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CMM Manufacturers

Association of CMM Manufacturers
Celebrates Its First Anniversary

Founded in late 2001 to promote coordinate measuring machine business and technology, the International Association of Coordinate Measuring Machine Manufacturers — better known as CMM 
Manufacturers — will soon be celebrating its first anniversary.

This international, non-profit organization undertakes such initiatives as the development of human skills through education and training, and the promotion and implementation of common standards for hardware and interface software. For example, to help engineers and managers stay up to speed with evolving measurement technology, IA.CMM supports an ongoing forum for the exchange of experience between CMM users and CMM manufacturers. this machine is meaureing the dimensions for molds and die, for examples plastic mold or plastic molding parts

Members of IA.CMM are Brown & Sharpe DEA, Carl Zeiss, ITP, Johansson, Mahr, Mitutoyo, Mora, OKM, Trimek, Wenzel, Werth, and Zett Mess.

New Integrated Resin Selector
Software Tool Is Updated Frequently

Prospector Pro by IDES is a tool to help in the selection of resins. The program integrates with resin manufacturers’ and distributors’ material selector tools and websites. It allows efficient access to a database of 40,000 plastic material datasheets from 390 global suppliers.

The program includes design data, multipoint data, comprehensive datasheets directly from suppliers and sourcing information.

New features include:

  • Exporting of design data to HTML text or MS Excel files
  • Sample ordering via General Polymers
  • Resin purchasing via GE Polymerland
  • Request product quotes from manufacturers and/or distributors

Improved features include complementary material support. If users are unable to find a plastic datasheet, they can contact IDES and it will track down the datasheet within 24 hours.  

An i-Manage Suite™ data entry tool allows manufacturers to import their data directly into the IDES plastic materials database which is updated to Prospector Pro every two weeks.

Materialise Process Builds
Impressive Replica Statue

An impressive statue stands in the hall of the Materialiseheadquarters in Leuven, Belgium. It’s a six-foot-tall reproduction of an ancient Greek kouros, a type of life-size sculpture that marked graves or stood near temples as gifts dedicated to the gods during the Archaic era, from about 650 to 500 BC.

The manufacturer of the statue was part of an ECO project, which involved GEO-Analysis, responsible for scanning sculptures; the Focke Museum in Bremen, Germany; the Fitzwilliam Museum of Archeology in Cambridge, UK; the Archaeological Receipts Fund in Athens; and Materialise.

The goal for Materialise was to make a life-size replica of a kouros. After preparing the scanned data in a day, Materialise built the statue on its Mammoth II stereolithography machine, which has a build area of 2,150 x 620 x 500 mm.

The statue was built with a layer thickness of 0.15 mm. Production took just under 100 hours. The replica has a wall thickness of 5 mm and weighs about 11 kg.

Upcoming NPE 2003 Expected
To Be Truly International Event

We’re less than nine months away from the triennial NPE, and the Washington-based Society of the Plastics Industry is expecting the largest international participation in the show’s history. Show dates are June 23-27, 2003. The year 2000 show set three NPE records: number of exhibiting companies (2,014), net exhibit space (1,142,900 ft²/106,179m²), and number of registered participants (90,142).

By logging on to www.npe.org, visitors can preregister for the show, identify exhibiting companies by product categories and access their websites via links. By late fall, visitors will be able to use the site to select, confirm and pay deposits on hotels.

The site also provides a secure “personal planner,” that preregistered visitors can use to organize their time at NPE 2003. Basic information on the show is available in Chinese, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese and Spanish. Links to the city of Chicago websites provide information on dining, recreation and entertainment.

Until December, the cost of registering for NPE is (US) $25.00 and $50.00 thereafter. On-site registration is $75.00.

An International Center at NPE will offer multilingual staff, U.S. Dept. of Commerce trade experts to help visitors make valuable contacts with American firms. Separate meeting areas will be available for delegations from specific countries.

High Speed Injection Molding

How do you achieve high-speed production of complex parts?

Answer:

The key component is an understanding of the volumes required. If the volumes are a million pieces per year, sometimes a four-cavity mold is needed or a high-quality tool. For high-speed or high-volume production, using high-quality tools is important. The tools should hold up with very little maintenance in this process.

Given a million pieces per year, a four-cavity small part is appropriate. To reduce the price of the parts as much a possible, hot-runner systems are needed to run high-speed molding. These systems eliminate the scrap from production; therefore, the parts are the sole result of the process.

Given five to seven million pieces per year, multi-cavity molds (eight-, sixteen-, twenty-four, thirty-two-cavity molds) are needed. Hot-runner systems and high-volume tools become very important. It is critical money be invested upfront in the development of this process. Based on the performance of these high-speed tools, the costs will be recovered in the future.

