Plastics Tools Overview
This is part of my series on converting old power point presentations given at user group meetings into blog posts. I’ve learned a couple of things in the couple of conversions I’ve made so far. First, user group meetings are great for covering a lot of territory in not much detail, or in other words, for showing an overview. And second: Blog posts, at least for me, are better at diving into detail on a limited subject.
So what I’m going to try to do here is just give the overview in detail. Kind of like jumbo shrimp, civil war, real phony, driving on a parkway, parking in the driveway, and other oxymoron non-sequiturs. Cuz that’s just what we do here – pushing the boundaries of credulity.
SolidWorks has a lot of plastic part design functionality:
- Draft
- Rib
- Indent
- Mounting Boss
- Snap Hook/Groove
- Lip/Groove
- Draft Analysis
- Thickness Analysis
- Undercut Detection
In addition is of course the Mold Tools functions, and the new plastics flow wizard from Simpoe, replacing the MoldFlow Xpert that we lost to Autodesk a couple of years ago.
Each of these bullet points could be a pretty detailed blog post on its own. I’ve already written a couple of times on the Indent feature. If you don’t believe me, check it out.
Most of these tools I really like. I will complain about the Undercut Detection, which is wrong a majority of the time, but the rest are very useful tools. I think in with this list I should include some secondary features that aren’t really devoted to plastics, but are certainly used quite a bit with plastic parts:
- Fillet
- Wrap
- Sketch Text
- Split Line
- Move Face
- Multi-body Methods
- Master Model Methods
- and on and on…
Just about any advanced technique you can name has some relation to plastic parts in general. Managing large trees, external references, surfacing, multibodies, best practice, and manufacturability are all issues that you have to master in order to be able to face the most daunting plastics projects. Sometimes these are design issues, or assembly issues, or sometimes just modeling issues.
Beyond the specialized tools that SW offers, there are design techniques that you can use with just the standard modeling tools within the software:
- living hinge
- snap fit
- overmold
Plastics modeling is always a compromise between the designer, the tool builder, the materials expert, the accountant, packaging, and sometimes even the shipping manager. The process can be plagued by “design by committee” woes like few others. You’d think a project with just a couple of plastic parts would be simple to manage, but this is not always the case, especially if you want to do it right.
On top of that, you have a lot of different processes you need to be conversant in, such as:
- injection mold
- blow mold
- structural foam
- gas assist
- thermoform/vacuum form
- transfer/compression molding
- casting
- metal injection mold
- die casting
- overmold/multishot
- insert mold
- rotomold
- silicone tooling
- investment cast
- lost wax
…and then secondary operations
- machining
- press fit
- heat treat
- staking
- ultrasonic weld
- manual flash removal
- deburring
- bonding/glueing
- you get the idea…
Anyone think a book on plastics design tools and techniques would be a good idea?
Matt,
Don’t read this : http://www.amazon.com/Pro-engineer-Solutions-Plastics-Design/dp/156690188X
It’s about lots of technics that is not already available in SW.
This is fantastic friend,I was searching for Plastics Tools,and finally I got it from your site.I will bookmark it for sharing with my friends.Thank you
Matt, maybe this is what you had in mind, but i would split the book into two parts, the first half on design rules to make good plastic parts without sinks. Like minimum draft angles, rib thickness to wall ratios, side pulls, ways to design bosses, and the like. And the same could be down for the other processes you mentioned, like die casting, sand casting, roto molding, etc. Then, the second half on applying SolidWorks to do these parts. i would buy the book, especially for the first half as a refresher and tool to turn to when i need a certain process to make a part.
Matt,
I think it would be a good idea, whether it is SW related or not. SW related, I suspect you will get sales between the Bible and the Surfacing book, since a lot of plastic parts are more “mechanical” than “industrial design”. Not SW related you will have more competition, but I’m not sure how good the competition is.
Jerry Steiger
The biggest hits on my web site are for a PDF document called Plastic Parts Design on my Projects page. I think people are searching for some how-to info and find this document that I use as a teaser of why my plastic part design is good for the client (all older projects). So the interest is there for a book, for sure.
Plastics parts are a suitable book topic. I will buy one. I expect to cling to the SW life raft for a while.
If you do this don’t just limit yourself to plastic. There are a lot of us using SolidWorks to design metal castings too. I think there is a lot of overlap, at least in modeling techniques, that could apply to both.
Would be a great book to write Matt…
“Anyone think a book on plastics design tools and techniques would be a good idea?”
Great idea
Devon
I think this is a very useful endevour and a book would probably be a good idea as well, since I think about 1/3 of the SolidWorks customers are involed in the plastic industry one way or another. Of course I have a vested interest since we develop mold design tools for SolidWorks and the more customers in plastics the better for us.
George Berold
http://www.rnbusa.com
Just focused on SW tools or looking at the the big picture? Ordinarily I would be enthusiastic about a SW book about plastic matters but because I don’t know what’s happening with Dassault these days or quite where I will end up yet I would be a little hesitant to say yes to something exclusively about SW use. SW is apparently something of a lame duck program now so I would probably think twice before buying any book dedicated to furthering my ability with it. The uncertainty principle at work….
Perhaps a book at this time should have a broader discussion to afford the most audience/prospective sales/longevity. If you could talk in general terms about approaches/techniques and then cite examples or provide illustrations from various programs that would possibly be better. I am sure many people would have multiple software instruments in their kit anyway….
To me the mission sounds like a set of 3 slimmer books say of 350 pages each that would make for easy reading and reference and break down what must be a big subject into convenient areas of attention, however cost conscious publishers and word loving authors may not like that idea much. 😉