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Volume 5
DESIGN MATRIX
While they are a simple way of getting resin into the mold cavity, tab gates have several drawbacks. First, they carry resin to the mold via a runner. Because this allows some cooling and thickening of the resin, tab gates require a relatively large opening into the mold cavity. This, in turn, leaves a large tab to be trimmed, a process that can mar the finished surface. Second, the runner leading to a tab gate takes up real estate within the allowable mold footprint. This can be a problem if the part pushes the limits of allowable mold size. Third, because resin cools somewhat on its way to the gate, there are potential mold fill considerations like uniformity, concentricity, knit line formation, thin feature challenges, etc. Finally, tab gates must be located at the parting line of the mold.
In many cases, the solution may be a hot tip gate. A hot tip gate has a small circular gate opening in the A side of the mold that lets plastic into the cavity. Its called a hot tip gate because there is a thermostatically-controlled heater bolted to the back of the mold to keep the resin hot enough (and thus fluid enough) to pass through the small gate hole. The hot tip can be thought of as a direct extension of the molding presss barrel and screw. Resin is hotter at the point of injection, so the opening can be smaller. Because no runner is required, the part can use virtually all of the allowable mold X-Y real estate. Hotter resin also means material may be pushed further into a thin feature. Hot tip gates are typically located at the top center of a part (as opposed to on the parting line, as is the case with a tab gate) and are ideal for round or conical shapes where uniform flow can improve concentricity. The hot tip gate leaves a small raised nub on the surface of the part. Adding a hot tip dimple to your design may help shift the nub below the surface of the part, which might allow something like a decal to be applied over it with little or no need for trimming beforehand. Continued on next page
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Hot tip dimples are usually 0.125 to 0.375 inches in diameter and 0.010 to 0.030 inches in depth. This can take the shape of a spherical or cylindrical depression. (See Figures 2 and 3). To maintain the always desirable uniform wall thickness, you could add material to the opposite side of the part so the material is not restricted in flow.
Also be aware that some materials such as acetal and glass filled resins are not compatible with hot tip gates, and that small volume parts may be problematic because of the tendency of resin to cook in the hot tip longer, potentially degrading its properties. When asking for a hot tip gate, you should also consider the extra expense of installing a hot tip gate, such as the features that need to be machined into the back of the A side mold half. In addition, once a hot tip gate is used, it is much more costly to modify the mold. For example, there is no simple way to move a hot tip without completely re-making the A side of a mold.
Fig. 3: Cylindrical Depression Hot Tip Dimple
Be sure to consider that the A side of a part is usually the externally-facing cosmetic side, which means if you use a hot tip, the gate vestige (nub) is likely to be visible in an assembly. As noted above, a hot tip dimple is a common method of trying to help hide the nub and should be considered when selecting decal locations on high cosmetic parts.
As with any plastic part, design and resin both have a great impact on the success of your molded part. A well-designed part with a carefully chosen gate type and location that are compatible with the resin you select will allow us to achieve the best possible results.
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Playing it safe
The whole purpose of prototyping is to allow yourself the option of tweaking your model thickening a wall, adding a rib, placing text or a logobefore locking in a final design for production. For injection molded plastic prototypes, tweaks can entail the creation of a whole new mold. A new mold may be quite affordable if your prototypes are being made by Protomold, but if the change can be made by modifying the existing mold your cost will be lower still. Theres one critical fact to remember if you want to be able to modify your part by modifying the original mold. It is relatively easy to remove metal from an existing metal mold. Adding metal, on the other hand, can be difficult or, for all practical purposes, impossible with rapid injection molding. To look at this from the part perspective, you can add plastic, but you cant take it away. Designing with this in mind is called steel safe or metal safe, and doing so can save you both money and time when you have to modify your design. For example:
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You may be able to thicken a wall, but making it thinner requires remaking the mold. You can add featuresbosses, raised text, ribs, pins etc.but you cant remove them. You can reduce the diameter of a hole by adding plastic around the perimeter, but you cant increase the hole size. Similarly, you can eliminate holes, but you cant add them.
