How was this made? (pen pocket clip)
How was this made? (pen pocket clip)
(OP)

Does anyone know how this pen pocket clip could have been formed? It's all one piece, so either there was some seriously thin steel that formed it, or there's a secondary operation which seems pricey for a throwaway pen. It's parted parallel to the view.
Regards,
Bryan






RE: How was this made? (pen pocket clip)
It is better to have enough ideas for some of them to be wrong, than to be always right by having no ideas at all.
RE: How was this made? (pen pocket clip)
Regards,
Bryan
RE: How was this made? (pen pocket clip)
Dan - Owner
http://www.Hi-TecDesigns.com
RE: How was this made? (pen pocket clip)
Regards,
Bryan
RE: How was this made? (pen pocket clip)
RE: How was this made? (pen pocket clip)
Doesn't show the exact part in question, but an interesting video nonetheless. I would also guess that controlled warp is employed.
It is better to have enough ideas for some of them to be wrong, than to be always right by having no ideas at all.
RE: How was this made? (pen pocket clip)
@ornerynorsk - Thanks for linking to that video. It was good to watch.
Regards,
Bryan
RE: How was this made? (pen pocket clip)
That, or it is just there for added strength.
RE: How was this made? (pen pocket clip)
Dan - Owner
http://www.Hi-TecDesigns.com
RE: How was this made? (pen pocket clip)
Both show a parting line in the plane of symmetry.
I.e., the part of the mold that makes the exterior is split, so the clip can have most any profile, with no warping necessary.
The mold must be in three pieces, not two.
It's a small enough part that you could use a rotating rotary array of smallish molds that index through an injection machine and split the mold and eject the part at another station outside the molding machine proper.
I have no idea how they're actually molded, but I assert that possibilities exist for solutions other than a large planar array multicavity mold.
Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA
RE: How was this made? (pen pocket clip)
More than likely hot runner system to end of cap (small "pip" should be visible).
Stripper plate or sleeve ejection to get them off the cores.
Multi-cavity tooling. May be up to 128/256 parts per shot*.
H
* Chatting to a guy once who worked at a company making packaging stuff. They made two shot (rubber padded) aerosol caps. 350,000 per 24 hrs.
www.tynevalleyplastics.co.uk
It's ok to soar like an eagle, but weasels don't get sucked into jet engines.
RE: How was this made? (pen pocket clip)
Regards,
Bryan
RE: How was this made? (pen pocket clip)
... so I wouldn't assume that post-mold deformation is necessary until I had tried making the part exactly as you see it, and had problems with mold durability.
Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA
RE: How was this made? (pen pocket clip)
My favorite molder made some low-volume cylindrical collet type parts that would have required a collapsible core according to a traditional molder, because of internal teeth on the part. Given a back taper, they could be yanked off the core, leaving the collet arms splayed. The secondary operation comprised wrapping the arms with a rubber band to hold them in the correct place until they cooled.
It worked just fine with the intended resin, nylon/glass.
Some of the parts were too fragile to use in polyester/glass, tried just for fun.
Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA
RE: How was this made? (pen pocket clip)
Regards,
Bryan