Jimma Institute of Technology: Product Design Unit II: Assembly and Joining

JIMMA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
Product Design
Unit II: Assembly and Joining
FUNDAMENTALS OF WELDING
PRODUCT DESIGN CONSIDERATIONS
 Plastics are an important design material, but the designer must be
aware of their limitations.
 Several general guidelines apply, irrespective of the shaping process.
They are mostly limitations of plastic materials that must be considered
by the designer.
 Strength and stiffness. Plastics are not as strong or stiff as metals. They
should not be used in applications in which high stresses will be
encountered. Creep resistance is also a limitation. Strength properties
vary significantly among plastics, and strength to-weight ratios for some
plastics are competitive with metals in certain applications.
 Impact resistance. The capacity of plastics to absorb impact is generally
good; plastics compare favorably with most metals.
 Service temperatures of plastics are limited relative to engineering
metals and ceramics.
 Thermal expansion is greater for plastics than metals; so dimensional
changes owing to temperature variations are much more significant
than for metals.
 Many types of plastics are subject to degradation from sunlight and
certain other forms of radiation. Also, some plastics degrade in oxygen
and ozone atmospheres. Finally, plastics are soluble in many common
solvents. On the positive side, plastics are resistant to conventional
corrosion mechanisms that afflict many metals.
The following guidelines apply to injection molding (the most popular
molding process)
 Avoiding Thick Areas
 Thick cross sections are generally undesirable; they are wasteful of
material, more likely to cause warping caused by shrinkage, and take
longer to harden.
 Longer cooling time makes a longer cycle time, which increases costs.
Excessive wall thickness can also create part defects like sink marks and
voids.
 Reinforcing ribs can be used in molded plastic parts to achieve
increased stiffness without excessive wall thickness. The ribs should be
made thinner than the walls they reinforce, to minimize sink marks on
 To avoid thick sections of a part, you can add coring and ribbing. These
features reduce cycle time, reduce part weight, and could make the part
stronger. Designing these features into the B-side of the part is common
and is the best practice. These features can help pull the part to the B-
side or ejection side of the mold; they would then be on the non-show
side of the part. However, it's possible to have them on the Aside of the
tooling as well.
 The image above shows a perfect example of coring a part. Since this
part required one large wall section, you can remove large sections of
material without sacrificing strength.
 From the images above, you can see that the coring is not just a large
section of removed material. Instead, it’s more a webbing of wall
sections (known as ribs). Adding ribs is a great way to add significant
strength to a part without affecting cycle time. Ribs can also reduce the
amount of material that is used in the part.
 The image below shows a boss before and after adding support ribs. Since
these ribs are thin, they do not increase cooling time, but they do add
strength. Notice that the ribbing towards the corner of the part is also
creating coring (right). It’s common to have bosses like this on the corner of
a part. When possible, it’s best to allow enough room to have coring
completely surrounding the boss. This helps to avoid thick wall sections that
could show through in the form of part defects (like sink marks from the
 Wall thickness. Thick cross sections are generally undesirable; they are
wasteful of material, more likely to cause warping caused by shrinkage,
and take longer to harden. Reinforcing ribs can be used in molded
plastic parts to achieve increased stiffness without excessive wall
thickness. The ribs should be made thinner than the walls they
reinforce, to minimize sink marks on the outside wall.
 Part complexity. Although more complex part geometries mean more
costly molds, it may nevertheless be economical to design a complex
molding if the alternative involves many individual components
assembled together. An advantage of plastic molding is that it allows
multiple functional features to be combined into one part.
 Corner radii and fillets. Sharp corners, both external and internal, are
undesirable in molded parts; they interrupt smooth flow of the melt,
tend to create surface defects, and cause stress concentrations in the
finished part.
 Holes. Holes are quite feasible in plastic moldings, but they complicate
mold design and part removal. They also cause interruptions in melt
flow.
 Draft. A molded part should be designed with a draft on its sides to
facilitate removal from the mold. This is especially important on the
inside wall of a cup-shaped part because the molded plastic contracts
against the positive mold.
 Tolerances. Tolerances specify the allowable manufacturing variations
for a part. Although shrinkage is predictable under closely controlled
conditions, generous tolerances are desirable for injection moldings
because of variations in process parameters that affect shrinkage and
diversity of part geometries encountered.

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