Proprietary rotary turn table for multishot molds

Most mold manufacturers are innovative, creative people and often develop products that prove to be a better "mouse trap" for solving complex molding solutions. Wade Clark, president and CEO of Electroform Inc., an injection mold manufacturer specializing in product development, automation and injection molding, is no exception.

Clark recently announced the availability of the Electroform Turn Table for multi-shot molds.  Clark explains how the company developed the Turn Table: "I had spent the previous several years developing in-mold assembly including multiple ways to assemble with rotating stack molds. The project came to a point where I'd looked at every possible option for assembling plastic parts in or with rotating molds and index plates. 

"At that point I was looking for another challenge. We reached out to customers looking for something to develop. It came to our attention that there were failures with some of the existing turn tables on the market due to the weight loads required." Clark adds. "Load bearing requirements for today's larger molds that require multiple ejection systems and actions are much greater. The molds can get heavier with some of the more complicated part designs." 

About that time, Electroform received an order for a multi-shot tool that was better suited for a rotary table than an index plate. Looking at this as an opportunity to develop a more robust turn table, Clark asked the customer if he would be okay with Electroform building a table for that application, and he agreed with our assessment. 

"We offered to build a table and the mold under the contract," says Clark.  "This knowledgeable customer had several different brands of tables in his facility and was very pleased with the performance of the new table and offered us a couple great ideas that would benefit the operator.  We added the options, gave them a new table for their input and then moved forward with the product line along with some heavy load testing."

The Electroform Turn Table features include hand pendant and standard SPI knock-out patterns.  Euromap and custom patterns are also available. Other options include 120° position, additional water circuits, electrical circuit, hydraulic circuit, guided support system as well as integration with control by original machine manufacturer. Custom designs are available upon request.

Along with the table, Clark also recognized the need for additional support of the platen, so a special patent-pending support was developed for the table and platen. The system will work on both tie-bar and tie bar-less machines.

Electroform Inc. specializes in molds for multi-shot and in-mold applications, product development, single-cavity prototypes to multi-cavity, high-volume hot-runner molds, and stack molds as well as manufacturing cell development and mold validation. Electroform serves a variety of industries including medical, closures, consumer products, and select areas of automotive.

What's next for Clark and Electroform?  "I have a passion for development and will continue to search for the next development challenge," he says.