Plastic Materials + Mold Design Combo combines two of our Development Courses. These courses run back-to-back over the course of four days in-person or online, giving students the opportunity to save time and money.
Plastic Materials
Understanding plastic materials is critical to nearly every job function within the injection molding industry.
This course is designed to improve the students understanding of polymer structures, the impact of molecular weight, rheology, and crystallinity on material properties. Attendees will also learn critical thought processes necessary to discern between the various root causes of shrink and warp.
Course Structure
The Plastic Materials course is taught over two consecutive eight-hour days in-person or online. The course begins with a discussion on creating polymers from monomers, followed by the importance of molecular weight to your part’s performance and processing characteristics.
Next the topics of drying, additives, viscosity, and rheology (study of plastic flow) are covered. Subsequently, participants will learn what makes some polymers amorphous and others semi-crystalline, and how those classifications affect material properties, processing, mold design, and part design.
Finally, the course will take a deep dive into understanding and recognizing volumetric vs. orientation-induced shrinkage, and how each causes plastic parts to warp.
Attendees will take away practical strategies for reducing warp by evaluating options in material selection, mold design, processing, and part design.
Course Highlights
- Polymerization methods
- Understanding Tg and Tm
- Differences between amorphous and semi-crystalline materials
- Molecular weight and its effect on material properties
- Drying nuances and proper measurement of moisture
- Crystallinity and its effect on material properties
- Plastic flow characteristics
- Viscosity’s role on the process and part quality
- Videos of plastic flowing through molds
- Various industry myths uncovered
- Melt Flow Index versus in-mold viscosity
- Classifications of plastic shrinkage
- Root causes of warp
- Strategies for predicting warp
- Breakout session for troubleshooting warped parts
What’s Included
- All course materials, including:
- Coursebook
- Calculators, pens, pencils, etc…
- Daily breakfast and lunch
- Certificate of Attendance
Mold Design
Understanding the foundational knowledge of the five key systems and how each one affects the final part quality is imperative in the injection molding process.
This course is designed to give students an in-depth look at the second discipline of the injection molding industry. Attendees will leave with a working knowledge of mold design and manufacturing. Through a mix of lecture and hands-on labs, attendees will break a mold down into its five systems and provide discussions on design strategies for each.
Course Structure
Mold Design is taught over two consecutive eight-hour days in-person or online. The course begins by identifying the five key systems of a mold: melt delivery, cooling, structural, venting, and ejection. Discussions follow featuring the foundations of each system and how they all affect the formation of the plastic part and the final part quality.
Participants will take part in three different labs: a mold tear down and assembly, mold print reading, and a cooling cart demonstration.
Attendees will gain the ability to evaluate mold design based on the five systems and recognize design features that could be improved.
Course Highlights
- Lab 1: Mold tear down and assembly
- Lab 2: Reading mold prints
- Lab 3: Cooling cart
- Selecting a 2-Plate versus 3-plate mold base
- Understanding in-mold pressure drop and its variables
- Series versus parallel mold cooling designs
- Strategies for optimizing mold cooling
- How to verify turbulent flow
- Baffles and bubblers
- Structural considerations in plate deflection
- Core/cavity alignment and pocketing techniques
- Ejection strategies for forming undercuts
- Types of hot and cold runner systems
- Runner sizing strategies
- Gate design and location strategies
- Venting details and strategies
What’s Included
- All course materials, including:
- Course book
- Calculators, pens, pencils, etc…
- Daily breakfast and lunch
- Certificate of Attendance
If interested in taking the Plastic Materials + Mold Design combo class, please register using this page.
There may be grant funding available to help you pay for our courses. Learn more.