MoldMaking Technology

FEB 2018

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Hot Runners 26 MoldMaking Technology —— FEBRUARY 2018 With many configuration options comes many customer questions, and pricing for hot runner technologies varies significantly today. More than ever before, communication on the front end of a project is key and will help determine the amount of hot runner technology that is required to achieve the optimum part price and performance ratio. importance. "Having details about individual system com- ponents (manifolds, nozzles, heaters and so on) and their spare parts breakdown can be most helpful to the mold designer and the moldmaker," she says. "A good hot runner supplier will provide documentation covering all the com- ponents for the complete hot runner system and hot half, including machining requirements, fits and finishes, and the maintenance requirements for every component." Tim Markham, hot runner coordinator for PCS Company (Fraser, Michigan) says that customers often struggle with correct spacing of cavities and nozzles. They also struggle with choosing the right nozzle size to fill the part as opposed to choosing a nozzle based on the size of the mold. "We encourage our customers to contact us before they design their molds, so we can guide them to the correct nozzle size and tip option to use for their part," he says. Jim Bott, business development manager for Incoe Corp. (Troy, Michigan) is seeing customers struggle with estimat- ing prices for new or newer customers and getting the timing right on various, required steps in the moldmaking process beyond the actual mold build. "Estimating price can be eas- ily done for existing customers with known, established specifications," he says. "The challenge is providing the proper price estimate for new or newer customers to achieve their required part outcome, because pricing for hot runner technologies varies significantly today and throws the price- per-drop estimate approach out the window." Further, Bott says that getting the timing right on things like hot runner quotes, mold simulation/warp and cool/FEA thermal results, system CAD data results and meeting delivery requirements is extremely important but also challenging. Like Brenda Clark of Hasco, Bott believes that communication on the front end of a project is key. "Hot runner professionals can partner with the moldmaker to conduct a meeting with the molder, in person or via WebEx, to determine the amount of hot runner technology that is required to achieve the opti- mum part price and performance ratio. That information helps our company's application engineers to establish more quickly an accurate quote for the hot runner solution," he says. Incoe also has added mold filling simulation software and hardware stations and has added more engineers. The company has a long-standing partnership with Beaumont Technologies to offer warp- and cool-engineered analyses. The company also hired additional CAD design engineers to reduce the required time to get the data to the moldmaker. "Basic mold flow services are available for those applica- tions that require the review of gate options and fill pat- terns," PCS's Tim Markham says. He adds that for specific resins, it is important to review the various options for molding parts, whether it is a direct gate or gating through a runner, a thermal gate or a valve gate. "We also advise cus- tomers not to use a hot runner system in certain applica- tions that run exotic resins," he says. Overcoming Molding and Gating Challenges Husky's Craig Reynolds says that moldmakers are facing increasing technical requirements driven by smaller parts (or those that are less than 0.1 grams), tighter quality require- ments and more challenging resins like polysulfone (PSU) alloys that are extremely sensitive to heat and that are cata- strophic if they degrade in the hot runner. "One example includes Cpk's of greater than 1.66 on critical part dimen- sions, which are often required to support the parts that interface with other parts in increasingly complex assemblies like drug auto-injectors," he says. "We have invested heavily in applications engineering and designs, and we build our own control systems for temperature, valve gates and servos. Thermal FEA's are also performed on every hot runner sys- tem to ensure even, consistent heat profiles." Sudheer Thrissileri of Mold-Masters also points to trends involving the use of advanced resin types and parts that are more complex to produce. For instance, he points to thin- ner-walled parts and complexities like stringent require- ments on clarity and eliminating gate marks on visible part surfaces—all of which he says forces the industry to develop new techniques in injection molding. This, in turn, leads to the design and development of hot runner systems that can process new resins without dead spots and support applica- tions that require higher injection pressures. For example, he says that the need for quality gate appearances has increased from a functional aspect to a more aesthetic one that requires both moldmakers and hot runner suppliers to design tighter gate area geometry tolerances. HRS Flow's Robert Harvey sees a trend toward more complex parts as well as parts consolidation from assem- blies. Because of this, the number of drops are increasing and often in a staggered pattern, he says, causing more Image courtesy of Incoe Corp.

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