Pro E/ MOLD DESIGN

By
SREESANKAR.J
CADD ENGINEER

Overview
Basic about mold & Molding
Mold Manufacturing & Machining Process
Plastic Materials
Molding Process
Mold Types
Parts Of Mold
Single Cavity Mold
Multi Cavity Mold
Family Mold
Methods of Actuation
Feed System
Shinkage
Ejection
Parting Surface

Basic about Mold & Molding

Hollowed-out block that is filled with a liquid like plastic, glass, metal
or ceramic raw materials.
Liquid sets to adopt the shape of the mold.
Molding: The Process of Creating OR producing commercially
accepted shapes using Mold.
Working principle:
1. The cavity portion of the mold, forms the external shape of the
molding.
2. The core portion of the mold, forms the internal form of the molding.

Mold Manufacturing & Maching

Process
1. CNC Process (Predominant in making complex molds)
2. EDM- Electrical Discharge Machining Process OR Spark
Erosion Process.(No Heat treatment is required)

Plastic Materials
Synthetic organic material that can be molded under
heat and pressure into a shape that is retained after the
heat and pressures are removed is called plastic.
Types:
1. Thermoplastics:- Can be formed to any shape on
application of heat, harden & cooling. Can be retransformed to thermoplastic.
2. Thermosets:- Can't be re-transformed to thermosets.

Molding Machine
Hopper
Barrel
Extruder Screw
Nozzle

Different types of molding process

1. Injection molding
2. Compression & transfer molding
3. Extrusion
4. Blow molding
5. Thermoforming
6. Calendaring
7. Reinforced Plastics
8. Rejection Injection Molding

Injection molding
Injection molding is the process of creating parts by injection materials into
a mold.
Injection molding uses materials like:
1. Thermoplastic
2. Thermosetting plastic
Can be performed with a host of materials, including metals, glasses etc. for
which the process is called die casting.
Classified into 3 according to construction:
3. One plate mold
4. Three plate mold
5. Runnerless mold

Design considerations
Draft: Required in both the core and cavity for easy ejection of the finished
component
Shrinkage allowance: Depends on shrinkage property of material core and cavity
size
Cooling circuit: Reduces the cycle time, water circulates through holes drilled in
both the core and cavity plates.
Ejection gap: The gap between the ejector plate face and core back plate face
should hold dimension within the core. It must allow component to be fully
removed from the mold.
Air vents: Removes gases entrapped between core and cavity (usually less than
0.05 mm gap excess causes flash defect).
Mold polishing: The core, cavity, runner and sprue should have good surface
finish and should be polished along material flow direction.
Mold filling: The gate should be placed such that the component is filled from the
thicker section to thinner section.

Compression Molding
Molding is a forming process
Comprises of two processes
1. Preheating
2. Pressurizing

.Compression molding is generally used for

thermosetting plastic.

Types of Compression Molding

Sheet molding compound(SMC)
Bulk molding compound(BMC)

Transfer Molding
Polymer charge is transferred from transfer pot to the mold.
The mold is cooled and molded part is ejected
Molding materials
1. Thermoset plastic (Epoxy, Polyester, phenol- Formaldehyde,
Phenol ester)
2. Thermoplastic can also be used.
Application
Used to make enclosed parts like, Circuits, Pins, Coils, plugs.

Extrusion Molding
Process to make parts of continuous length and uniform
cross-section.
Extruded plastics often have a higher melt viscosity.
Shapes that can result from extrusion include T-sections, Usections, square sections, I-sections, L-sections and circular
sections.
Shapes of the product depends on the die.

Application
To produce products like,

Pipes
Hoses
Drinking Straws
Curtain Tracks
Rods
Fibers

Blow Molding
Blow Molding, also known as "Blow Forming"
Manufacturing process, by which hollow plastic parts are formed.
Material used:
Polyethylene (LD & HD)
Polypropylene(PP)
Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC)

Types of Blow Molding

1. EXTRUSION BLOW MOLDING.
2. INJECTION BLOW MOLDING.
3. STRETCH BLOW MOLDING.

Thermoforming
Its a plastic molding technique where thin plastic sheets are
heated and formed on a male or female die.

Types of Thermoforming
Vacuum Forming:- uses heat and pressure, vacuum is used to
manipulate heated sheet.
Pressure forming:- same as vacuum pressure bt additional pressure is
applied.

Applications
Rigid packing of food & consumer goods.
Toys, lids etc.

Calendaring
Calendaring is a continuous process, synchronized
method.
Converts raw material into a flex and then handling the
plastic like mass through the nips of a series of
cooperative rolls into a sheet of specified thickness and
width.
Application
Mainly used in forming of rubber.

Parts of Mold
Core insert
Cavity insert
Core retainer or Core plate
Cavity retainer or cavity plate
Back plate
Parallel block
Ejector plate
Ejector Block
Ejector retainer
Ejector pin
Return pins
Reset pins
Reset button
Ejector rods
Ejector rod bush
Sprue bush
Sprue Puller
Register ring
Guide Pillars
Guide Bushes

Single Cavity Mold

Has only One Mold Cavity.
Only one product can be produced at a time.

Multi Cavity Mold

Can create more than two or more cavities.
Saves more time.

Family Mold
Different components of same family in a single mold.

Methods of Actuation
Three methods:
1. Finger Cam:- Short Delay period is required.
2. Dog leg cam:-Longer delay period is required
3. Spring Actuation

Feed system
Flow way in the injection mold to connect the nozzle of
the injection machine to the impression.
Feed system consists of:
1. Sprue: Carries materials from machine nozzle to the runner.
2. Runner: the passageway in the mold connecting the sprue
bush
3. Gate: Gate connects runner to cavity

Shrinkage
The incremental difference between the dimensions of
the molding and the mold from which it was made.
Shrinking increases with:
Decreases with:

Material temperature
* Higher Cavity
Pressure

Mold temperature
* Lower Injection
Time

Section thickness

Shrinkage = Dimension * 0.5/100

Ejection
The process of ejecting mold component from the core.
Major ejection systems are:
1. Ejector Pin or sleeve
2. Blades
3. Air Valve
4. Stripper Plate
5. Thread ejection

Parting Surface

1.
2.
3.
4.

Flat parting surface (figure a)

Parting surface tilt (figure b)
Stepped parting surface (figure c)
Curved parting surface ( figure d)

Parting surface design principles

Parting surface design directly affects the product quality,
ease of construction and operation of the injection mold.
1. Design the injection mold structure as simple as
possible.
2. Ease of de-molding. As far as possible.
3. Ensure the dimensional accuracy of the molded parts.
4. Ensure appearance requirement of the molded parts.
5. Ensure adequate venting.

ProE-Pro/MOLDESIGN
Pro/MOLDESIGN is an optional module for Pro/ENGINEER that
provides the tools to simulate the mold design process. It
provides the functionality to build parting lines and parting
surfaces and extract punch, cavities and slides.

Mold Analysis in ProE

Pro/MOLDESIGN provides a number of tools to ensure that
mold cavity will perform satisfactorily during actual
production. These tools verify that mold confirms to some
minimum criteria set by the mold designer.
Types:
1. Water Line clearance check
2. Mold opening analysis
3. Parting surface check
4. Projected area calculation

THANK YOU