Plastic Injection Molding

Nachiket Kulkarni
12/08/2016

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 Introduction
 Various optical technologies have plastic components
 Injection molding can achieve mass production
– Producing components with machining process may be
expensive
 Economical
 Plastic is an alternative to glass
– Limited by physical properties

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 Principles of Injection Molding
 Injection Molding Machine
– Pellets in the hopper passed through heated barrel
– Pellets are heated to plasticity
– Injected into the mold and cooled

 Mold Design
– Part Model
• The mold is initially designed on CAD
• Optical parameters considered

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 Mold Design
 Shrinkage
– Plastic shrinks when it cools
– Mold design accommodate shrinkage
– Depends on material, temperature, etc.

 Optical/ Surface Equation

– Surfaces like freeform don’t follow correct equation
– Shrinkage should be applied
– Customer should apply tolerance before providing to mold maker

 Optical Insert Design

– Determines how to manufacture and polish
– Reduces assembly, labor cost, size and weight

 Split Lines
– Cope and Drag
– Separated by a part line
– Needed to design runner and gating

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 Principles of Injection Molding
 Mold flow
– Flow of hot fluid must be smooth
– Depends on wall thickness, viscosity, gating system, etc.
– If not taken care of, removal of material is tough.

 Optical Insert
– Determined by shape, aperture, etc. of the optic
– Adjustability feature
– Tolerances to achieve optical alignment

 Thermal Conditions
– Factors to be considered
• Hot runner or cold runner
• Heat level of mold
• Cooling by natural convection or external means, etc.
– Thermal properties of plastic to be considered
– CTE of metal and plastic considered
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 Principles of Injection Molding
 Gates and Runners
– Regulate the fluid flow in the cavity
– Runner is a passageway from sprue to gate
• Small runner under fills the cavity
• Larger increase cooling time
– Gates connect runner and cavity
• Permits enough flow to fill cavity
• Compensates shrinkage
• Controls turbulence

 Ejection
– Pressurized transfer of polymer
• Types
– Pin type, sleeve type, air ejection, blade ejection
• Dependent on the cross section
– Sleeve type for cylindrical core, stripper plate for larger components, etc.

 Venting
– Provision for gases to escape from the cavity
– Good venting, better the mold, less stress in the part
– Insufficient venting causes scratches and other defects

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 General Part design
 Optical mold needs both optical and mechanical specification

 Geometric Shape
– Cavity for the part is same as mask to the face
– Best geometric shape based on the application
– Shrinkage and draft tolerance

 Optical Surface and Control Parameter

– Once geometry is chosen, front and back curves with their
construction points are defined
– These points are used to design the mold
– While fabricating in an NC machine, these construction points are
used to define the movement of the tool

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 General Part design
 CAD files
– Customer provides 3d CAD model, 2d control drawing, equations if needed with
SAG table
– 2D control drawing has optical mold requirement like engraving, callout
– CAD design should include thermal effects, shrinkage, possible choices of gates,
ejector pin location, etc.

 Optical Correction
– Wall thickness is even
– Optical mold, sometime doesn’t meet such requirement; manufacturing errors
– Cross section must be optimized
– Avoid trapped gases and voids

 Raytracing
– Optical performance confirmed by ray trace
– Not all optimized results are feasible to manufacture
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 Materials
 Material is chosen with help of manufacturer
 Design changed based on material
 Commonly used
– Polycarbonate: needs sufficient venting, hot mold
– Polyurethane: Perfect parting line, cold mold
– Polystyrene, acrylic, zeonex, etc.
 Selection: Based on optical clarity, impact, haze, refractive
index, transmission and viscosity
 Additive and Coating
– Anti-fog, anti-scratch, antistatic, mirror, etc.
– Ionized air to remove static charge
– Gold coating for 98%reflection
– Silica-Organic liquid for anti-scratch
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 Optical Mold Special Tooling
 Optical geometry and special tooling design
– Geometry determines manufacturing processes for making mold
– If simple, turning, lapping, grinding and polishing
– Asphere needs different set of operations
– Freeform needs diamond turning, hand polishing
– Designs for special tool must be done during mold design
 Finishing
– Abrasive lapping and polishing
– Sophisticated finishing needs diamond turn
 Alignment
– Two halves must align
– To retain alignment when injected, locking mechanism is made

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 Inspection
 Steel vs Plastic
– Determine if steel is in place
– All components like inserts, finish inspected
– Everything is correct means molded product might come out
perfectly
– Inspect the part

 Testing
– Testing criteria are resolution, power, scratch/dig
– Contact methods: CMM
– Non Contact method: Laser scan
– Polarisers test for stresses
– Interferometer measure form and figure
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 References
 http://info.crescentind.com/blog/bid/69598/What-is-Insert-
Molding-for-Plastic-Components
 http://www.misumi-techcentral.com/tt/en/mold/2009/07/0001-
what-is-the-molding-shrinkage-phenomenon.html
 http://www.dmeuniversity.net/frmLessons.aspx?
CourseID=4&LessonID=53
 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Injection_mold_construction#Ej
ection_system_types
 David Borque, “Manufacturing Plastic Injection Mold”, Novel
Optical Systems Design and Optimization XI, 706117(2008)
 Ulrich Greis, G. Kirchhof, Agfa-Gevaert AG, “Injection
Molding of Plastic Optics”, Optical Surface Technology,
0381(1983)
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