Molding Dreams into Reality, Art to Part in PlasticsWritten by Steve Koons
Art to Part in Plastics: Molding Dreams into Reality An introduction to Injection Molding. Every plastic product you see needs to be shaped, and most common method is Injection Molding. Most people using their computer to read this give no thought to how all those plastic parts were formed. Or how complex and expensive it is even to produce a ballpoint pen. Just about every part made of plastic these days is formed using some kind of an injection mold, from tiny precision parts that can barely be seen to large automotive exterior parts. Just about every industry relies on some kind of injection mold for their products. Injection molding is forcing of molten plastic into a shaping cavity. An injection molding machine has three basic components: 1)Injection. Plastic pellets are fed into a hopper and then heated up. Once they are melted they are injected under extremely high pressure into a mold. 2)Mold. This is a custom designed tool for shaping and cooling melted plastic. Two halves are precisely designed with cavities for shaping of part, channels for cooling molten plastic, and an ejection system. 3)Clamping. This is part of machine that holds removable mold in place, keeps two halves together during molding, and opens mold for part ejection. Molds are complex and must be of heavy-duty construction since they are subjected to a considerable amount of pressure. They are usually carved/milled out of aluminum or steel blocks and contain many different parts such as mold base, clamp plates, support plates, ejector plates and pins, guide pins, sprue puller pins, and of course, two cavities with channels for molted plastic flow, cooling and/or secondary heating units. The mold is most expensive part of injection molding, with molds ranging from a few thousand dollars to hundreds of thousands of dollars. Think about that next time you use that cheap plastic pen.
| | Maximizing Your Potential: Using Your Brain to ThinkWritten by Etienne A. Gibbs, MSW
PERMISSION TO REPUBLISH: This article may be republished in newsletters and on web sites provided attribution is provided to author, and it appears with included copyright, resource box and live web site link. Email notice of intent to publish is appreciated but not required. Mail to: eagibbs@ureach.comThe Chicago Times once printed that Henry Ford was an ignoramus. Mr. Ford sued, challenging paper to prove it. The proof was attempted in court. During trial, Mr. Ford was asked a series of simple, general information questions, such as, · Could you name Presidents of United States? · When was Civil War?; and so on. Mr. Ford, who had little formal education, could answer very few. Finally, in exasperation, he replied, "I don't know answers to these questions, but I could find a man in five minutes who does. I use my brain to think, not to store a lot of useless facts." A similar story is told of Albert Einstein. Someone once asked him how many feet are there in a mile. "I don't know," he was reported as saying. "Why should I fill my head with things like that when I could look them up in any reference book in two minutes?"
|
