Mould Design

Raja Aziz Raja Ma’arof

Institute of Production Design and
Manufacturing
UniKL IPROM
July 2007-2008
Plastic Product Design
Plastic product technical details
Plastic product Material
Ordered volume / mould Shrinkage
life Tolerance

Volume per batch delivery Fitting condition with other parts

Number of cavities

Injection machine
selection

Plastic mould
design…
 Design criteria
Type of mould
Plastic Mould Design
Design details
Two- or three plate?
Cavity layout
Standard / hot / cold
runner?
Gating design

In-line / symmetrical /
Runner & sprue design star?

Cooling channel design Standard / pin-point

/tunnel / flash / tab /
Ejection design disc?

Venting design Circular / semi-circ /

rectangular / trapezoid /
etc?
Mould tooling material
Standard / U / spiral?

In-mould product design Water / oil / air?

MOULD DESIGN
 Design criteria
Type of mould
Plastic Mould Design
Design details
Pins / stripper ring /
Cavity layout plate / air / slider?

Gating design
Parting lines / inserts /
core / ejector pins /
Cooling channel design
plates?

Ejection design Plain tool steel / through

hardening / case
hardening / heat
Venting design treatable / nitriding
steels?

Mould Material
Shrinkage value / draft
angle / surface quality?
In-mould product design

MOULD DESIGN
Injection plastic material

Material
 Application(where will it be used?)
 Engineering / precision / consumer
 Brand (Bayer, etc.)

Shrinkage

Tolerance
 Use standard tolerances
 Minimize the use of controlled tolerances

Fitting condition (single or assembly)
 Static:minimize contact points, hence
controlled tolerances
 Dynamic
 Plastic injection machine
Fixed side Hooper
Screw component
Heating element

Clamping plate

Standard machine

Machine with
two plastic
material inputs
Shrinkage & draft
Material Inj. Pr, Hold Pr, Mass Mould Shrinkage Draft (%)
Ps (bar) Pn (bar) tempt (ºC) tempt (ºC) (%)
Polystyrol 1200…1500 (0.3…0.6)x 150…280 10…50 Ca. 0.45 1.5
Ps

ABS 1000…1500 (0.3…0.6)x 180…240 50…85 0.4…0.7 -

Ps

Polyethylene 1200…1500 (0.3…0.6)x 140…350 20…60 1.5…2 0.2…2

Ps

Polypropylene 1200…1800 (0.4…0.8)x 150…260 20…60 1.2…2.2 1.5

Ps

Polycarbonate 1300…1800 (0.4…0.6)x 230…320 85…120 0.7…0.8 1

Ps

polyvinylchloride 800…1600 (0.3…0.5)x 140…210 20…60 0.5…0.7 1.5

Ps
Injection plastic material (2)

Semi-crystalline
 PE, PP, POM, PA6, PA66, PBT

Amorphous
 PS,ABS, PC, PMMA, PPE, ABS/PC, PVC-U,
PVC-P, etc.

Amorphous/ Semi-crystalline
 PET (Polyethylene terephthalate)
Injection plastic material (3)
Item PE PP PS ABS PC POM PMMA PA6

A / SC SC A A A A SC A SC
ρ1 (gm/cm3) 0.92 - 0.91 - 1.05 1.06 – 1.20 1.42 1.18 1.14
0.96 0.93 1.19

ρ2 (gm/cm3) 0.72 - 0.72 - 0.95 0.95 – 1.08 1.16 1.09 0.98

0.76 0.74 1.05

Predrying no no no 4/100 3/120 no 4/80 4/80

(h/°C)
Nozzle (°C) 220 - 220 - 220 - 210 - 300 - 195 - 200 - 250 230 -
300 300 280 260 320 215 240

Mould* (°C) 20-60 20-70 15-30 40-80 80-110 40-120 40-80 60-100

Screw ** 50- 50-200 50-100 50-100 100-150 50-100 100-300 20-80

(bar) 200
Max screw 1.2 1.2 1.2 0.6 0.6 0.7 0.6 1.0
vel. (m/s)
SC = semi-crystalline; A = Amorphous
ρ1 = Density at room temperature; ρ2 = Density at processing temperature
*Mould surface temperature; **Screw back pressure
Injection plastic material (4)
Item PA66 PPE PET PBT ABS/PC PVC-U PVC-P CA

A / SC SC A A/SC SC A A A A

ρ1 (gm/cm3) 1.14 1.05-1.1 1.35 1.30 1.15 1.35 1.1-1.4 1.2-1.3

ρ2 (gm/cm3) - - - - - - - -

Predrying 4/80 2/110 4/140 4/120 4/80 no no 3/70

(h/°C)
Nozzle (°C) 280- 280-300 250-290 250-260 250-270 180-210 160-220 170-200
290

Mould* (°C) 60- 80-120 120-140 60-80 70-90 30-60 30-50 40-80
100
Screw ** (bar) 20-80 30-100 50-100 50-100 50-100 50-300 50-100 50-100

Max screw 1.0 0.6 0.5 0.7 0.4 0.2 0.5 0.6
vel. (m/s)

SC = semi-crystalline; A = Amorphous
ρ1 = Density at room temperature; ρ2 = Density at processing temperature
*Mould surface temperature; **Screw back pressure
Injection plastic material (5)
Groups Consumer goods Closures Covers Engineering
packaging
Applications Parts with low Screw caps, lids Vacuum cleaner Floppy disks, CD
surface quality and closures for housings, jewel cases, video
and dimensional pharmaceuticals bumpers, cassettes, slide
requirement, and cosmetics instrument panels, frames
simple toys lawn movers,
power drills
Typical materials PS, PP, PE PE, PP PS, PP, ABS/PC PS, ABS
Flow path to 100-150:1 30-100:1 100-150:1 100-150:1
wall thickness
Quality Low Medium Medium Medium
requirements
Required mould 200-250 350-400 350-400 350-400
cavity pressure
(bar)
Injection plastic material (6)

Screw barrel RPM
ShotWeight[g] x 60
RPM =
Coolingtime[sec] x Plast.Flow[g/R] x Correctivefactor

Plasticising time
ShotWeight [g] x 66
Plasticing time[s] =
Plast.Flow [g/R] x Corrective factor x RPM
Injection plastic material (7)

Follow-up pressure, PF (with regards to mould
cavity pressure, PMC)
Material PF
PE, PP, PS, PA PMC x 1.25
SAN, ABS, PPO, PET, PBT PMC x 1.3
PMMA, PC, POM,ABS/PC PMC x 1.35

Clamping Force, FC [kN]

 FC = PMC[bar] x Part projected surface[cm2]/100
 FC = PMC[bar] x Part projected
surface[mm2]/10,000
Cavity calculation

Volume required: 2,000 monthly

Production data
 One shift
 Eight hours per shift
 22 days per month

Production allocation
 Two days per month
 Injection machine cycle time approx 50 sec.
Cavity calculation (2)

No. of Cycle Time: 2days x 8hrs per day x
3600sec per hr / 50sec = 1152

No. of cavities: 2,000 u / 1,152 Cycle Time
= 2 cavities