Plastic Hollow Mandrels

[hendie]

I am in need of some (hollow if possible) plastic X (4 legged) mandrels 0.187" OD, ID is not critical as long as the mandrel is rigid. Length of each leg around 2" or so.
Material: Poly Pro or Kynar

Does any one know if these can be purchased off the shelf from anywhere or would I be looking at creating a mold to manufacture them ?

 

[Pud]

FEP Tubing $1.07 per foot:

http://www.usplastic.com/catalog/va..._name=30148&product_id=12305&variant_id=58080

Clever, Google - is it not?

H

http://www.tynevalleyplastics.co.uk

 

[hendie]

Pud,
I need a 4 leg cross, not just a length of tube

 

[Pud]

AAhhh...Understand now.

For a guess - you'll be very lucky. What's it for? Your material choice of PP and PVDF are poles apart in cost.

How many do you require?

H

http://www.tynevalleyplastics.co.uk

 

[patprimmer]

PP can be hot air welded if the numbers do not support the cost of a mould. 2" by less than 3/16" is not all that rigid. A lot will depend on your actual design, load and definition of rigid. PBT or Acetal will be a lot more rigid if you have a mould made

Regards
Pat
See FAQ731-376 for tips on use of eng-tips by professional engineers &

http://eng-tips.com/market.cfm

for site rules

 

[hendie]

It was a shot in the dark, I didn't think there was anything commercially available.
Unfortunately I can't say too much but we needed them to act as formers for an overmolding process

 

[patprimmer]

If you can't say to much, we can't help to much.

Regards
Pat
See FAQ731-376 for tips on use of eng-tips by professional engineers &

http://eng-tips.com/market.cfm

for site rules

 

[btrueblood]

A suggestion...may or may not be of use to you, but, I've used the trick before for straight pieces -

Buy very thin wall PFA tubing. Run a snug-to-tight fitting copper or steel wire thru the i.d. Overmold/overwrap and subject to heat cure. Pull out wire, and pass ice water or similar coolant thru tube i.d., then pull tube.

This worked for use because we had enough residual heat in the outer part, and the conductivity of the PFA is low (the i.d. of the pfa shrank and pulled in enough to let us yank it out). And, maybe because the PFA had lovely release properties (I think it gets a silicone coating when extruded/drawn?).