Design engineers can realize important gains by working collaboratively with the companies (often at the tail end of a supply chain) that design and manufacture the tooling that critically influences the economics and quality of a plastic part.
In some cases, people want to build molds before they even know what the critical elements are – that’s a big mistake. It’s important to meet together upfront and establish the design criteria. For example, how will success be defined?
Fairly often, original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) run into problems with part quality and cost because they failed to consider mold design issues.
Core shift in injection molding refers to an uneven distribution of the polymer meltflow around a core during the filling and packing phases. Deflection of the core by uneven meltflow causes wall thickness variation of the part. It’s recommended to consult with the production mold maker prior to the design freeze.
Properly understanding the customer needs is what MoldCraft has been doing for almost 50 years. Effective design and tools are created from the knowledge and questions that are sorted out up front. Otherwise, it’s a moving target of trial and error to design the proper mold and tools.
If you have any questions about mold design or would like more information on our products and services, please contact us.
