1

Tool design and

applications
‫تصميم عدد ومستلزمات االنتاج‬
Parting Line (planes)

In order to remove the plastic part from

the mold, and to load the movable core or
inserts into the mold body, the mold must
be divided into two or more parts.
Generally, the mold structure is roughly
divided into two main parts: fixed half
and moving half. When the mold body is
closed, the contact surface of the cavity
and core plates makes a parting line.
Parting Line (planes)

Types of parting lines

Flat parting surface Parting surface tilt Stepped parting surface Curved parting surface
Parting Line (planes)

Design parting surface should follow the following principles:

1.Design the injection mold structure as simple as possible. Avoid or reduce side parting as much as possible
to reduce the complexity of mold making.
2.Ease of de-molding. As far as possible, for instance, the plastic parts should stay in fixed halve of the
injection mold and ejected by ejection system, avoid side de-molding action.
3.Ensure the dimensional accuracy of the molded parts. Try to make the parts with similar dimensional
accuracy requirements in the same module to reduce manufacturing and assembly errors.
4.Ensure appearance requirement of the molded parts. Flash or mismatch occurs usually on parting surface,
so the parting surface should not be designed on any high quality requirement surfaces.
5.Ensure adequate venting. If possible, parting surface should be place at the end of the mold flow. This is
going to be a good advantage of filling and venting.
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Number and cavity layout of plastic mold cavity

How to determine the Number of Cavity in a Mold?

Multi-cavity molds produced parts in a much

higher efficiency way, it's employed frequently on
the occasion when the demands volume is high, the
number of the cavities and mold construction
depend on both economic and technical factors,
quantity of parts to be molded at one cycle,
required cycle time, and unit price are related
with mold making cost
 Number and cavity layout of plastic mold cavity

There are a few points need to be pay attention when we decide the numbers of cavity:

Delivery time
The more numbers of cavities, the longer manufacturing time. When the required mold delivery
time is short, reducing the mold cavity number with the customer's approval can be used to shorten
the mold manufacturing time.

Quality and tolerance

As the numbers of cavity increase, the tolerance of the molded parts reduce if the same manufacturing
process employed, it would also much more difficult to ensure tolerance during molding process, it's
also not as easy as single cavity molds while modification required.
 Number and cavity layout of plastic mold cavity

Layout and melt flow

To have quality parts, Multi-cavity mold need to have an balanced runner layout, the melt flow much fill
all the cavities equivalent under same injection pressure, especially for the raw materials with bad melt
flow performance, such as PC, it's easy to have some cavities are fulfilled or even overfilled with flash
created while others are not.

Injection machine capacity

The injection molding machine is part of the cost of injection molded parts, so usually the mold is required
to be manufactured at a predetermined injection molding machine, the size of the mold have to be
considered during design process, the designed mold not allowed to be too large or too small, the
injection molding machine also have certain amount of maximum injection volume, the total volume of all
cavities plus runners should not be exceed 80% of it.
MELT-DIRECTING PHASE

When molten polymer leaves

the barrel through the nozzle,

its flow path begins to be guided

toward its final destination, the

mold cavity
MELT-DIRECTING PHASE

When molten polymer leaves the barrel through the nozzle, its flow path begins to be
guided toward its final destination, the mold cavity

The Sprue

The sprue is the first channel that molten material is exposed as it goes from the barrel and
nozzle into the mold and begins directing the molten material toward the
mold cavity. The main interface between an injection molding machine’s nozzle and the
runner system that starts the melt-directing process is referred to as the sprue bushing.
MELT-DIRECTING PHASE

In general, the design of a typical sprue starts with a large-diameter

opening at the nozzle–sprue bushing interface, tapering to a smaller-
diameter opening as it enters the runner system.

Two factors to consider in selecting the proper sprue bushing are the

depth and radius of the sprue bushing where the nozzle makes contact,

and the overall sprue length needed for the type of runner system to be

used.
MELT-DIRECTING PHASE

Runner
The runner system is defined here as a series of channels that direct the molten polymer
from the sprue bushing to the gate, the entry port to the mold cavity.
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MELT-DIRECTING PHASE
 MELT-DIRECTING PHASE

Runner
The runner system is defined here as a series of channels that direct the molten polymer
from the sprue bushing to the gate, the entry port to the mold cavity.
Two basic types of runners
Cold runner Hot runner

the runner starts to cool as it enters the sprue, operates with a system of heater bands located inside the
and then enters into the runner. The skin of the tool. Molten materials flow around the heaters, and along
runner solidifies first, and during the mold with heaters in the tool this material stays molten until it
cooling process, cools the rest of the runner cross reaches the cavity. When the part is ejected from the mold
section. Upon ejection of the part, the cold after cooling, no runner is ejected as in cold runner systems.
runner is ejected from the tool The material stays molten in the hot runner and then is
injected into the cavity.
MELT-DIRECTING PHASE

The Gate
The gate is the last major passageway for material to flow from the injection molding machine barrel to
the mold cavity. The gate directs the flow of molten material from the runner channel system into the
mold cavity.

Types of gates

Edge Gates

Edge gates are used most often

in large part designs and also
where thin walls are used in a
part
MELT-DIRECTING PHASE

Fan Gates
MELT-DIRECTING PHASE

Pinpoint Gates
MELT-DIRECTING PHASE

Tunnel Gates
MELT-DIRECTING PHASE

Ring Gates
MELT-DIRECTING PHASE

Diaphragm (Disk) Gates

MELT-DIRECTING PHASE

Sprue Gates
Tab Gates
MELT-DIRECTING PHASE

Cooling the Injection Mold

Once the molten material is injected into the mold cavity, the next objective in the injection
molding process is to turn the molten polymer into a solid mass. This is done by decreasing the
temperature of the molten material by cooling the injection mold.

Cooling Line Positioning

Location of the cooling lines is critical to achieving efficient cooling of the part and improving
part productivity
MELT-DIRECTING PHASE

The guidelines to follow for

determining a proper cooling line
layout are:
MELT-DIRECTING PHASE

Cooling Channel Schemes For cooling a core-shaped part

V-channel Fountain channel

cooling lines cooling lines
MELT-DIRECTING PHASE

Venting the Injection Mold

During the melt-filling phase of the injection molding process, air can be trapped and caught inside the
mold cavity. This trapped air in cavity is compressed, increasing pressure and temperature at the melt
front. This air can rise in temperature similar to superheated steam and can cause defects such as the
following: