Instructor: Jason Williams

Fee: $1,210

Offerings this year

  • TBA

Educational Goals: 

This seminar has been developed to provide participants with a basic understanding of plastic product design features. Gating types and locations also will be reviewed. A basic knowledge of the effect of material type on design, as well as an understanding of runners, gates, vents, ejection systems, and much more can be gained by attending.

Who Should Attend: 

This seminar provides a thorough two-day coverage of the mold design process for all those individuals involved with the mold. It is appropriate for plastic molding engineers, project engineers, mold designers, quality assurance staff, and others involved with the mold. Supervisors and upper-level management are also encouraged to attend.

Course Outline: 

1. Tolerances in Mold and Part Design

  • Tolerances of mold components and molded articles
  • Sensitivity of tolerances to molding material and process

2. Mold Steels

  • Mold material selection criteria
  • Treatments to tailor steel properties
  • Components requiring treatment

3. Mold Bases

  • Mold base types
  • Mold base components

4. Mold Layout

  • Selection of mold bases
  • Progression of part design through mold design
  • Use of inserts and sub-inserts
  • Balancing of forces in mold components

5. Mold Strength

  • Miscellaneous calculations
  • Metal fatigue issues
  • Wear and undesired hobbing

6. Ejection

  • Types of ejection
  • Actuation and interface to the molding machine
  • Cosmetic tradeoffs

7. Cooling

  • Basic cooling principles
  • Serial and parallel cooling layouts
  • Machining cooling lines
  • Cooling across multiple mold components (inserts, core pins, etc.)

8. Gating

  • Types of gating
  • Designing the proper gate for the molding material

9. Hot Runners

  • Types of standard systems
  • Selection and advantages of using a hot runner system

10. Venting

  • Importance of venting in injection molding
  • Designing for proper venting

11. Solid Modeling in Mold Design

  • Converting solid model part geometry to 3D mold geometry
  • Addressing shrinkage
  • Developing cavity and core surfaces from electronic part data
  • Exporting surfaces for NC machining

12. CAE in Mold Design

  • Flow analysis for proper gate selection
  • Cooling analysis for optimal cycle times
  • Emerging technologies for mold design