up a while back, but it slipped. Truth be told, the only reason I’m putting it up now is as an example for how I use Evernote. Still, the information is wortwhile… MTD (Micro [...]

Tagged as: Injection Molding, manufacturing

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Reaction Injection Molding (RIM) design guide

I’ve written before about reaction injection molding as it pertains to memory foam. Recently I’ve had occasion to dive back into it, and have found the following design guide to be pretty helpful. (notify me if the link ever breaks, I’ve got the PDF locally). Much of it is really basic (i.e. outside corner of the [...]

Tagged as: foam, Injection Molding, RIM

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metal injection molding (MIM) notes

There was a forum question over at Core77 about metal injection molding, and it just so happened I had an exhaustive set of notes on the process. I’ve since gotten enough follow up questions that I thought it would be worth re-posting here.   We had a guy from Precision Made Products present to us [...]

Tagged as: Injection Molding, manufacturing, metal injection molding, product design

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injection molding side actions: in depth

If you don’t know what a side action is, that cool. Check out these two brief videos on how side actions work. You also would do well to check out what Protomold (parent company of First Cut) has to say about side actions here and here. Recently I had occasion to dive into mold-making techniques [...]

Tagged as: cam, Injection Molding, plastics, product design, side action

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injection molding plastic part design guide (GE)

I’ve got a treasure trove of design guides. Even when you are super comfortable with a process (like injection molding) I find it good practice to use them as a low-cost checker. So i figured I would share one of my favorite design guides, the GE Engineering Thermoplastic Design Guide. It’s a concise, 15-page guideline [...]

Tagged as: CAD, Injection Molding, plastics

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recycled resins: sometimes they’re just better

The biggest hurdle to overcome with regards to using resin containing recycled content is something I like to call the performance bias. Our performance bias tells us that in most cases, second hand materials aren’t going to perform as well as their brand new counterparts. It’s a bias that generally serves us well, but during [...]

Tagged as: Injection Molding, recycle, resin, Valox iQ

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Thumbnail image for how side actions work: two brief videos

how side actions work: two brief videos

When I first heard the term “side action”, I got what it was… but couldn’t quite envision how the tool worked. I was told that: A side action is something that allows you to create a feature with a pull direction that is at an angle to the primary pull direction. In hindsight that seems [...]

Tagged as: cam, Injection Molding, plastics, product design, side action

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design guide: memory foam manufacturing

Designing with polyurethane memory foam (a.k.a viscoelastic foam, a.k.a tempurpedic foam) is different. It’s not as conventional or dimensionally stable as plastics or metals, but when it comes to comfort, it can’t be beat. So how do you do it? How much does it cost?

Tagged as: CNC, Injection Molding, RIM

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