Glyn,
Anthony Venus did some research into this when he was at the University of
Sunderland, UK, his work was presented in the 5th European Conference on
RP&M in Finland 1996.
Another option which I have considered is to use Direct AIM. In my PhD I
showed how the surface of an SL tool (which is above its Tg during part
ejection if timed correctly) acts in a rubber like manner. The roughness of
an unfinished SL part is mirrored on the moulding surface and no dammage to
either is caused during ejection (again, subject to correct timing for
ejection). I would like to investigate the extent of undercuts which may be
successfully moulded, but as I am tied up with other projects perhaps
someone else would like to do this. I will be happy to send sections of my
work regarding this to anyone who is interested.
Neil Hopkinson
Rapid Manufacturing Research Group
Department of Mechanical & Manufacturing Eng
De Montfort University
Queens Building, The Gateway,
Leicester,
LE1 9BH,
UK.
Tel +44 116 2551551 x8064
Fax +44 2577054
http://www.cse.dmu.ac.uk/RMG/Welcome.htm
> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-rp-ml@bart.lpt.fi [mailto:owner-rp-ml@bart.lpt.fi]On Behalf
> Of Glyn Churchman
> Sent: 24 February 2000 23:02
> To: rpml
> Subject: Silicone rubber tooling for inj. molding
>
>
> I thought I once saw a posting from a company that claimed to do injection
> molded parts in silicone rubber tooling.
> I have an application where I need to make thousands of many
> different small
> parts with soft undercuts and I want to avoid witness or parting
> lines. The
> material for these is a low temperature polyolefin type of material.
> A previous manufacturer of these parts used a spin-casting
> machine and made them
> much as one would cast low-temp alloy metal parts, in silicone
> molds (so I was
> told). I think this would be too slow and costly for the
> quantities I now need.
>
> Any takers or do you know the company I am thinking of?
>
> Glyn@Prototech, Inc.
>
>
> 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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