If you arent entirely sure whether a feature is needed or whether a feature is the right size, you might want to review your part feature by feature, asking yourself which ones may need to be changed in later iterations before committing your design for prototyping; then start with the less plastic option. Not sure how thick a wall should be? Start thin and thicken it later. (ProtoQuote will warn you if your wall is too thin for effective mold filling.) Unsure whether youll need a rib to strengthen your part or a brace to prevent warp? Leave it off and add it later if its needed. Have two mating parts that might (or might not) need alignment pins? Put the holes in and leave the pins off. If you need them, you can add the pins in the next iteration. If you dont, you can eliminate the holes. One final thing to keep in mind when you plan for changes: at Protomold, we can make parts to tolerances of .003 + the shrink tolerance of the resin.
The rule to remember when initially designing your part is: Maximize metal and minimize plastic. Figure 1, for example includes a post (properly drafted, of course) rising from a base. Figure 2 shows the same part after the designer has decided that the post needs to be thicker. (Added plastic is shown in red.) This change was easy to execute. If the change had gone in the other direction, however, it would have required the milling of a new mold.
Fig. 1
Fig. 2
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PLAYING IT SAFE
The preferred method is planar drafting and it is a separate step from the rotation that creates the basic part. In this case, each half of the end surface is drafted separately in a plane angled away from the parting line (See Figures 4a and 4b). The key difference between these two approaches is what happens as the drafted surface approaches the parting line.
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The dotted line represents the plane of the outside surface of the wall The red line is the shutoff where the metal faces of the two mold halves meet when the mold is closed
Note that the shutoff runs at an angle across the window, dividing the parts of the window that will be produced by the A and B mold halves. Because the wall is drafted, the two mold halves move away from the part (and from one another at the shutoff) as the mold opens and the part is ejected. No part of either mold half is entrapped in the window; hence, no side action is required. There is one important consideration when designing a part using this technique: the draft angle of the shutoff. To avoid damage to the mold the shutoff must be drafted a minimum of 3. Because the shutoff is angled slightly relative to the wall itself, the draft of the wall must be greater than 3 to allow a 3 draft of the shutoff. The required amount of wall draft will vary directly with wall thickness and inversely with window height (shutoff height, as shown in Figure 2). Most CAD programs can help determine the proper degree of wall draft to create a minimum of 3 draft at the shutoff.
Fig. 2
Figure 2 shows a cross section of the window area in the closed mold in which:
Fig. 1 n n
The gray areas are the mold walls The window is being formed partially by an extension of the molds A-Side and partially by an extension of the B-Side
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Wrong! This part can be made in a two-part straight pull mold without side actions. It
There are a couple of limitations to keep in mind as you consider the use of multi-cavity molds: 1. Side actions: Because they tend to use so much of the molds maximum footprint, multi-cavity molds dont leave room for side action cams and must be simple straight-pull molds. 2. Hot tips: Due to mold complexity issues, multi-cavity molds cannot use hot tip gates.
If you have questions regarding the use of multi-cavity molds for production parts, check with your Protomold sales representative, who will be happy to help you find the best and most cost-effective solution.
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Parts should have approximately 1 of draft per inch of depth from parting line. Minimum draft, regardless of depth, is 1/2. This allows the part to eject from the mold without drag marks. Side action cams consume space, reducing maximum mold size. To see how these limitations specifically affect your part, upload a 3D CAD model for a free ProtoQuote moldability analysis and quote. Recommended wall thickness varies by resin, but larger parts should have thicker walls. Large parts should have walls at or near the manufacturers maximum recommended thickness for the specific resin. See the recommended wall thickness by resin type chart at protomold.com/ designguidelines.
3. Avoid unsupported geometry (see fig. 2). 4. Use core-cavity construction rather than ribs wherever possible (see fig. 3). For detailed guidelines, examples, and illustrations, see Protomolds Design Guidelines.
