Another reason micro hard milling is growing in popularity these days is that micro cutters are being offered in more expansive ranges of cutter reach lengths, provide longer cutting lives and generate near perfect surface finishes. And cutters are manufactured to exacting tolerances. For example, some cutting tool manufacturers hold diameter tolerances on their micro [...]
Many of today’s shops involved with micro machining are doing so on extremely hard metals, such as CPM (1-V, 3-V, 9-V) D2, A2 and F7 tool steels, along with hard powdered metals, all of which can be as hard, or harder than, 62-64 Rc. They also micro machine stainless steels like 450, 410, and 17-4 [...]
The tab gate —the most commonly used of the three—consists of a trapezoidal block milled into the parting line on an exterior surface of the part and is usually placed in a thicker wall section rather than thinner areas. Its position usually makes it easy to trim off, and while it typically leaves the largest [...]
Drilling in mold manufacturing often differs from conventional drilling with respect to several key factors. For one thing, there is a greater frequency of contoured drilling surfaces. For another, the industry employs tougher materials than are typically encountered in general machining. Successfully dealing with these conditions requires an application-specific machining strategy. […]
China industry spends hundreds of billions a year in costs related to, or caused from, corrosion. In the plastic’s industry, these costs are not limited to mold damage and repair. Corrosion also causes the breakdown/shutdown of a press, leading to manufacturing downtime and significant loss of productivity. […]
Today’s competitive manufacturing environment demands ever increasing productivity, efficiency and quality. While manufacturers have tended to be quick to look to automation to improve their manufacturing processes, improving yields, reducing waste and shortening production cycles, they’ve not always thought of the importance of automation to improve their business or human resources processes. Yet automation can [...]
Copper is the most thermally conductive of the common solids; only silver, cubic boron nitride and diamond are more conductive. This makes copper an excellent choice for plastic injection molds that must remove heat from the injected, molten plastic to make it solidify. However, copper is neither hard nor strong enough in its pure form [...]
The success of a mold manufacturer boils down to its ability to deliver high quality products at the shortest possible time and the lowest possible cost. Following are some mold design best practices that will help you achieve these goals. […]
Unlike traditional feature-based modeling, which relies on a sequence of operations to construct designs, direct modeling works on what has previously been called dumb geometry, using feature recognition and other technology to allow direct manipulation of previously frozen solids. Direct modelers offer a simpler modeling paradigm that can allow fast creation and editing, removing a [...]
Die sinking EDM works wonders in cutting contours or cavities in pre-hardened steel. When dealing with complex shapes, however, milling the electrodes that produce these intricate pieces can be a quite involved and time-consuming process, so manufacturers want to extend electrode life as much as possible. […]