Plastic was invented in 1862 by British explorer Alexander Parks. The new substance was created as a substitute for the expensive material, ivory, from which billiard balls were made. Making special machines for making plastic products was a primitive process. Precise drawings were not always made for the design of molds, as a result of which problems often arose in the manufacture of plastic products. Design is one of the most important steps in mold making today.

The more accurate the rendered layout is, the better the finished part will be, the less the risk of redoing and making edits. Therefore, many manufacturers pay a lot of attention to this process, which is fully justified.

Mold design – creation of a model of a device for the manufacture of plastic products of various volumes and shapes, obtained by pressing. It is the initial stage in the manufacture of a mold.

Mold design stages:

  1. Provision by the customer of information about the manufactured products.
  2. Creation of drawings, verbal description of the future installation for plastic molding.
  3. Allocation of the main parameters required for the manufacture of a mold: dimensions, shape and material of the manufactured parts; the number of manufactured products; material from which the mold will be made.
  4. Creation of the necessary documentation.
  5. Construction 3D models mold on the computer.
  6. Prototyping, trial production of the installation.
  7. Making edits as needed.

Mold making

Features of mold design

A part of any shape and size is produced using an individual mold. The design can be both simple and complex at the same time. For example, outwardly, it can have the shape of a quadrangle, and in the middle form various compartments, partitions. Accordingly, the mold design process will be more painstaking, since it will have to have special connectors in different planes.

To create a drawing of a future part made using a mold, the designer needs to choose the optimal section of the future product. In practice, it happens differently: the designer is forced to select several sections, especially if for a part that has a complex shape, there is a surface. An experienced designer must, if possible, remove additional sections by selecting the optimal number of them.

Mold design depends on factors such as:

  • selection of the optimal number of product sections;
  • creating a nest layout;
  • thinking through the gating system, cooling system and ejection of the finished part.

Computer aided design of molds

Today, the mold design process takes much less time than before, because designers no longer have to do everything by hand. A ready-made model of the future installation for plastic injection can be created using a computer-aided design system. This method allows you to design a 3D model of a mold based on a model of a future part, make the necessary miscalculations in advance, and ensure the reliability and strength of the equipment design.

Mold design

The software used to design molds is divided into three groups:

  • CAD (ComputerAidedDesigned) – programs for working with graphics;
  • CAM (Computer Aided Manufacturing) – programs that solve the problems of the technological aspect of production;
  • CAE (ComputerAidedEngineering) – programs designed to check and analyze project solutions, engineering calculations.

The most popular program in the CIS countries for creating volumetric models of molds is T-FLEXCAD. This software was developed by the Russian company Top Systems.

With the help of computer-aided design systems, conditions are created for determining the main parameters and characteristics of the future mold, and the manual work of the designer is minimized.

Design is an important step in mold making, during which drawings are created as well as a 3D model of the plant. A serious approach to design avoids problems at the stage of mold production, manufacturing of plastic parts. The use of modern software allows you to significantly speed up the process, creating layouts of complex structures with a high level of detail.

Company specialists KLONA specialize in the manufacture of molds. Please contact us, we will be happy to answer all your questions.