Texture of injection moulding

  • Thread starter Thread starter GarethW
  • Start Date Start Date
You can probably have whatever texture the part needs to function correctly.

The texture is applied to the mould tool prior to use and that can be done in different ways.

Sand or bead blasting can be used. In fact bead blast is the main chosen route with aluminium tooling.

Spark erosion is very common, particularly in economy tooling programmes, as it is often part of the tool manufacture process anyway. A full DIN standard erosion chart/stick can be obtained from good engineering supply companies, the machine manufacturers, or sourced on the web at quite low cost.

Chemical etching is also used commonly, particularly where special patterning is required, or an easy-clean texture needed. So this is often employed on higher-volume projects as with vehicle manufacturers. Again, the process suppliers (Moldtec and others) will have moulded sample books with hundreds of different patterns for selection.

Don't forget that whatever you use, you will need to apply appropriate draft angles to the mould faces, sufficient to avoid hang-up in the texture depth. So that will vary according to the choice.
 
Most of the other posts cover most of the Industry standards. Mold tech and similar etching, is the only way to have a "repeatable" texture if your interested in repeating products. I have used various other methods also, where repeatability was not required. You can use standard EDM finishes, but have to careful of the line of draw! You can also use sand/bead blasting that is highly operator dependant ( so the outcome varies). One BIG problem with etching is, the aftermath of a breakdown or accidental damage to the mold surfaces. These rarely can be fixed ( welded and re-etched) without the failure showing up on the final product. Etching requires an intact steel structure ( no prior welding or intervention) and usually requires polishing the mold surfaces prior etching which is expensive and sometimes impossible to achieve in hard to get at places. This then creates the necessity of creating inserts to be able to polish in those areas, that further complicates the tooling ( cooling channels etc). Hope this helps!
 
Texture can be functional component of design as well, A wide variety of textures are available for injection molded parts. Injection molding involves the manufacturing of plastic products by injecting molten materials into a mold, where it is melted, cooled, and solidified to form the final product.
 
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