TABLE OF CONTENTS Vast numbers of injection mouldings are produced in an ever-increasing variety of materials. Of these a very large number of components have some sort of undercut form on them. These can range from simple holes and projections to highly complex undercut forms that require more demanding design solutions and toolmaking skills.
Whatever the application or part complexity, the mould design and construction should conform to the following requirements:
It must be reliable in production.
It must produce components of the required quality.
It must achieve the agreed tool life.
It must be economic.
The last point is an important one. It is easy to over-engineer some undercut tool designs with the consequence that the tool is too expensive (and possibly has an increased cycle as a result). As stated previously, the simplest design is the most elegant one, but despite this the tool must be designed and manufactured to a standard that will satisfy the first three conditions.
In other words, we require all designs to be as simple as possible but also of high design and constructional quality. In general, the simpler the design the more reliable it will be and, equally importantly, the smaller the tool, the smaller its mass will be. The smaller the mass of the tool, the faster heat may be conducted away from it, enabling faster cycles and hence reduced cost of production.
The theme of this book is to promote the fact that the simplest design is the best, and this...
