Design seamless platsic housings
Design seamless platsic housings
(OP)
Many plastic housings that I see have a groove along the seam where the top and bottom of the housing meet. This groove is illustrated in the attached picture of a calculator housing(TI-89). First, is this groove there to prevent a lip that your finger can catch on? Also, is there any way to make the top and bottom halves meet with creating a lip and not needed the groove? Apple designers seem to have figured it.






RE: Design seamless platsic housings
RE: Design seamless platsic housings
RE: Design seamless platsic housings
Dan - Owner
http://www.Hi-TecDesigns.com
RE: Design seamless platsic housings
Oh, and your example shows a pretty poor example. The gap is usually around 1 - 2mm.
H
www.tynevalleyplastics.co.uk
It's ok to soar like an eagle, but weasels don't get sucked into jet engines.
RE: Design seamless platsic housings
The groove hides mismatch of edges in a bolted joint, and also hides flash/extrusion in a bonded joint.
You can make an assembly with no groove at the joint, but you will spend a lot of money on hand trimming/ application of Bondo/ abrasive finishing to make the seam perfectly flush, and you will still get customer complaints about the edges cutting skin as they become re-exposed when the plastic changes shape from various aging mechanisms over which you have no control.
Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA