FACILITIES FOR SHORT RUN MOLDING
Illustrated below are some of our facilities for the production of short run injection molded parts.
Large parts, up to 1 1/4 lbs and parts as small as 1/10 gram can be molded on our machines. Shown here is a mold for a tool holder, 24 inches long by 6 inches wide, made in two pieces, which are later joined by ultrasonic welding.
This mold is a short run "soft" tool, having an expected life of about 1/4 million parts. It is critical that machine operators be familiar with soft tooling, as the methods of operating and caring for soft tools differ greatly from those for "hard" tools. It is likewise important that the machines upon which soft tools are run be chosen carefully, as some common types of molding machines are unsuitable for use with soft tools, and can cause undue wear.
DragonJewel will maintain molds, that it produces, for a certain number of operations without charge. This guarantee is set forth at the time the tooling is quoted. After the specified number of operations, maintenance will be charged. Most tools far exceed their guaranteed lifespan.
Operations such as this are done by hand in small batches. Where the volume justifies it, the secondary operation may be automated.
Secondary operations may be as simple as trimming of a part, or may be as complex as cross drilling, threading and engraving.
When parts are critical, we can serial number or otherwise identify individual parts for the purpose of traceability and quality control. Individual documentation may also be provided in critical applications.
Our machines are equipped to run complex molds with slides and hydraulic core pulls, as shown here with this five cavity soft tool molding five different plumbing parts, three with right angle cores and one with threads. Running on a 100 ton eight ounce machine, this mold is capable of producing over 1000 sets of parts in an eight hour day.
One of the advantages of soft tooling is that the special hard aluminum used for bases and major cavities is a six times better heat conductor than tool steel, which produces a much more rapid cooling rate than steel, resulting in faster production rates. The more even temperature distribution also helps avoid local "hot spots" which can result in surface blemishes and weak points in the molded part.