Every company is based on a foundation of knowledge. That knowledge is often taught from a senior mold builder to a junior mold builder. Sadly, that knowledge can be lost over time. Here we’ll focus on taking a real-world look at capturing and reusing company know-how. By using software automation, mold builders can instill company standards and best practices while speeding up the mold manufacturing process from design to production.
Mold Design Causes Challenges
Every business is based on a foundation of knowledge and the belief that the team can deliver a better product than the competition. So, let’s discuss that knowledge. Knowledge makes everything possible. Without it, we can’t grow our businesses. Knowledge is the foundation of any process, including the pricing system you use, the suppliers with whom you choose to work or the method you determine is best for manufacturing a mold. Everything comes from the knowledge your team has built over time.
For example, you land a new mold project. Then you begin with a preliminary design followed by a review with the customer, which often results in revisions. This step can take a while until each party agrees on the final design. You then deliver the design to your internal team or a contract manufacturer to complete the mold build. However, a lot happens between initial design and mold completion — from ordering materials and consumables to finish machining and assembly, mistakes can occur anywhere along that line. Here is where automation comes into play.
Every mold builder wants to stop simple elements from causing hiccups in the moldmaking process, and it should start with the design process.
Prep the part for mold design
Import data from the customer.
Fix and verify the data for proper draft angles, moldability, et cetera.
Develop core and cavity blocks — the split, inserts, sub inserts, actual inserts.
Begin the “full” 3D mold design — mold bases, ejector pins, water lines and every component to make the mold function.
If your team uses software automation at the front end of engineering, you will eliminate delays and mistakes downstream.
This is where software automation can simplify and speed up the process. Mold design breaks down into a few key areas: mold base, injection elements, action items and waterlines, each with idiosyncrasies. The mold base requires plate work that entails components, screws, pins, bushings, et cetera. Those pins and bushings have an individual manufacturing process, where designs can break down and cause problems. For example, a designer may stipulate a specific clearance on a component and another designer suggests a different type of clearance, confusing the mold builder.
If you apply this type of automation or automation thinking to the front end of engineering, you eliminate delays downstream in the manufacturing process and even potentially eliminate the possibility of mistakes.
Automation Answers the Call
Software automation can minimize or altogether avoid mistakes while ensuring stability and predictability. If a team knows the rules are being maintained, they can better predict when quoting jobs.
Automation works by capturing company knowledge and making that knowledge reusable. It could be as simple as how an item is positioned in the mold or what clearance to use, and those answers become the way it will always be done. But, of course, this data must be easy to use and deploy. If not, the team won’t use it.
Automation libraries are common in everyday engineering. For example, libraries of materials are automatically listed and set with the appropriate properties from your suppliers that streamline bill of materials (BOM) creation. This automation can also be implemented with standard mechanical libraries — including the screws, bolts and fasteners — linked to a given supplier with access to the associated manufacturing processes.
The installation of angular pins has been simplified by an automated graphic cross section when defining and adjusting the component, helping mold designers better understand the design of moving elements.
For example, take a socket head cap screw. It is the basic building block of the mechanical world. Most CAD applications offer libraries of screws. However, they don’t provide the manufacturing information that goes with the screw. Instead, they (the CAD software) rely on the engineer to remember the clearance for a ¼-20 socket head cap screw.
And in many cases, the engineer might enter their own opinion of what the clearances should be, or they may round the values thinking the guys on the floor will understand what’s needed. This step is inefficient because that measurement is standard and does not change. So, why is it common practice to spend time typing in this information? Instead, the team should be determining the clearances the company wants to use. Then set it and forget it, ensuring the values are usable to the downstream manufacturing team.
Data must be easy to use and deploy. If not, the team won’t use it.
Automation in Action
Before: Adding a screw with no automation. If they have access to a library, engineers in most engineering environments find the component, include it in the assembly and position it. This process takes about three minutes. Then they update the BOM. However, now they must modify every plate that that screw passes through.
