Document Type

Article

Publication Date

4-1-2019

Abstract

Plastic injection molding is an extremely versatile, preferred method of producing plastic parts because it is ex­tremely efficient. In the business of injection molding, it is important to have machines and tools that work prop­erly to get the job done. One such tool is the mold, which forms high quality plastic parts. The main objective of this project is to refurbish the current Frisbee mold to create promotional products for PSU’s Department of Engineering Technology. Parts were created with the existing mold to determine what issues needed to be ad­dressed, including: excessive flash on the parts/runner, a poor runner/gate design, a poor ejector system, no water for cooling on the mold’s B-side, and years of wear and tear. We developed baseline production and cost data when the mold was being tested. Dimensions of the current Frisbee part were also obtained. After finding what could be fixed on the existing mold, we used SolidWorks to create a new thinner Frisbee part design. Addition­ally, a mold assembly, a mold cavity design, and water channels were added into the B-side of the mold design so that the parts could be cooled. Autodesk MoldFlow Advisor was used to simulate the plastic material’s flow in the mold. After the designs were finalized, a new and improved mold was fabricated in cooperation with Vector Tooling, who agreed to donate their services to make the new mold. After the new mold was installed, better quality parts were produced with shorter cycle times, less scrap, and better ejection.

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Manufacturing Commons

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