Common Sample Making Methods In Industrial Product Design

Products that have just been designed are generally not perfect or even unusable. Once they are directly produced, they will all be scrapped, which greatly wastes manpower, material resources and time.

Therefore, usually products that have just been developed or designed need to be prototyped, and products that require mold production are usually made according to product appearance drawings or structural drawings to check the rationality of the appearance or structure. Functional model.

The prototype is to verify the feasibility of the product without opening the mold. The prototype is generally a small number of samples, the production cycle is short, the waste of manpower and material resources is small, and the shortcomings of the product design can be quickly found to improve, providing sufficient basis for product finalization and mass production.

There are many ways to make samples, and different processes have their own advantages and disadvantages.

1. Clay sculpture

A three-dimensional product is hand-carved with sludge into a three-dimensional product called mud carving. In the early stage of industrial manufacturing, when there is no automation equipment, the prototypes are all carved by mud carving.

The material used in clay carving is hard oil mud, which is generally carried out by artificial carving. The sculptor uses the sludge to pile up and sculpt according to the product design concept or refer to the design picture, and finally get the sludge model of the product appearance.

To get a high-quality appearance model, the engraver's aesthetic and artistic touch requirements are relatively high, so the cost is relatively higher.

2. CNC machining

CNC engraving machining is a relatively traditional hand-made craftsmanship. It is good at fine machining of small tools. It has the ability of milling, grinding, drilling and high-speed tapping. It is widely used in 3C industry, mold industry, medical industry and other fields.

The prototype produced by the CNC precision engraving machining process can accurately reflect the information expressed in the drawing, and the surface quality of the prototype is high, especially after the surface spraying and silk printing are completed, it is even more glamorous than the product produced after the mold is opened. .

The CNC machining method is suitable for products with high material toughness requirements, large products and high precision. Suitable materials include plexiglass, resin, wood, metal (including copper, aluminum, and mild steel with a hardness less than HRC40), etc.

Most of the CNC equipment for making prototypes is a 3-axis machine, and some complicated workpieces need to be split and processed and then manually joined together, because the 3-axis machine can only process one surface at a time.

3. 3D printing molding

3D printing is usually achieved by using digital technology material printers. It is often used to make models in mold manufacturing, industrial design and other fields, and then gradually used in the direct manufacturing of some products. There are already parts printed using this technology. The technology has applications in jewelry, footwear, industrial design, architecture, engineering and construction (AEC), automotive, aerospace, dental and medical industries, education, geographic information systems, civil engineering, guns, and other fields.

There are many different technologies in 3D printing, and their difference lies in the way of using available materials and constructing parts in different layers.

Commonly used materials for 3D printing include resin, nylon glass fiber, durable nylon materials, stainless steel, aluminum materials, titanium alloys, silver plating, gold plating, gypsum materials, rubber materials, etc.

3D printing has low cost (high material utilization rate), fast cycle, simple operation, high precision, and can be integrated into one piece regardless of the complexity of the product structure. This molding method is the most popular, it is an important supplement to the traditional processing method rather than a substitute.

4. Silicone compound molding

The silicone compound molding process refers to the process of defoaming, mixing, preheating, and injection molding of the castable under vacuum conditions, and performing secondary curing molding for 2-3 hours in a thermostat at 60°C-80°C.

The imitation products made by the silicone compound mold can reach the strength and hardness of raw materials such as ABS. More than 20 pieces of the same product can be made with one silicone mold. Greatly reduce product development costs, cycles and risks.

Small batch samples with relatively messy structure, uniform wall thickness, and certain functions and appearance requirements, the cost of the iron mold is high, and the cycle is long, and you can choose the silicone compound mold to make the molding.

The materials that can be manufactured by the silicone compound mold are ABS, PC, PP, soft rubber, PMMA, nylon, PVC, etc.

Disadvantages of silicone compound mold: The mold is not resistant to acid and alkali, is not resistant to aging, and has a short life. The surface of the mold is prone to marks, stripes, and unevenness. Because the mold is a soft mold, the tolerance is in the range of 0.1-0.2mm, so the product accuracy is not high.