Depending on the software the shop uses, the engineer may have to remember the correct counterbore or counterbore hole diameter for a particular screw size on top of the correct clearance hole, tap diameter, et cetera. It’s a manual process and this is only one screw and one design.
Think about the number of screws that go into a typical mold design. Three minutes to complete this process for an experienced user is a long time for adding a screw. If the engineer must make a change, they need to manually modify the screw (component) and manually update the manufacturing process (the drillings). Again, this change can take a little over a minute to do, and that’s for one screw.
After: Adding a screw with automation. Software automation allows the designer to capture the manufacturing process so that users can locate and identify the screws more quickly. For example, positioning a screw right off the center of a cavity block off the back face of the plate, select the face to which you want to attach the screw and the software then automatically picks the right length.
When the engineer validates the inclusion of the component, the automation takes it a step further. It puts in every standard drilling that the component requires while maintaining the company’s standard clearance policies. This automated process takes 20 seconds. Now, let’s make a change to the screw diameter using automation. Because software automation captures the thickness of the plate, all it must do is change the sizes and clearances. Again, this takes only about 10 seconds.
In an automated world, 20 seconds to include a screw versus 180 seconds is considerable time savings. For example, when there are 100 screws in a given design, you have 2,000 seconds or 33 minutes’ worth of work using automation against 18,000 seconds, or approximately five hours of engineering time on screws alone. Of course, no one wants to consider the time wasted putting screws into a design when quoting a job, but this is reality when a shop does not use an automated platform.
Software automation can minimize or altogether avoid mistakes while ensuring stability and predictability.
Downstream Effect
When companies are not working to real standards, there can be an adverse effect on downstream manufacturing. For example, if the engineer enters a clearance of 0.06 inch on a hole for a 9/16 diameter socket head cap screw, the resulting drilling is now 0.6225 inch. As we all know, there is no such standard drill for this.
So, when the shop runs automated drilling in any CAM software that looks for that diameter drill, it’s going to fail. The engineer meant to add 1/16 (0.0625 inch) but instead typed in 0.060, assuming the manufacturing team will understand that they really meant 1/16.
This is old-school thinking and that worked 20+ years ago when most of the manufacturing was done by hand, or if on a CNC, by manual G-code programming. However, today most mold manufacturers use CAM software to program their machines.
When engineering makes assumptions that software cannot understand (because it’s a failure in math), you slow down manufacturing and cause potentially expensive problems. However, if you take a half-second to add the missing two digits, you’ll have a real number and the downstream automation works.
The team just needs to type in the real value. After that, most CAM software on the market can automatically handle the drillings using whatever automation they provide. The best part of this is that if you apply this type of automation or automation thinking to the front end of engineering, you eliminate delays downstream in the manufacturing process and even potentially eliminate the possibility of mistakes.
Pin marking feature.
A pin marking feature can be used to identify the pins by applying a marking on the head and the housing of the pin on the ejector plate, minimizing the risk of errors during assembly.
Let’s consider ejector pins that have about eight to 12 key factors for which you must consider clearances — clearances through all the plates, trimming the pin to the molding detail, keying the pin, putting in the correct live travel, et cetera. There are numerous areas where an engineer must make a decision.
Compared to a socket head cap screw, an ejector pin is far more complicated. Without automation, it could take an engineer 10-15 minutes to put one ejector pin into the assembly and apply all the drillings, trimmings and clearances to everything. But suppose you automate the typical process for including ejector pins into a mold design. In that case, you streamline and speed up the design process and likely remove the possibility of costly mistakes again.
The system should be smart enough to look at the geometry and trim the pin automatically to the 3D details. It should automatically determine if they need to be keyed. The process of putting in 10 pins should happen instantly and effortlessly. With proper automation, it should only take about 10-15 seconds per ejector pin or roughly between 1.5 to 2.5 minutes. Now imagine a mold design that has 300 pins! This is why automation exists.
Many things can be automated in the world of mold design, whether it’s standard components from standard suppliers or your own processes, as many customers have their ways of doing side actions, lifter assemblies or mold straps. So, take the time to teach your way to the software, so it captures the manufacturing process that goes with it. Then, let your designers work on the things that matter.