How does involving your mold-maker early in the process impact your engineering and development of new plastic molding products?

Answer:

plastic mold

plastic mold

The mold-makers involved in the trade of high-quality tooling must have several years of experience. The majority of mold-makers go through apprenticeship and training programs sponsored by the state.

Not only have they received state certification, they have trained on the production floor. By observing the production staff, mold-makers gain an understanding of the process and the end result of the types of products manufactured. Performance results are obtained during this exercise.

Getting the plastic mold maker engaged in the beginning also brings up a lot of ideas and develops the thought process for production. Based on their years of experience, it can be systematically determined how to produce high-quality tools with a very small margin of error in molding.

This lends itself to the best product possible with the least amount of down time. It incorporates the types of steels used, the types of molds used, as well as the types of engineering required. Any aspect of the process is accentuated by the experience of the mold-makers and their recommendations. It is crucial they be consulted at the very beginning of product development.

How do you move tools from overseas or execute mold transfers?

Answer:

When transferring plastic molds from overseas, the best practice is to find a facility that has an in-house tooling capability. It is important the facility is able to accomplish large-scale repairs on molds. Therefore, the skills required for execution are available within the company itself.

Since the company receiving the tools or the mold transfer is highly trained, the tools are sent there to be taken apart and examined. This step in the transfer process allows the manufacturer to assess if the tools were properly built. In numerous cases, tools are shipped with a combination of U.S. and European (metrics) supplies mixed together within the same molds.

These are some of the issues that need to be addressed to ensure proper procedures are taken to straighten the tool out. Otherwise, it cannot be made into a moldable product. Another concern is standardization of the molds. The molds should run in standard molding machines built for the industry.

The type of material needed to run in a particular plastic mold – engineering or otherwise – must be a consideration as well. The molds must be capable of meeting the volumes required for the materials involved. Some tools may not have the capacity to run the necessary volumes for the entire duration of the process.

A lot of tooling that comes from overseas may be prototype, not production tooling. The type of steel or engineering used during production may not be standardized or in line with manufacturer expectations. Prototype tools are not designed for high-volume production. It is important the tools are assessed properly.

What are the best practices in new product mold design?

Answer:

After product development has been secured and generation of plastic parts has begun, the best practice is to have those plastic parts designed by an expert. Generally, this would be a trained plastics engineer specializing in the various aspects of the process: tooling, molding, and plastics.

The engineer reviews the product line to confirm the plastic parts are moldable, the material used is appropriate, and the types of machines required. The results of the engineer’s assessment can be interpreted as to whether the product line is capable of being molded or not.

In order to save costs on the front end, work with a plastics engineer that specializes in tooling and molding. Based on this expert opinion, the feasibility of the product line may be determined.

Injection molding machine barrel cleaning

Injection molding machine barrel cleaning

The exits of buildup in injection machine barrel when we start to operator injection machine will influence the plastic product quality. So in order to guarantee the plastic product quality, injection machine barrel cleaning is very important.

  • Method of injection machine barrel cleaning

1)      If injection machine want to manufacture many kinds of product, we should manufacture the product with light color, low melt temperature and bad heat stability, thus changing the material, cleaning the barrel is very easy.

2)      When the new material temperature is higher than unused material temperature, we should increase the injection machine and nozzle temperature to the lowest process temperature which new material need.

3)      If the new material molding temperature lower than unused material in injection machine barrel, we should increase the injection machine barrel temperature, then cut the heating power when the unused material in a certain condition.

plastic mold

plastic mold

4)      For the injection machine barrel cleaning of unused material with heat sensitivity, like PVC,POM,PCTFEF3 and so on, to avoid plastic decompose, we can adopt two stages, that is using plastic with good heating stability to transition refueling cleaning first ,like PS,LDPE and so on, then use the new material to replace the transition cleaning material.

5)      Use cleaner to clean the injection machine barrel.

No matter change the material directly or transition refueling, they will cost many material. Using cleaner to clean the injection machine barrel can not only save the cost but the effect is good. It is suitable for the injection machine barrel cleaning which process temperature range from 180℃ to 280℃.

Good plastic injection molding parts made by good quality plastic mold

  •  Pattern of injection machine barrel cleaning

1)      Plunge type injection machine barrel cleaning

Since big quantity stores, cleaning the injection machine barrel is very difficult, we must use special injection machine barrel.

2)      Screw injection machine barrel cleaning

Generally, we use changing material cleaning directly, we should know the temperature range of unused material in injection machine barrel and the heating stability first, and then we can set specific cleaning pattern easily