Maximum part outline is approximately 8.9 inches by 29.6 inches (the maximum outline applies only to shallower parts). Increasing part depth reduces maximum outline. At 1-inch depth, maximum outline is 7.6 x 16.9; at 2-inch depth maximum outline is 5.6 x 14.9; at 3-inch depth, maximum outline is 23.6 x 12.9. Why is this? Its because plastic is injected at pressures as high as 10,000 PSI, and we need enough mold material surrounding a deeper part to keep the mold sides from bending out. Outline notwithstanding, maximum projected mold area is 175 square inches. Maximum part volume is approximately 59 cubic inches. Maximum mold depth either side of the parting line is 3 inches, which means a part can be up to 6 inches tall if the parting line passes through the middle of the part (inside and out).
ProtoQuote can provide feedback on the proposed wall thickness of your parts. Other guidelines are similar to those for smaller parts:
Fig. 2: Unsupported Geometry
1. Try not to mix thick and thin sections; keep wall thickness as constant as possible. 2. Radius corners to minimize flow restrictions and prevent stress concentrations (see fig. 1).
Fig. 3: Rib vs. Core-Cavity Volume 5 DESIGN GUIDELINES FOR BIGGER PARTS 9
cutouts of various shapes and sizes that leave the part strong enough for its intended use but far lighter than a solid part would be. A common term for this is skeletonizing. Our example from the plastics world is a screwdriver handle. The shape shown in Figure 1 is designed to fit the human hand, but in doing so, utilizes far more resin than is necessary to transmit the force exerted by the hand to the shaft of the screwdriver. Coring out the handle in the traditional sense, besides complicating manufacturing, would defeat the handles purpose by eliminating material along its central axis, where it connects to the metal shaft.
producing a design that can still be made in a two-part mold. The overly thick shape has been converted in two ways. The first is a series of relatively thin walls, creating a rib cage structure. The second is to core out the mass with a number of pockets. Both examples retain the shape of the handle while reducing excess material and the potential for injection molding process issues. We may also improve the users grip through the addition of the ridges.
A more practical solution is external coring as shown in Figure 2. Here we significantly reduce the amount of material required, while
This kind of external coring can be easily accomplished in most 3D CAD programs. Of course, the surfaces of the individual walls now have to be drafted in the direction of mold opening to facilitate ejection, but this is also easy using 3D CAD. And, last, but not least, your part now has a cool, modern look.
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There is one more factor that can contribute to problems with knit lines, and that is the use of filled resins. Picture the flow of a liquid resin filled with, for example, glass fiber. Obviously, as the resin front moves through the mold, the fill material will always be behind the front. So when two fronts meet and solidify, there is little or no fiber crossing the meeting line. This doesnt necessarily mean that the knit line will be weak, but it will not have the benefit of fiber reinforcement.
What can you do to prevent problematic knit lines? You probably cant eliminate features like bosses, but you can choose resins that are less susceptible to knit line formation. Specifically, you can avoid filled resins in parts that will have features like through-holes. You can thicken part walls to slow resin cooling, being careful not to thicken them enough to cause sink. And you can place knit-linecausing features farther from the edges of parts when the design allows.
Of course, finding knit lines in your prototypes is better than finding them in your production parts, and thats what prototyping is for. If you have critical requirements for strength of knit lines, please call a customer service engineer at (877) 479-3680 to discuss.
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Design Considerations
Are the cores and holes drafted toward the ejector pin side (low cosmetic side) of my part? YES Does my part design include sufficient draft for part removal from mold? YES We strongly advise using at least 0.5 degrees on all vertical faces. Do I need to add draft to my design? MAYBE For aluminum molds, increments of .5 degrees (shallow features) to 3 degrees (deep features) should be added. A good rule of thumb is 1 degree per inch depth including cam/side pull cores.
