Tool steels have historically been over-used for injection mold cores and cavities, simply because they've been both cheap and familiar. But soaring price tags on many tool steels, coupled with the push for more productive molding operations, is triggering an investigation of alternative mold construction materials. While not necessarily cheaper than steel on a price basis, these alternatives have thermal engineering or maintenance cost advantages that make them more attractive than ever. Copper alloys are one choice. They can speed the removal of heat from critical sections of the tool, potentially improving cycle times 20 to 50 percent and even improving the dimensional stability of the molded parts themselves. Look for more stainless steels, too. Stainless has always been the material of choice when molding acid-emitting resins, such as PVC. But now use of stainless is spreading, particularly for expensive tools, because corrosion-related maintenance efforts and costs are reduced through the life of the tool. Finally, important advances are also under development with aluminum mold materials, particularly in strength, surface hardness, corrosion resistance, and uniformity after heat treating (go to the Design News Materials Forum at http://rbi.ims.ca/4921-511 for more information). Here's a look at three recent mold materials that can serve as steel stand-ins:
Improved Stainless RoyAlloy is a new stainless mold-base steel, developed by Edro Specialty Steels, to overcome shortcomings associated with prehardened 420F (1.2085) stainless holder steels: a lack of toughness, unpredictable stability, inconsistent machinability and poor weldability. Edro says thermal treatments give the material improved dimensional stability after machining without the need for stress relieving. Simplified Plumbing The photo shows a MoldStar 90 beryllium-free copper alloy core for a 32-cavity mold running a polypropylene part used in a packaging application. "Because of the conductivity of the alloy, a water channel is cut only in the base of the core, in place of an intricate, small, water system normally needed had the material been tool steel," comments Cliff Moberg, president of Performance Alloys.
Molding Mounds MoldMAX V is a new copper-nickel-silicon-chrome alloy that has a hardness of 30 HRC and thermal conductivity approximately four to five times greater than P20 tool steel. The new grade is the second in a series of non-beryllium-copper alloys introduced by Brush Wellman. Moldmax XL is a copper-nickel-tin alloy with similar properties.
UK-based Plastic Logic and French company ISORG have created what the pair tout as a first in flexible printed electronics: a large area, conformable, organic image sensor printed on plastic.
For 3D printing to make the jump from rapid prototyping to manufacturing, engineers will need to find easier ways to move products from their CAD screens to their printers.
Gigabit and PoE are two networking technologies moving ahead in tandem as industrial users power remote Ethernet devices such as IP security cameras at 1,000 Mbps over existing CAT5 cable.
From Dell / Intel® New Paradigms in Design Work Scott Hamilton, vertical market strategist for Dell Precision workstations, 5/2/2013 5
Early in my career, I worked as a draftsman and remember the days of drawing on vellum with numbered pencils and Mylar with plastic lead. This was a fun experience in the sense that I ...
I've been using workstations for more than 10 years and love finding ways to get more performance from my system. With demanding professional applications that require more power each ...
A lasting memory from my first job as an engineer in an auto assembly plant is standing on hard concrete at six in the morning, vending-machine coffee clutched in hand, listening to ...
For industrial control applications, or even a simple assembly line, that machine can go almost 24/7 without a break. But what happens when the task is a little more complex? That’s where the “smart” machine would come in. The smart machine is one that has some simple (or complex in some cases) processing capability to be able to adapt to changing conditions. Such machines are suited for a host of applications, including automotive, aerospace, defense, medical, computers and electronics, telecommunications, consumer goods, and so on. This radio show will show what’s possible with smart machines, and what tradeoffs need to be made to implement such a solution.
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