Abstract
The disclosure includes a laminate tool and a process for producing laminate tooling with functional features between adjacent or non-adjacent laminate segments to provide mechanical leverage to demold a part, space for moving tool segments that allow features to be molded against the line of draw (eliminate die-locked conditions), and passageway for gas to travel. The disclosure further includes a laminate tool with channels in the laminate sheets that communicate at one end to a source of pressurized air and at its opposite end to the mold cavity. The channel permits forced air into the mold cavity to demold the part.
Claims
1-15. (canceled)
16. A mold tool to produce a contoured part, comprising: a first mold part formed of at least one laminate sheet; said laminate sheet having opposed first and second planar faces separated by a sidewall extending substantially unbroken therebetween to define a laminate sheet body; each said first and second planar faces having a greater length and width than the sidewall; said sidewall defining a thickness of the laminate sheet body; each said laminate sheet arranged in a stack in a first planar face of a first laminate sheet adjacent to a second planar face of a second laminate sheet orientation to form each of said first mold part; said first mold part having a mold cavity having a surface contour with graining in a shape of a part to be molded; at least one laminate sheet having a channel formed in at least one of the first or second opposed planar faces and extending into the thickness of the laminate sheet body; said channel having an outlet in fluid communication with said mold cavity at a first end and in fluid communication with a source of air, vacuum or atmosphere through an inlet at a second end of said channel; said channel having greater length than width and extending only partially through the thickness of the laminate body; said channel to draw a vacuum in the mold cavity to facilitate molding of a thermoformable material into the mold cavity and to demold said part from said cavity after curing.
17. The mold tool of claim 16, further including a second mold part, each of said first and second mold part are formed of at least one laminate sheet each; each said laminate sheet having opposed first and second planar faces separated by a sidewall extending substantially unbroken therebetween to define a laminate sheet body; each said first and second planar faces having a greater length and width than the sidewall; said sidewall defining a thickness of the laminate sheet body; said laminate sheets arranged in a stack in a first planar face of a first laminate sheet adjacent to a second planar face of a second laminate sheet orientation to form each of said first mold part and said second mold part; said first mold part having a male configuration complementary to a female cavity mold configuration formed in said second mold part; said female cavity in said second mold part having a surface contour in a shape of a part to be molded; at least one laminate sheet having a channel formed in at least one of the first or second opposed planar faces and extending into the thickness of the laminate sheet body; said channel having an outlet in fluid communication with said mold cavity at a first end and in fluid communication with a source of air, vacuum or atmosphere through an inlet at a second end of said channel; said channel having greater length than width and extending only partially through the thickness of the laminate body; said channel to draw a vacuum in the mold cavity to facilitate injection of material into the mold and permit introduction of pressurized air to the mold cavity to demold said part from said cavity.
18. The mold tool of claim 16, wherein said channel is formed in a laminate sheet in said second mold part.
19. The mold tool of claim 16, wherein the channel is formed in the thickness of two adjacent laminate sheets.
20. The mold tool of claim 16, wherein the channel has a circular configuration.
21. The mold tool of claim 16, wherein the channel is in fluid communication with a bore through said mold part at said channel inlet; said bore in fluid communication with said pressurized air, atmosphere or vacuum.
22. The mold tool of claim 16, further including a functional feature selected from vents, cores, slides and lifters, to facilitate interaction with the mold cavity tooling surface to assist demold of a molded part from said cavity.
23. The mold tool of claim 16, further including grain features on the mold cavity surface contour.
24. The mold tool of claim 22, wherein said functional feature is located between adjacent laminate sheets without a channel.
25. A method for creating a laminate tool, comprising: a) defining a surface contour of a part; b) creating a graphic representation of tooling with a tooling surface corresponding to the surface contour of the part; c) sectioning the 3D graphic representation of the tooling into a plurality of planar laminates, each planar laminate having a length, width and thickness; d) cutting a plurality of ordered segments from a sheet material corresponding to said laminate sheets; e) interrupting a surface of at least one planar laminate to create at least one channel extending from said tooling surface to pressurized air, atmosphere or vacuum, functional feature; said channel having a greater length than width; and extending only partially through said laminate sheet thickness; f) assembling individual laminate sheets into a stack in a predetermined sequence corresponding to the graphic representation of the tooling and securing the individual planar laminate sheets into a laminated tooling unit.
26. The process of claim 25, further including a functional feature selected from at least one of lifters, slides, vents and cores, said functional feature extending from the mold cavity to an exterior of the tool.
27. The process of claim 25, wherein said surface contour includes graining features.
28. The process of claim 25, wherein the functional features occur between adjacent planar laminate sheets without a channel.
