Ceramic Injection Moulding - Tooling

Background:

Three local South African Companies requested tooling to produce ceramic injection moulding components.  Different ceramics were used having different moulding parameters.  The application of these items are mainly used for high wear and high temperature applications.  The industry using these type of products are mining, power generation and  military related.

Conclusion:

Only some of the items are displayed in the image below.  Materials such as Alumina, PZT and porcelain were used.  The different material properties had to be considered during the design of these items.  These projects were managed from conceptual stage to the tooling commissioning stage.  The tooling were also designed for different injection moulding machines namely, Engle, Arberg, Ankerwerke and Buttonfeldt.  Single and multiple cavity moulds were designed according to the production demand and injection mould machine capacity.  Runner and gate calculations were made to reference the sizes with the material flow under various working conditions.  Some of the moulds incorporated hot runner systems, not commonly used with ceramic injection moulding techniques.  The hot runner systems saved machine time and reduced hand fettling, also eliminating regrind.

Image:

• Ceramic Injection Moulded Item - Threaded & Multiple Items