IMM's Plant Tour: Gaining speed from art to part

To the casual observer, producing an injection molded part seemsrelatively simple. Yet, those intimately involved with injectionmolding know the many steps that go into making a high-qualitypart, and that each of those steps-design, prototyping, tooling,and processing-should integrate knowledge of the others. Injectionmolds, which represent the longest lead times in the product developmentcycle, are especially in need of this combined intelligence. Moldmakersat Industrial Molds (IM) and its new division, Fusion Engineering,directly addressed the situation when they recently organizedan art-to-part enterprise called Technicor.

Technicor is part virtual enterprise and part strategic alliance.Two member companies, Bit7 and Machineart Corex, are partnersthat provide project management, industrial design, and engineeringanalysis work. Pyramid Plastics, owned by Technicor, offers moldtrialing and troubleshooting, processing, and performance audits.

In the middle of the spectrum lie the toolmaking capabilitiesof partner Ferbe Group (Sweden) and Industrial Molds, a 31-yearveteran in the field.

"Customers are asking us to work with less and start onthe mold before we even know what the product looks like,"says Tom Peck, vp of sales and marketing for Industrial Molds."More than half of our business now requires more than justtooling, and we need ways to help manage these projects. We'renow in the business of selling solutions, so offering design andprototyping services becomes essential." To build speed intothe product development cycle, the Technicor group opened FusionEngineering last year.

A recent tour of Fusion and Industrial Molds revealed projectsat the leading edge of rapid and traditional tooling. Bob Morton,director of advanced technology, explained Fusion Engineering'smission: "We focus on rapid prototyping and rapid toolingtechnologies, with an eye toward taking time out of the process.With stereolithography, 3D Keltool, and Direct Aim molds, we'reable to cut tooling lead times by 60 percent."

Althoughwork flows logically and seamlessly through the company, physicallyIM/Fusion is a maze of intertwined operations, machines, rooms,and buildings. Equipment and departments span the technologicalrange from pure mold design to SLA. Cohabitating under one roofare the design department, toolmaking room, CNC machining area,EDM room, and True-Cut Wire EDM (another Technicor-integratedbusiness).

An adjacent building houses 3D Keltool production equipment.The varied capabilities offered by this shop have helped makeIM/Fusion innovative and fast when it comes to producing moldsand parts.

First Things First
All of IM/Fusion's projects begin in the CAD modeling department.Brian Fransen manages this area and has been designing cavitiesas solid models for the past seven years, making him a pioneerof sorts among mold designers. "Most of our customers usedsolids," explains Fransen, "and it seemed logical tobe able to work on cavities in the same way. We've used Pro/Efrom the beginning, and our newest addition is Pro/Moldesign,which will enable us to design the whole mold base in 3-D."

All files that come in are processed here, and the CAD/CAM specialiststhat staff the department perform both modeling and tool design.With direct Catia-to-Pro/E translators, designers avoid commontranslation errors. According to Morton, there are times whentranslating customer files (other than Catia or Pro/E) can gettime-consuming, but IM/Fusion has a strict policy of startingthe time clock on a job only after the Pro/E file is ready togo.

Several ongoing projects in the modeling department caughtIMM's eye, especially two that originated with IndustrialMolds and have returned for updating. The first mold being designed,for Maytag, will produce a dishwasher utensil basket for upcomingmodels. "We originally built a similar tool in 1990 for Maytag,and after shipping it, never heard from them," Morton recalls."This year, they called to tell us they had gotten sevenmillion parts off the nine-year-old tool, but were ready for anew design. By getting involved in the project from the start,we were able to shave $150,000 off the cost."

IM also designed and produced tools for the first production moldedthrottle body in the world. Customer DaimlerChrysler uses thePEI throttle body in its Neon cars. "This project took fiveyears in development," Morton says. "Tolerances forthe bore were ±.001 inch, and we developed a supercooledcenter core with thermal pins to keep up with the 400F mold and800F melt temperatures. We're continuing work now for future models."

Once the Pro/E solid model is prepared and the design is readyto leave the design department, it may be sent on for either traditionaltooling and moldmaking or 3D Keltool creation. In the traditionalcase, the file is translated via IGES and imported into Surfcam(Surfware Inc.) for toolpath programming, which is then downloadedto hardwired CNC equipment in a neighboring room. For Keltools,CAD data is converted to an STL file, which is sent to Fusion'sSLA 3500 for master pattern creation.

Speedy Toolmaking
Fusion's list of capabilities tells not only what it does, butalso the quantities each process will supply and how long it willtake. For example, SLA prototyping produces up to five parts inone to three days. Prototypes by urethane casting take one totwo weeks for up to 20 parts. For rapid tooling, Fusion offersa useful matrix in Table 1.

Most 3D Keltool operations at IM/Fusion are performed in aseparate, semi-connected building adjacent to the main manufacturingspace. The company has been working with the Keltool process for12 years, starting when it was still owned by 3M, the companythat invented it. "We originally used Keltools for EDM electrodes,"recalls Peck. In November 1997, Morton and Peck visited 3D Systemsafter it had purchased the technology. Shortly afterward, FusionEngineering was born.