Design for Mouldability Toolkit
Get in-depth design advice to optimise your plastic parts for injection moulding. Designing with mouldability in mind can accelerate production time and reduce production costs
Optimising Part Design for Moulding
There are many design elements involved when creating plastic parts for injection moulding—design for cost, design for quality, design for assembly, design for manufacturability. And navigating that landscape can be challenging at times. At Protolabs, we provide automated design analysis on CAD models that highlights features in your part design that can be adjusted for mouldability. It’s a great design resource to have at your fingertips. To keep those mouldability advisories at a minimum and optimise your part design, we created this helpful kit of different injection moulding resources.
Designing Complex Features for Moulded Parts
→ Undercuts
→ Bump-offs
→ Side-actions
→ Shut-offs
→ Core and Cavity
→ Wall Thickness
Navigating Critical Moulding Advisories
→ Insufficient Draft
→ Gate and Ejector Pin Layout
→ Radii Added
→ Non-metal Safe Changes
Designing for Mouldability
See how designing with mouldability in mind can help you avoid manufacturing advisories in quoting, save you development time, and reduce production costs.
A Beginner's Guide to Injection Moulding
Whether you’re new to the injection-moulding process or a veteran of manufacturing, Designing for Mouldability is a quick reference guide to wall thicknesses, surface finishes, tolerances, materials, and other thermoplastic moulding insights. It’s a thorough look at injection moulding that might just provide a few tips to help you make better parts.
Read GuideDesigning Complex Features for Moulded Parts
Undercuts
Undercuts are features like clips or thru-holes that can’t be milled in a standard vertical (Z-axis) milling setup and would otherwise prevent ejection from the mould. Learn about designing for cams and inserts to accommodate undercuts in your part.
Bump-offs
Bump-offs are small undercuts in a part that can be formed and safely ejected from a mould without the need for side-action cams. Learn about the types of features and geometries that are good fits for bump-offs.
Side-actions
Side-actions, also referred to as side-pulls and cams, are mechanical components in the mould that are used to form undercut geometry. Side-actions are pin-actuated and move based on the opening and closing of a mould. Learn about how to use side-actions to accommodate undercuts here.
Shut-offs
A shut-off refers to any two faces in a mould that come together when a mould closes to “shut-off” or divert the flow of material inside of the mould cavity. Some shut-offs, referred to as sliding shut-offs or pass-thru cores, are used to form undercut geometry. Learn how to incorporate shut-offs to form undercuts here.
Core and Cavity
In an injection moulding press, one half of the mould (the A-side) is attached and fixed, while the other half of the mould (the B-side) is attached to the moving clamp that opens and closes the mould. Learn how to choose proper core and cavity placement here.
Wall Thickness
Wall thickness is a prime consideration in the moulding process to ensure dimensional stability and consistency while a part cools and hardens. If walls are too thin, it might weaken the part and prevent filling. If walls are too thick, it might cause the part to warp or sink. Learn how to incorporate consistent wall thickness here.
Navigating Critical Moulding Advisories
Our Injection Moulding Facility
Want a peek behind the curtain of our injection moulding process? Take a virtual tour. We offer a fully digitised injection moulding process to bring you cost-efficient parts fast. From design upload to quoting, from part production to shipping, it’s injection moulding tailored to fit your needs, every step of the way.
Get an online quote and injection moulding design analysis today.