Lesson02
Lesson02
In this lesson we will create a mold for plastic part used in a food mixer.
Typical parts for mold tool design are imported from 3rd party CAD systems; often the part is not
oriented correctly for the desired tooling to be created. This is achieved using the Move/Copy Body
command
TO POSITION A PART:
1. Click on Insert > Feature > Move/Copy…
This command can also position the part in X,Y, Z by dragging with the LMB and it can make copies of
the body
APPLY SHRINKAGE
Plastic molded parts will shrink when they eject from the mold and cool to room temperature. So we
need to build the mold to be slightly bigger than the actual part so when the part shrinks we get the
right dimension part.
TO APPLY SHRIKAGE:
2. Use Centroid
5. Click OK
PERFORMING DRAFT ANALYSIS
An appropriate draft angle will aide in the removal of the part from the mold. Without the proper draft
angle parts may become hung up or stuck upon ejection and mold damage may occur. Be sure there are
draft angles on all bosses, ribs, and nominal walls.
This is used to estimate and select a parting line based on the boundary between positive and negative
draft of the mold.
5. Click OK.
Selecting partline line edges
It’s a good idea to keep the preview checkbox turned off for performance reasons, especially if there
are contact patches that the system can’t create
CORE AND CAVITY SURFACES
When the user exits the Parting Line or Shut-Off
command with a green message pane, the system
will create the core and cavity surface sets:
• Folders are created at the top of the FM
• One for the cavity surface
• One for the core surfaces
Create a parting surface to split the mold block in combination with the core and cavity surfaces.
Usually this is based on the first parting line feature in the part, this also supplies the pull direction to
the command
Use tooling split to create the core and cavity mold blocks.
Now that we have the core and cavity blocks we need to move them apart so we can work on creating
cores, ejectors etc. Use the following procedure.
4. Click OK.
Various pieces of geometry ‘cores’ are extracted from the core and cavity bodies to assist in modelling:
Side Cores
Lifters
Inserts
Core pins
Ejector pins
1. This is achieved by creating a sketch on an appropriate planar face or plane that defines the
outline of the core
2. This is then extruded through the mold block cutting out a solid which can then be used to
model the retract or insert piece for the mold
3. The user can add draft in the pull direction, for a side core by including it in their sketch of the
core profile
4. Draft in the retract direction for the side core is added in the core command
Due to lack of time we will review the part which contains these features.
Congratulations! After completing this tutorial, you now have the basic skills required to create a basic
mold base for your plastic part.