Building
a mold: The mold construction usually begins with a pattern being
built. These patterns can be designed on a CAD system and CNC cut
directly from the CAD file or they can be fabricated by hand. The
pattern is typically made of epoxy or wood that is both strong and easy
to work with. Mahogany is often the wood of choice. Often times
it is possible to form prototype or even limited production parts off a
pattern.
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Molding
prototype parts from a pattern: The pattern will typically allow
you to get a small lot of parts (3-5) for some product testing. This
is the point where any fine tuning or adjusting needs to be done.
The parts run off a pattern will typically not be of the same quality as
an aluminum mold, but should provide enough information.
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Casting
an aluminum mold: After the prototypes are approved, the pattern
will be cleaned, sanded, and prepped for casting. Radii may be added
and other fine tuning may be done here. After the pattern is prepped,
it is sent to a foundry where a sand casting is made. From
this sand casting, and aluminum mold is cast, complete with water lines
embedded into the metal. These water lines will help remove the heat
from the tool and the plastic part.
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Molding
pre production parts: When the new tool is received from the foundry,
it will be setup and run to verify that all the desired dimensions and
features are in tact. At this time, it is wise to order enough parts
to thoroughly test the product before full scale production begins.
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Once
all these steps are completed, sheet is extruded to size and within a few
weeks, production can begin.
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| We
hope this will help you better understand the path that an idea takes to
become reality. |