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Does my part have a wall thickness that is greater than .040 and under .180? YES NO Parts under .040 may produce a part that has shorts, voids, weak knit lines; parts over .180 may have excessive sink, internal voids, warp, poor texture pick-up. Materials What do I need to consider when selecting a material that is best for my design?
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Dimensions
Does my part have two dimensions that are larger than .25 and less than one of the following? (Dimensions (in mold) = X x Y x Z (depth of part) * * * * 30.5 X 13.5 X .25 28.5 X 11.5 X 1 26.5 X 9.5 X 2 24.5 X 7.5 X 3 YES proceed to Volume NO My part is over 3.
Volume
Does my part have a volume greater than .005 in3? YES proceed NO If no, consider the possibility of redesigning the part so Protomold may be able to mold your part. Let us know if we can assist with this. Does my part have a volume less than 59 in3? YES proceed NO If no, consider the possibility of redesigning the part so Protomold may be able to mold your part. Let us know if we can assist with this.
Selection of the proper material is crucial to part production. Designers should consider the mechanical characteristics, molding properties, and cost of the resin used. Uniform wall thickness for all resins is the best place to start. Glass filled resins are more likely to warp.
My part is over 3 deep, is my parting line in the middle of the part? YES NO If no, consider the possibility of redesigning the part so Protomold may be able to mold your part. Let us know if we can assist with this.
Surface Area
Does my part have a surface area of less than 175 square inches? YES proceed NO If no, consider the possibility of redesigning the part so Protomold may be able to mold your part. Let us know if we can assist with this. Continued on next page
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Geometry
Is it a straight pull mold? YES proceed NO Off angle geometry may need to be modified or cams/side actions need to be applied I DONT KNOW Call Protomold Customer Service Engineers (CSEs) at 877-479-3680. YES Protomold will use cam/side action to mold the feature NO Can you use sliding shut offs? Is the undercut on my part less than one 8.419 x 2.377 x 2.900? (Dimensions (in mold) = Horizontal x Vertical x Depth of cam pull).
Undercuts
Are the undercuts located toward the outside of my part? YES Proceed to next question. Protomold may be able to use cams/side actions to mold the undercut. NO Pass-through cores or filling in the undercut geometry will be required. Protomold can certainly mold your prototype parts, however may not be able to mold your production parts. You could cut the undercut geometry with a secondary operation for testing or low volume production.
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Dont be square!
Weve talked in the past about corners and reasons to make them rounded (radiused) instead of sharp. Lets talk about this in a little more detail and help distinguish between inside and outside corners, both of which should be radiused but for slightly different reasons.
If you look at Figure 1, you see the parting line where A- and B-Side mold halves meet to form the sharp edge of the part. In machining molds, there is always some tolerance, but slight movement of the parting line to the left or right will not change the geometry of the edge.
Outside corners
The first thing to keep in mind is that an outside corner of your part is created by an inside corner of a mold, and vice versa. One reason we dont make parts with sharp outside corners is because our molds are made by a vertical milling process that cannot cut a sharp inside corner. The radius of our inside corner (your outside corner) cannot be smaller than the radius of the cutter, which will vary somewhat with the depth of the cut.
Inside corners
Our milling process can produce sharp outside corners when making a mold, so you can have sharp inside corners. The problem is that sharp inside corners can create serious stresses in a part as it cools. The reason is simple. The rate of resin cooling is proportional to surface area. Any corner will have more surface area on the outside of the curve than on the inside. (Think about the advantage of the proverbial inside track.) On a radiused corner, there is always a difference between the two surface areas, but if the inside of the corner is square, it essentially has a surface area of zero, which maximizes the difference between the inside and outside surface areas.
