Tooling for plastics processing

Tooling for plastics processing defines the shape of the part. It falls into two major categories, molds and dies. A mold is used to form a complete three-dimensional plastic part. The plastics processes that use... 

FIGURE 3.1 Comparison of the production stages involved in the steel concepts for manufacturing molds and tools for plastics processing... 

Fixed costs are those elements of piece cost that are a function of the annual production volume. Fixed costs are called fixed because they typically represent one-time capital investments (buildings, silos, processing machines, etc.) or annual expenses unaffected by the number of products produced (building rent, engineering support, administrative personnel, etc.). Typically, these costs are distributed over the total number of products produced in a given period. For plastics processes the principal elements are main machine cost, auxiliary equipment cost, tooling cost, building cost, overhead labor cost, maintenance cost, and the cost of capital. 

Coatings for molding tools and kneading elements for plastic processing. 

There are further application-dependent tools, either invented or developed within or outside of IMPROVE and used therein. In any case, they have been refined due to this use. One such example is the heterogeneous simulation of the chemical overall process (see Sect. 5.3) which unites different single simulations to one aggregated simulation for a whole chemical process. Another topic is a specific simulation approach for plastics processing (see Sect. 5.4) which especially helps to bridge the gap between chemical engineering and plastics processing. Both have been used and extended but not invented within IMPROVE. Other tools are specific for IMPROVE (see e.g. Sects. 5.1 and 5.2). 

The tool experience of the application side is on one hand from tools specifically realized within IMPROVE (as, e.g., WOMS, see Sect. 5.1 or the simulation tool of labor research, see 5.2). On the other hand it is from tools which have been used and refined (ROME, see 5.3 simulation for plastics processing, see 5.4). 

Table 3.2 shows the classification of plastic mold steels in terms of the most important features required. The steel materials used in mold and tool making for plastics processing are covered by the standard DIN EN ISO 4957 [3], except for a few more recent developments. The chemical compositions under this standard are summarised in Table 3.3 for the most common plastic mold steels. 

TABLE 3.3 Chemical composition of standard steel materials in mold and tool making for plastics processing... 

Eurotools (Trade Fair For Tools and Tool Engineering Sinsheim, Germany)FAKUMA (Int l Trade Fair for Plastics Processing Friedrichshafen, Germany)... 

The most common tools in plastics processing are molds. A mold is a premade object, which is used to guide the final form or shape of another object. Molds can be open, like a baking pan, allowing for soft or molten material to be poured or draped over the mold surface. After the material cools or solidifies into its final shape, it is then removed from the mold, and the mold is used again. Molds can also be closed, with internal hollow spaces, allowing soft or molten material to fill these spaces. Closed molds are usually made of several parts, and fabricated in such a way that the mold can be opened, allowing for part removal after the plastic material has solidified. 

Molds, dies, and other forming tools for metal and plastic processing, especially those involving irregular surfaces and internal areas. 

Titanium Carbonitride. Ti(C,N) is a solid solution of TiC and TiN and combines the properties of both materials. It offers excellent protection against abrasive wear and has good lubricating characteristics. It is used to coat tools and dies for the processing of ceramics, graphite, and filled plastics. 

The acoustic microscopy s primary application to date has been for failure analysis in the multibillion-dollar microelectronics industry. The technique is especially sensitive to variations in the elastic properties of semiconductor materials, such as air gaps. SAM enables nondestructive internal inspection of plastic integrated-circuit (IC) packages, and, more recently, it has provided a tool for characterizing packaging processes such as die attachment and encapsulation. Even as ICs continue to shrink, their die size becomes larger because of added functionality in fact, devices measuring as much as 1 cm across are now common. And as die sizes increase, cracks and delaminations become more likely at the various interfaces. 

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