MCM Challenges Metals

Multi-component molding or MCM technology continues to benefit from improvements in materials. One specific area involves soft touch components. “The industry has evolved and we are actually getting a lot better materials in the soft touch arena,” says Dan Tolan, engineering manager at Phillips Plastics’ Multi-Shot Molding facility.

Variations of multi-component molding include two-shot molding, co-injection and hard-soft combinations of thermoplastics. Materials could be part of the move to plastics in many arenas. “I’d say we are seeing lately a trend in aerospace, defense, medical — some of the areas that were more traditionally non-plastic — migrating even more to plastic parts and a lot of two-shot stuff for things like vibration isolation, gasketing, decorating and color schemes,” says Tolan. While decorating and color schemes have been more of the traditional MCM customer base in automotive and consumer, vibration and gasketing certainly represent newer territory. Two of the newest molding machines and a sophisticated product show why MCM technology is growing.

Hybrid Molding Machine

Demonstrated at Chinaplas earlier this year, Ferromatik Milacron’s high-performance K-TEC 200 S hybrid injection-molding machine operates at exceptionally high speed. While providing quiet operation, the hydraulic high-performance injection molding machine delivers 2,000 kN clamping force. Similar to all of the other company’s machines, multi-component technology () is available on the K-TEC 200 S. Ferromatik Milacron’s patented monosandwiching process is a variation of multi-component molding that uses a layered structure where a skin material covers a different core material. Unlike the conventional sandwich process, monosandwiching uses an inexpensive secondary extruder to reduce parts costs.

Hybrid Machine

Also at Chinaplas, Krauss-Maffei demonstrated the KM 160/380 CX Hybrid. With both electric and hydraulic injection molding, the machine is short and compact thanks to a fully hydraulic clamp with a two-platen design. Upgrades to the machine for more complex production processes include different technical solutions for multi-component molding as well as physical and chemical foaming, gas- and water-assisted injection and processes such as DecoForm, SkinForm, compression molding and cleanroom systems.

Functional Circuitry

Phillips Plastics applies multi-shot molding to a variety of markets including medical, automotive and consumer. Dan Tolan, engineering manager at Phillips Plastics’ Multi-Shot Molding facility, has seen a move toward molded interconnect devices, where plateable and non-plateable plastics allows them to plate one portion and not the other to form functional circuitry. The technology has been around for a long time but the materials have evolved to the point they can be used in this type of circuitry application. One example is a portable insulin delivery system. Receiving wireless instructions from a Personal Diabetes Manager, Insulet’s OmniPod delivers insulin directly to a patient. The OmniPod’s construction uses a first shot of polycarbonate and a second shot of plateable PC/ABS to provide 12 separate electrical pathways for the circuit board.