2009 Proto Labs, Inc. All rights reserved.
If the part consisted of two walls meeting to form an L shape, the part may tend to warp as it cools, reducing the angle between the two walls. If, however, the corner is in, say, a box whose shape keeps the walls from moving in relation to one another, instead of warping, theyd merely become stressed. The result could be cosmetic problems; a fracture or buckled floor. In addition, because they are sharp, the outside corners of a mold half can grab the part within which they are forming a core, either making ejection difficult or risking damage to the part or mold. And finally, sharp corners can contribute to sink and weakened knit lines. So radius those corners! Now that weve hopefully convinced you to radius corners, let us describe one situation where you should not radius a corner: at the parting line. See next page
Fig. 1
In Figure 2, on the other hand, both the mold halves form the parting line edge, so any mismatch in the mold will leave a ledge, changing the shape of the part at the parting line. Thats one reason we recommend leaving the parting line sharp.
Fig. 1
Fig. 2
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First, in a thin-walled design, the resin could cool quickly enough to result in a short shot, that is, incomplete filling of the cavity. Obviously, this would not be acceptable. Even if the cavity did fill completely there would be two flow fronts meeting on the side of the core opposite of the gate, creating knit lines that could substantially weaken the resulting part. One possible solution would be to use a hot-tip gate and inject resin at the closed end of the cylinderthe bottom of the cup or top of the thimble. This may not be possible due to the height of the part, resin compatibility with the hot tip or other unforeseen issues. A better solution might be to lay the design on its side and use a cam to create the core (see figure 3). In this case, the core of the thimble is formed by a retractable cam while the outside of the part is formed by two straight pull mold halves. As shown in the diagram, the parting line runs across the closed end of the cylinder and down the sides. For the sake of symmetry, a tab gate is located along the parting line at the closed end of the cylinder. Resin is injected through the gate and the resin flows down the length of the cavity uniformly.
So how do you identify parts that can benefit from the use of cams? Tall, thin parts with a core, like our thimble, are prime candidates. Another candidate might be a part that, in a straight-pull mold, would require more draft than the designer is able to provide. In that case, side-action cams may completely eliminate the need for draft as the outside face is pulled perpendicular to the part instead of being pushed or pulled from the mold. And, finally, cams can allow production of parts with texture on faces parallel to the direction of mold opening. In simple straight-pull molds, such texture acts essentially as a field of undercuts that can prevent the clean ejection of parts. If there is a design need and we can get a cam on that face, why not? It just may be the face that makes your part. Basically, cams arent just for undercuts anymore. Need a flat face to bolt up against a mating part? How about texture? How about your companys logo or part numbers? Adding a cam to the mold may be just what you need.
Fig. 3
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Look sharp
For several years Protomold has been expanding the range of prototypes and production parts we can make by increasing our mold bases and press sizes. At the same time weve been aware of the demand for thinner features and Protomold has begun to incorporate additional technology in our mold making process to allow your parts to be taller and narrower. For example, we now offer:
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Once you have received your ProtoQuote, you can discuss your project with our Customer Service Engineers (CSEs) by calling us at (877) 479-3680. Our CSEs can help you understand how your part is going to be affected by our process and if there are alternatives within the Protomold process to manufacture your part. Bottom line: if you want thinner, less drafted features on relatively small parts, give us a try. As always, you can upload 3D CAD models to ProtoQuote at www.protomold.com/ PartUpload.aspx. Speaking of bottom line, this technology does add some cost to the mold. We do add a mold advisory to your ProtoQuote under our Other Info column. You can still design to the old Protomold rules for draft, and avoid the added expense. Give our CSEs a call at (877) 479-3680, and they can help you out.
Thinner ribs with less draft Smaller, more complex features atop tall walls V-ribs for ultrasonic welding
In the past, taller ribs have required more draft than shorter ones, but with the new technology, this is no longer always the case. On small parts, we now have the ability to consider less draft on deep ribs and sharp corners on outside edges.
Fig. 1
These new capabilities do not apply to all parts. As with many of our capabilities, the applicability will vary based on a number of factors. The best way to know whether they apply to your parts is to submit your design to ProtoQuote, which will evaluate your model against our most current capabilities.
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LOOK SHARP 19