A system and manufactures are provided that augment various manufacturing processes by combining skinning techniques, for example from additive manufacturing methods, with modular substructures in order to provide cost and development time saving while not sacrificing end product material characteristics. Modular substructures provide a range of benefits from wide adaptability and reusability, to customized cooling channels within tooling systems. Manufacturing tooling areas afforded improvements span from stamping to injection molding.

A molding die includes: a pair of dies, i.e., a first die and a second die respectively having abutting surfaces; a first die part and a second die part respectively having cavity forming portions inside which a cavity is formed, and thick portions provided at both ends of the cavity forming portions, the die parts being detachably fitted to die part attachment grooves provided in the abutting surfaces of the pair of dies; and induction heating coils for heating a surface of the cavity, wherein thicknesses of the cavity forming portions are smaller than thicknesses of the thick portions, and the distance between the induction heating coils and the cavity is smaller than the thicknesses of the thick portions.

A method including providing a mold cavity to produce an outer contour of an acoustic resonator and providing a mold core to produce an inner contour of the resonator. The inner contour corresponds to a plenum, and a connecting channel in fluid communication with the plenum. An insert fitting adjacent to the mold core defines a length of the connecting channel during injection molding of the resonator.

The cassette mold type injection molding machine controls a first temperature control circuit to supply a heat medium having a heating temperature from a first heating device to a matrix supply path, controls a second temperature control circuit to supply the heat medium having a cooling temperature from a second heating device to the core cavity supply path, and performs cassette mold cool down control in which a bypass control valve is controlled to connect a bypass path and a main body supply path, such that a second heating device or a core cavity supply path is connected to a main body supply path, and thus the heat medium having the heating temperature is supplied to the matrix and the heat medium having the cooling temperature is supplied to a cassette mold main body and a core cavity portion.

A cassette type mold apparatus includes a sub-runner formed on a parting surface of a fixed side matrix or a movable side matrix, a gate provided in a fixed side cassette mold or a movable side cassette mold and configured to inject a molten resin into a cavity space from the sub-runner, and a hot runner provided on the fixed side matrix so that a tip end thereof is aligned with the sub-runner to be perpendicular to the sub-runner and is in parallel with a mold opening and closing direction. In the cassette type mold apparatus, the movable side cassette mold can be stacked on the fixed side cassette mold in a state in which a cavity and a core are aligned and can be integrally loaded in a direction of a side surface of the entire mold.

One-piece article obtained by injection molding, with at least one injection point, said article comprising a main body (20), having a body volume defined by the space within a surface forming an outer envelope, and at least one hook (21), preferably a field of hooks, obtained from the same molding of the main body of the molded article, the hook or each hook having a stem of longitudinal axis and a catching part projecting laterally from the stem, characterized in that the volume of the hooks is substantially smaller than the volume of the body, i.e. at least 100 times smaller, preferably at least 1000 times smaller, for example between 100 000 and 100 000 000 times smaller, than the volume of the body, and in that the width, or smallest transverse dimension, of the stems, measured transversely to the longitudinal axis, is smaller than the thickness of the main body, measured along the longitudinal axis of the stems.

A method for creating optical articles includes moving first and second mold portions relative to one another. This disclosure includes injection molds for reducing cycle times and related methods. Some molds include first and second mold portions movable relative to one another from open to closed positions in which each recess of the first mold portion cooperates with a respective recess of the second mold portion to define a chamber. Each chambers includes a first cooling body coupled to the first mold portion, a second cooling body coupled to the second mold portion, and first and second inserts removably coupled, respectively, to the first and second cooling bodies. The inserts cooperate to define a mold cavity within the chamber configured to receive a thermoplastic material. Each of the cooling bodies has an inlet, an outlet, and a fluid cavity in fluid communication with the inlet and the outlet.

Disclosed herein, amongst other things, are various conversion structures for use in a molding system (100, 200). A non-limiting embodiment of the conversion structure includes a standard mold receiver (140, 157) and a mold conversion module (151A, 151B, 151C, 251A, 251B, 251C, 251D, 251E, 251F, 152A, 152B, 152C, 170A, 170B, 170C). The standard mold receiver (140, 57) and the mold conversion module (151A, 151B, 151C, 251A, 251B, 251C, 251D, 251E, 251F, 152A, 152B, 152C, 170A, 170B, 170C) are configured to cooperate, wherein the mold conversion module (151A, 151B, 151C, 251A, 251B, 251C, 251D, 251E, 251F, 152A, 152B, 52C, 170A, 170B, 170C) is receivable in the standard mold receiver (140, 157) for converting a molding configuration of a mold (120).

The present disclosure relates to machines and methods for reaction injection molding. In particular, the present disclosure provides small format reaction injection molding machines having exchangeable molds and reactant material tanks, as well as molds configured for use therein and associated componentry.

A method of producing an injection molding tool for molding an article includes producing a replica of the article using at least one of an additive manufacturing process, a solid freeform fabrication process, or a computer numerically controlled (CNC) process. A support block is configured to receive at least a portion of the replica of the article and support the replica with at least one of an outer peripheral surface of the replica or an inner peripheral surface of the replica positioned at a spaced distance from a peripheral surface of the support block. The replica is supported inside the support block at the spaced distance, a ceramic resin material is introduced into the spaced distance and cured to form a ceramic shell insert, the insert is removed from the cavity and sintered, and the insert is positioned within the support block to form a part of a mold tool adapted for installation in a standard plastic injection molding machine.