RE: [rp-ml] injection molding into SLA cavity

From: Alex Do (do@oxy.edu)
Date: Wed Aug 17 2005 - 06:00:49 EEST


Thanks everyone for the great replies ... I was away last week at jury duty
but am now digesting everything this week.

~alex

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-rp-ml@rapid.lpt.fi [mailto:owner-rp-ml@rapid.lpt.fi] On Behalf
Of Sadegh Rahmati
Sent: Friday, August 12, 2005 8:39 AM
To: rp-ml@rapid.lpt.fi
Cc: do@oxy.edu
Subject: Re: [rp-ml] injection molding into SLA cavity

Hi Alex,

In addition to the information you can get from the paper on Direct AIM
tooling by Prof. Phill Dickens at Loughborough University, you must be very
careful with injection moulding parameters settings.

Don't worry about sticking the ABS to the mould, it won't. If you work with
your AIM tool carefuly, you may get 500 shots successfully. If you need
detail information, let me know.

Good luck
Sadegh

> I once read a journal paper (International Conference on RP) about
> some grad student who coated Z-Corp plaster mold cavities and
> injection molded into them but I was dubious about his description of
> the outcome.
>
> I'd like to try something similar with SLA. I'm proposing to create a
> core/cavity set that can be secured to aluminum blocks for molding
> (mainly for mold design review) with a very small injection molding
> press. Since SLA materials are not thermoplastics, the worst thing
> that will happen is that the polymer (I'll probably use ABS) will
> stick to the mold or the mold surface will oxidize and degrade from
> the heat/pressure.
>
> What do people think about trying this out with Somos Nanoform which is
> post-cured? SLA is getting so much cheaper now than it used to be that
> this could be a neat way to "prototype" molds in the future. I'll
> probably just use Quickparts.com or some very low-cost vendor since
> this is just a quick experiment really.
>
> Any recommendations on polymers which might not be too sticky?
>
> I'm trying to mold a small flat part which is about 2 in^2 in
> projected area and about .1" thick.
>
> ~alex
>
> Alexander Do
> Research Assistant
> Ford Prototyping Studio
> University of California, Berkeley http://kingkong.me.berkeley.edu
> <http://kingkong.me.berkeley.edu/>
> 2117 Etcheverry Hall
> Berkeley, CA 94720-1750
> (510) 643 9486
>
>

Dr Sadegh Rahmati
Research and Development Centre of Advanced Manufacturing Technology
rahmati@rapidtoolpart.com
Tel/Fax: +98 21 7314105



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