Re: Living Hinges

From: Thomas Wickson (tom.wickson@mollenium.com)
Date: Tue Sep 07 1999 - 22:23:28 EEST


Bob
I would like to differ with one of your points about living hinges "Currently
there is no technology available to prototype living hinges without actual
injection molding.".
Living hinges can often be prototyped in SLS fine nylon material. The hinge
design may need to be adjusted slightly for the prototype.
Tom

Fusioneng@aol.com wrote:

> In a message dated 9/7/99 10:34:40 AM Central Daylight Time,
> adirondackdesign@mindspring.com writes:
>
> << Does anyone know what the best material is to
> use for injection molding a living hinge? The
> maximum number of cycles on the hinge will be
> about 2500.
>
> Thanks for your time.
>
> Barbara Ryan
> **************************************************
> Adirondack Automated Design, Inc.
> Kent Lakes, NY
> >>
>
> Barbara;
> There are 2 materials typically used for living hinges in plastics.
> polypropylene and nylon. both work well. There are specific grades formulated
> specifically for this job. I don't normally recommend polyethylene or
> copolymers for this task even though the material suppliers somtimes
> recommend them anyway. There are alot of tricks and pitfalls to their design
> and injection. I would recommend going to a mold shop with experience in this
> area. Currently there is no technology available to prototype living hinges
> without actual injection molding. We can assist in your design and
> implementation as one of the leading innovators in this technology (ie..
> living hinges). We can supply 3D Keltool inserts with a typical delivery of
> 8-10 days for cavity inserts from customer supplied masters models and 10-12
> days from approved 3D cad data. Which can be quickly inserted into a moldbase
> by your local neighborhood moldshop typically 20-30 hours of labour to finish
> up mold (ie.. Drill ejector holes, fit into pockets and final fit shut
> offs... etc). We have build many 3D keltool molds for living hinges. Typicall
> a 3D Keltool mold in unfilled polypropylene will last a minimum of 1/2
> million shots with proper care and design. When it come time for ultra-high
> speed high speed multi-cavity Production tooling we can assist there also.
> Regards
> Bob Morton
> Fusion Engineering
>
> For more information about the rp-ml, see http://ltk.hut.fi/rp-ml/



For more information about the rp-ml, see http://ltk.hut.fi/rp-ml/



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