IMTS can seem frantic at times with a sea of exhibitors’ information, products and services to focus on. At Makino’s booth, visitors were faced with a unique challenge–to expand their focus and look more at the big picture than at the details. Makino’s Die/Mold Division has created a comprehensive mold demonstration showing the entire mold making process from a CAD/CAM design to a finished, plastic injected part.
The demonstration is a joint effort between Makino Japan and Makino’s US-based Die/Mold Division, and details the manufacturing of a telephone housing mold. From CAD/CAM design, toolpath, and milling to mold setup and plastic injection, Makino showed the impact that high-speed, high-definition machining can have on this specific process.
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“Makino is not a mold builder,” says Steve Colston, marketing manager, Makino Die/Mold Division. “This demonstration showed our understanding of the mold building process, which allows us to provide machining applications more effectively—in any industry. These applications must fit into an entire manufacturing process to be truly beneficial to a customer. Rather than merely dropping off a machine and a manual to a customer, we provide an entire application that is ready to be placed into the manufacturing stream.”
The machining and toolpath techniques used in the process eliminated several steps from traditional methods. Machining parting lines and speaker grill pins directly into the mold steel, for example, increases mold accuracy and decreases the number of inserts and parts. Taking this approach to the speaker grill pins eliminates 240 inserts alone, allowing for easier assembly and a more flexible mold design.
Makino’s high-definition machining techniques also make it possible to blend multiple surfaces together within a 3µm Rmax deviation and eliminate polishing. Contour accuracy of the telephone mold core and cavity were duplicated to within 13µm Rmax total of the original CAD/CAM model.
“These results also make the process more stable and easier to manage,” says Colston. “Being able to start a mold assembly at 8:00 a.m. and have a finished part off the press by 7:00 p.m. is proof. And that is without doing any rework. An accurate mold with no flash.”
The telephone mold was chosen for its complexity and the industry it represents. The telecommunications industry epitomizes the need for faster time-to-market. Fast track product design and development, shorter product life cycles and continuous improvement demand greater agility, responsiveness and cooperation from mold builders.
“This demonstration challenged mold builders to change from conventional mold making to a process that makes more molds better and faster than ever before,” says Colston. “This demonstration clearly showed the benefits of accepting that challenge. In fact, it will tour the globe demonstrating the challenge to mold builders at other trade shows, including Japan’s JIMTOF and Germany’s EMO.”
Source: Competitive Mold Maker, Volume 4, Number 2
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