Plastic molding machines for Pinballace...

[shansta]

Hey all - didn't want to clog up James's "ramp" thread with these pics, they have NOTHING to do with pinball! (Except if you are driving to a meet - at night...)

First is a pic of the current statesman lamp (Pontiac GTO in the USA I think) - tool weighs spot on 10,000kg which is the SWL of the overhead crane. No close up as it's a current job! There are parts sitting on the sliders - which are ejected forward. You can see the reflection of the tool surface. Scratches are polished out using diamond paste which costs $170 for 5grams! We use 3 different grades to get the right surface finish...

And the machine that it's running in - A 1300T Engel. The clamp section weighs 64,000kg alone - plus the rest of the machine! We brought another one last year - the mobile crane went through the driveway trying to lift it off the shipping sled/pallet...

3rd pic is a close up of an old Camry tool - the side cores are out, and the ejectors are forward. Which is why there is shit hanging out everywhere... Sorry about the ugly prick in the reflection... 

[shansta]

Okay - first pic is the camry lens from the previous post, you can see the sprue runner which has been cut off. We use a hydraulic cutter which runs off the machine robot program.

Next is a side view of the current Camry/Hybrid tool - 10,000kg of tool steel needs a shit-load of water to keep it under control... (I get 30Lt/min per half with this setup - I really need about 50...)

As you can see in the third pic - we run our tools pretty warm... You really don't want to pop a hose while you are in there! (I speak from experience, the skin has only just grown back on my left hand...)

I got hundreds more pics scattered around on my other PC - but I need to be at work in 5 hours... More to follow. Assuming somebody finds this stuff interesting?

[Caveoftreasures]

I worked once at a place which made stuff for the auto industry. The costs to get this stuff right is enormous. Smart car companies always scource out the plastic stuff. Technology is amazing, but very expensive with thousands of man hours to get things happening.

Thanks for the photos. Pretty involved process's . 

[Damien]

so cool..
the size is enormous

[shansta]

so cool..
the size is enormous

Thanks guys.

I'll grab a pic of a taillight tool (not my dept) - the thing makes 1 color and rotates the tool 180deg - then closes again and molds the other 2... (Your rear combi lamps are not serviceable anymore - the red, clear and amber are all 1 piece of plastic)

Sitting on the deck it's around 2.5mt high - weighs 14 tonnes and must be installed in 2 seperate halves. (The crane won't lift it) - the only time the 2 halves touch is inside the machine...

[Pinballace]

Oh yer, please post more you know I like this stuff!!!  In the first photo are those 4 big arse worm screws that clamp the tool together?

[Pop Bumper Pete]

I got hundreds more pics scattered around on my other PC - but I need to be at work in 5 hours... More to follow. Assuming somebody finds this stuff interesting?

Oh yes, it is interesting
Such a big machine, yet it only produces one piece of a car

[wonder]

Couldn't agree more, very interesting keep it coming.

[shansta]

Oh yer, please post more you know I like this stuff!!!  In the first photo are those 4 big arse worm screws that clamp the tool together?

Yeah - they are the tie-bars, there are half-nuts on the far side of the moving platen. (Hidden in the pic)

The tool closes, half nuts engage - then the tie bars are pulled to the right by hydraulic cylinders to clamp. The tie bars can move about 25mm total. It makes the machine shorter as you don't have the massive clamp cylinder at the left hand end of the machine. There a 4 cylinders about 500mm long attached to the RHS fixed platen. You can see them in the long shot of the machine - near the end of the barrel.

Most of the new Engle's use this system now. No farting around with mold height etc - it's all automatic. Plus the back of the platen is open and accessible - I actually store the ejector couplings behind there (Inside the machine).

Traditional hydraulic machines have a big clamp cylinder at the left hand end - this sits on a rack system that allows you to drive the whole assembly left or right, this sets the height of the tool. (And jams the tool shut when you screw it up!) - the other machine I use is like this - will stand on top of it and get a pic to show what I mean.

That vac former at work is used to prototype headlight lenses BTW - still haven't walked over there and had a look! (It's across the street in another building)

I have 75gig of photos scattered over 4 pc's - I am missing (can't find) a lot of stuff I thought I had! No stress - will get shutter happy this week!