Typically, the product is designed by an engineer or industrial designer. It is then sent to a toolmaker or mouldmaker. Depending on the design and project, a mouldmaker uses a certain metal such as steel and aluminum. Precision machinery is used to form the structures of a certain part anywhere from tiny to massive sizes.
When it comes to injection moulding, parts must be carefully designed so that the moulding process is simplified. Otherwise, costs can be phenomenal. This includes the type of materials needed, special features of the parts, preferred shape and the capacity of the moulding machine.
Regardless of the design precision, there will always be flawed parts when producing injection moulding. And as for troubleshooting, faulty parts are carefully examined for specific defects. However, trials for finding potential defects are often done prior to completing the full production.
Since the process of injection moulding is very complicated, there is always the chance of production issues. The problems can be caused from moulding process or defects in the mould. Some of the deformation is caused by:
Deformations produced by inadequate cooling time
Residual stress that is caused in injection moulding
Long-lasting stress during the process of demoulding
Lingering stress from product thickness or in the forming shrinkage rates
There are a lot of steps between that first vision of a product and the moment it appears on the shelf. In order to make sure a new product actually fulfills consumer’s need, product designers should work closely with plastic injection molding partners from the onset of a new project. An experienced plastic injection molder can offer advice on material selection, develop a cost-effective plan for prototyping, help you avoid wasting resources, and get your new product out faster and more efficiently if they are involved in the design process from the beginning.
Plastic injection molding is well-suited for any number of products, from high- to low-volume projects; from disposable parts to parts that need to last decades. However, the needs of your project will change the manufacturing process, equipment, and speed. Tell your injection molder how your end product will work in context, the kind of volume and production time you’re anticipating, and the functionality you need it to have. That will help them design a manufacturing strategy that’s right for you.
The material selection process has a lot of impact on the look and function of your final product. In plastic injection molding, you have a choice between commodity resins, which are usually great for household appliances and day-to-day products like packaging materials, and engineered resins, which can be designed with the durability and functionality to stand up to harsh conditions.
The tooling used in injection molding is sophisticated equipment that has significant impact on the eventual look and function of a product. Different molding processes, allow pieces to be connected to each other in different ways, and can produce different textures, colors, and patterns on a finished product. Does a metal piece need to be incorporated in your final design? Is it OK if consumers see the seam where the sides of the mold come together on the final product? These are questions you want to answer early, while you’re still considering the design of the product and the technological means to achieve it.
Prototyping is a key part of the design process because it allows you to get feedback from potential customers, address any problems, and make changes to product design. Prototype tooling allows you to experiment with design features and make the necessary adjustments, saving money that might otherwise be wasted on high-volume runs of faulty products. The prototype and testing phase can also help build your brand develop consumer interest in your product before the first full run
Design is an iterative process—hopefully you get lots of good feedback in your prototype phase. Your injection molding partner can help you figure out how to incorporate that feedback while maintaining the strengths of your test run.
Product designers know that design thinking brings together the needs of real people, the technological possibilities, and the business requirements of any given situation. You know your industry and your customer’s needs, and your plastic injection molding partner knows the available technologies and logistics of manufacturing. Together, you can create a new product that fulfills your vision.
Committed to providing excellent solutions for injection molds and injection molded plastic components, to enhance the safety, reliability, and environmental sustainability of production. From the parts design to prototypes and product assembly, we offer comprehensive technical support and services to our customers. Our expertise extends beyond just mold-making, as we also provide production of plastic products, surface treatment of products, part assembly, and custom packaging. By offering these services under one roof, we are able to significantly shorten the lead time and reduce the development costs for our customers.
it’s important to remember: Material selection is one of the most critical considerations in designing your piece — it factors into many aspects of the process, including shrinkage factor, cooling time, flexibility and more. Different materials can have different minimum and maximum wall thicknesses, for instance, or can require different degrees of draft.