Calling all Plastic Tooling Engineers. 8

[10knots]

Hello Chaps,
I need your help, I trying to pull together a detailed process flow chart clearly explaining the intricacy of interfacing a design team producing raw 3D CAD models for plastic injection moulding up to a standard where they are ready for tooling released, but without the need for adjustment by the supplier???

Basically we need to implement company procedure to create fully drafted and split-lined parts ready to be used in such systems as ProE by the supplier without adjustment. We have small and complex parts in tight assemblies, therefore draft, split-lines, ejectors and gate marks can all give us problems without careful assembly consideration. Therefore we want to maintain complete control of the part design before release to the toolmaker.

Can anybody help with any resource matter, or examples done?
Any help would be very much appreciated.

Cheer,
Ryan.

Bigtherms@yahoo.co.uk

 

[MadMango]

You might want to focus your replies by posting in the appropriate forum. forum710

[green]"But what... is it good for?"[/green]
Engineer at the Advanced Computing Systems Division of IBM, 1968, commenting on the microchip.
Have you read faq731-376 to make the best use of Eng-Tips Forums?

 

[MikeHalloran]

Lemme see if I understand this.

You want a detailed flowchart for turning the bunch of idiots you've got, into plastic mold tooling experts who can produce a design a for a good, moldable part, without help from a molder.

It's a pretty simple flowchart, really. Just a begin block, an end block, and a black box block in the middle where your team somehow acquires three decades of experience, each, designing, building, running and repairing molds.

You might as well go the one extra step and have them learn how to write the CNC code for hogging out the cavities, so you can just send a file over to the moldmaker and tell him how big a block of steel to load into the milling machine.

Oh, no, wait. On second reading, that isn't what you want at all. You want to implement a process whereby the crew can _remain_ idiots, follow the documented procedures, 'just turn the crank', and turn out producible designs.

Can you imagine the commercial value of such a document, or set of documents? If such a thing existed, any person or group smart enough to produce it would not be dumb enough to post it on the Internet for you to harvest for free.

To put that in perspective, a couple of decades ago, General Electric offered a complete set of their engineering standards for ... well, everything. ISTR the asking price for one copy was 60,000 US$. And that was when 60k was a lot of money, and GE was a real company.

The price probably represented a small premium over the cost of reproduction. Which brings up another point; returning to the procedure for producing flawless designs, if such a set of documents existed, it might take you less time to go out and get the experience they represent than to read them.

On the other hand, you could make a career out of searching for a Holy Grail like that. I assume the pointy- haired person who assigned you the task also gave you a very tight deadline.

Please don't be offended by the hyperbole. I think someone is pulling your leg. If you were an apprentice carpenter, you'd be looking for a 'room stretcher'. ;-)




Mike Halloran
NOT speaking for
DeAngelo Marine Exhaust Inc.
Ft. Lauderdale, FL, USA

 

[strokersix]

10knots,

You may learn something from this company:

http://www.protomold.com

I have done business with but am not affiliated with Protomold in any way.