Movable Intermediate Plate Injection Mold for Timepiece Components
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing micro-injection mold technologies are expensive, inflexible, and inefficient for manufacturing small, complex timepiece components, particularly due to difficulties in ensuring component integrity during ejection and allowing for geometric adjustments without significant cost or time expenditures.
Innovation Solution
A modular injection mold design featuring a movable intermediate plate that forms part of the injection cavity, allowing for flexible modification and precise manufacturing of components by changing the intermediate plates without re-manufacturing the entire mold, along with a demolding system that ensures component integrity and geometric accuracy.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Manufacturing precision
If a traditional micro-injection mold is used, then manufacturing precision can be achieved, but the mold becomes very expensive and inflexible for modifications
Solution Approach 1:
The mold core is divided into two separate parts (first part and second part) that can move independently relative to each other. This segmentation allows each part to be optimized for precision while enabling flexible modifications to one part without affecting the other, resolving the contradiction between manufacturing precision and adaptability.
Solution Approach 2:
The mold core parts are made mobile relative to each other between injection and demolding positions, transforming a static rigid mold into a dynamic system. This allows for easy reconfiguration and modification of the mold geometry while maintaining precision during the actual injection process.
2Manufacturing precision
If a traditional micro-injection mold is used, then geometric accuracy can be maintained, but modifications require significant time and cost
Solution Approach 1:
By segmenting the mold into movable parts, modifications can be made to individual parts independently rather than re-manufacturing the entire mold. This significantly reduces the time and cost of modifications while preserving the geometric accuracy of the overall mold system.
Solution Approach 2:
The movable mold core parts can be reused across different injection molding configurations. A single set of precision-machined parts can serve multiple geometrical variants by simply repositioning or reconfiguring the movable parts, eliminating the need for separate molds for each variant.
3Manufacturing precision
If micro-injection is used for small elongated components, then component integrity during ejection becomes difficult to guarantee
Solution Approach 1:
The movable mold core parts enable dynamic control during the demolding process. The parts can move independently to create optimal ejection paths and reduce stress on fragile components, ensuring component integrity while facilitating easy manufacture of small elongated parts.
Solution Approach 2:
The movable mold core parts act as intermediaries between the injection cavity and the ejection system. They can be positioned to provide support and protection to fragile components during the transition from molding to ejection, preventing damage while maintaining manufacturing ease.
Data Source
AI summary
The injection mold has a mold core including a first part and a second part. The parts are mobile relative to one another between a first injection position in which they are moved together to form an injection cavity permitting the injection of a material to form an injected part (50; 50′), and a second demolding position in which they are moved away from one another to permit the demolding of the injected part (50; 50′). The injection mold has at least one ejector designed to contribute to the demolding, and at least one movable intermediate plate (10; 10′, 20′), separate from the two parts of the mold core. The intermediate pate is arranged between the two parts of the mold core, and has at least one cutout (12; 12′, 22′) forming at least one part of the injection cavity of the injection mold.