Here are a pair of videos that describe a plastic welding process that I have some experience with. Hot plate welding is a type of plastic welding used in many applications, but the one I am most familiar with is automotive lamps (my LinkedIn profile will give you more insight on that). This process works on thermoplastics and it is …
Airbus Sees Cost And Mass Reduction Opportunities From 3D Printing
Airbus uses 3D printing of metals and plastics for production and service parts. Future aircraft will benefit from cost and mass reductions enabled by 3D printing.
Injection Molding Hot Runner System
The runner system in an injection molding tool distributes the molten material into the mold cavities. Many tools use a simple cold runner system where the material injected solidifies in the sprue and runners and is ejected with the parts resulting in waste and requiring de-gating. An alternative is a hot runner which is a more complex system than using cold …
Vacuum Forming Plastic
Here’s a video that shows the fundamentals of the vacuum forming process being; 1) heat sheet material to a point above softening temperature but below melt temperature; and 2) suck material over a plug with the form you want to create. This machine also does a pre-expansion of the material before the vacuum forming which I assume provides a better …
The Plastic Extrusion Process
The Plastic Extrusion Process for profile and blown film plastic extrusion.
Injection Molding Tunnel Gate
A little while ago I started a website called ‘Manufacturing Ops’ that was dedicated to interesting manufacturing process videos I found on YouTube. I have since wound up that project and plan on using this blog to do something similar but not as a ‘video-a-day’ concept as Manufacturing Ops was. This is where it all starts for me. I fell …
3D Printing Blow Mold Tools
According to this video from Stratasys, manfacturers of blow molded products will often skip prototyping their product due to the cost and time associated with making metal prototype blow mold tools. The video presents an alternative solution to make prototypes by creating a 3D polyjet printed tool for blow molding. Not only can this type of tooling be used for …