As part of the Computer Aided Design and Manufacturing Course at Ohio State, I was assigned to design a part in SolidWorks and create a mold cavity from it using the mold creation tools in SolidWorks. The top half of the mold was flat, and each student designed and machined the bottom half with a Tormach CNC mill. My mold cavity was in the shape of the state of Ohio with a lofted heart over Cleveland, my hometown.
To design the mold effectively, I needed to add a draft angle and vents so that the material would flow properly. I also had to drill holes at precise locations for the ejector pins and locator pin. Once the SolidWorks part was finished, I used HSMWorks to program operations for the CNC mill. The program took about an hour to complete the part. The mold cavity was then placed on a base plate on the Morgan Press Machine and the machine pressed the halves together while using negative pressure to distribute the thermoplastic material. For the finished product, I ground down the excess plastic. I am happy with how both the machined cavity and the molded part came out. There was a tad bit of warping/shrinkage during cooling, but the process was otherwise very successful.
To design the mold effectively, I needed to add a draft angle and vents so that the material would flow properly. I also had to drill holes at precise locations for the ejector pins and locator pin. Once the SolidWorks part was finished, I used HSMWorks to program operations for the CNC mill. The program took about an hour to complete the part. The mold cavity was then placed on a base plate on the Morgan Press Machine and the machine pressed the halves together while using negative pressure to distribute the thermoplastic material. For the finished product, I ground down the excess plastic. I am happy with how both the machined cavity and the molded part came out. There was a tad bit of warping/shrinkage during cooling, but the process was otherwise very successful.