This news article was originally written in Spanish. It has been automatically translated for your convenience. Reasonable efforts have been made to provide an accurate translation, however, no automated translation is perfect nor is it intended to replace a human translator. The original article in Spanish can be viewed at Fabricación flexible y personalizada de moldes de resina para la inyección de plástico

Results of the project Moldflex of Aimme

Flexible and customized manufacture of resin for plastic injection molds

Drafting Interempresas30/12/2010

December 30, 2010

Aimme has developed the project ' Moldflex: flexible and customized manufacture of resin for plastic injection mould ', funded by the Impiva and co-funded by the European Fund of Regional Development (ERDF). Its objective: to increase the competitiveness of the SMEs involved in the sector of the plastic through the availability of a prototype for short series cast in a very short time period.

During this project has analysed the manufacture insert using Stereolithography with a special resin which contains much of the burden of non-crystalline nanoparticles, high rigidity, able to withstand up to 260 ° C. (Resin NanoTool).

Thanks to the evolution of the materials developed in recent years, have resulted in resin in Stereolithography of high-performance characteristics allow to raise their use as inserts for plastic injection.

During the development of the two years of duration of the project have been numerous activities to validate the implementation of these resins with pilot experiences in companies in the sector.

Stereolithography process is to solidify layer to layer through the action of a laser, sensitive resins in the ultraviolet light in liquid from a 3D CAD electronic file.

Given the innovative nature of the project, early stages have focused on the collection of information from the existing experience currently on the manufacture of fast mold resin for plastic injection-based as well as analyzing the requirements of a mold by conventional means for the injection of plastic.

Then began the validation of the use of Stereolithography technology with resin loaded with a real cast. For the implementation of this activity was the collaboration of the company Tooling Caspe S.L, company dedicated to designing, manufacturing of moulds and injection of parts.

They designed a specific mold for the project. The piece to obtain from the mould was a simple piece, flat with the logos of tooling caspe as Aimme on both sides of the piece. (Figura1).

Figure 1. Both sides of the piece to make.

Designed insert that is subsequently built with resin NanoTool (Figure 2), after its manufacture in Stereolithography machine underwent a heat treatment to increase their strength properties.

Figure 2. Inserts in resin NanoTool.

The inserts were adjusted on an mould machining of aluminium (Figure 3).

Figure 3. Inserts in the injection machine.

In these casts are injected polypropylene, after a few early pieces of adjustment of the process, approximately 150 pieces right is injected. After the analysis of the results from the matricero and inyectador with an experience proven in the manufacture of plastic parts, claimed that more than 1,000 pieces without any problem could inject given the characteristics of the moulds and the quality of the obtained parts (Figure 4).

Figure 4. Injected parts.

After the first successful experience, established a plan of experiments in which were built inserts two more with the same design of piece and found if they were able to withstand conditions more criticism by the injection of a material similar to ABS, polyamide with 30% of load of glass and polyamide with a polyamide with glass load 10% and 20% microspheres. These reinforced plastics experience was not satisfactory.

As a result of the project, it is possible to conclude that the use of Stereolithography and technology to manufacture moulds with loaded resin is valid for the injection of plastics such as polypropylene and polyethylene. In the case of more aggressive materials, it will be necessary to improve the characteristics of these casts so that they can support the process of injection conditions.