29. The process of claim 25, wherein the functional features occur between non-adjacent planar laminate sheets without a channel.
30. The process of claim 25, wherein the functional features occur along any intersecting angle among said planar laminate sheets without a channel.
Description
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0020] FIG. 1 is a schematic representation of a system to manufacture laminate tooling according to one aspect of the disclosure;
[0021] FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing the steps for manufacturing laminate tooling according to one aspect of the disclosure;
[0022] FIG. 3 is a representational view of a laminate tool according to one aspect of the disclosure;
[0023] FIG. 4 is sectional top view of the laminate tool of FIG. 3;
[0024] FIG. 5 is a side cross sectional view of the laminate tool of FIG. 3, showing various interruptions or functional features between the laminate plates or sheets;
[0025] FIG. 6 is a perspective view of a laminate sheet or laminate plate with a channel formed therein;
[0026] FIG. 7 is a perspective view of two adjacent laminate plates or sheets with a channel formed therein.
[0027] FIG. 8 is a side view of a stack of laminate plates showing the channel communication with the bore.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
[0028] Referring now to the discussion that follows and also to the drawings, illustrative approaches to the disclosed systems and methods are described in detail. Although the drawings represent some possible approaches, the drawings are not necessarily to scale and certain features may be exaggerated, removed, sectioned out-of-plane or partially sectioned to better illustrate and explain the present invention. Further, the descriptions set forth herein are not intended to be exhaustive or otherwise limit or restrict the claims to the precise forms and configurations shown in the drawings and disclosed in the following detailed description.
[0029] FIG. 1 discloses a schematic representation of a system to create a laminate tooling unit according to one aspect of the disclosure. Specifically, system 10 includes processor 12 having a memory storing instructions capable of creating laminate tooling of any configuration as will be hereinafter described. A 3-D graphic representation of a desired laminate tool may be held in memory and constructed of individual laminate sheets or plates. The processor 12 may communicate with the Laminate Plate or Sheet Dimensioner 22 to select the appropriate dimension for the laminate plate or sheet or the appropriate amount of laminate material necessary to construct the desired laminate plate or sheet. This information is communicated to the sheet or plate material source 14, which may include preformed sheets of laminate or material from which the laminate sheets may be formed. The laminate plates or sheets (or material(s)) are transferred to a cutter 16, which may be a laser cutter, and cut into desired shapes and dimensions. If the laminate sheets or plates are made of a bondable material such as a plastic, the processor may also signal the optional bonding source 18 (as appropriate to the material of the planar laminations) to send bonding agent to the laminate plate assembler to bond the sheets into a laminate tool 24 as desired. A general description of a system to produce a laminate tool as described above may be seen by reference to Manuel, U.S. Pat. No. 6,587,742 incorporated herein by reference.
[0030] FIG. 2 is a flow chart of one method 26 to produce a laminate tooling according to one embodiment of the disclosure. Step 28 is defining a surface of a contour of a part to be molded. Step 30 is creating a 3D graphic representation of the tool with a tooling surface corresponding to the surface contour of the parts to be manufactured. The tooling may be cut or molded to correspond to the contour of the part to be produced by the laminar tooling. At step 32, the 3D graphic representation of the tooling is sectioned into a plurality of planar laminations. At step 34, the tooling is then cut into a plurality of ordered segments from material corresponding to the planar laminate material to create planar laminate plates or sheets. At step 36, the surface of at least one laminate plate is interrupted to create at least one functional feature. The functional features will be described in greater detail in reference to FIGS. 4 and 5. In addition, at least one surface of a laminate plate or sheet is interrupted to form a channel 80 as will be discussed in reference to FIGS. 6 and 7. At step 38, the laminate plates or sheets are assembled and secured together (such as by bonding) into a stack in a predetermined sequence corresponding to the tooling 3D graphic representation to form the laminate tool unit as shown in FIG. 3.
[0031] FIG. 3 shows a representation of a laminate tool 40 suitable for molding parts. The tooling is made of a series of laminate plates or sheets 42 secured together to form a first part 43 of the tooling and laminate plates or sheets 44 to form the second part 48 of the tool. Note the second part of the laminate tool has a mold cavity 50 which is configured to be the mirror image of the mold part contour 52 on the first part 43 such that there is a complementary male to female relationship between the first and second mold parts. Grain features 67 are shown in the surface 56, and it is also understood grain features may also be present in surface 52.
[0032] In one aspect, when only on mold part is used to form a part, a thermoformable material sheet 65 may be placed over the cavity 50, and a vacuum induced pulling the formable sheet of material into a mold cavity. When the material cures, the piece is demolded from the cavity.
[0033] FIGS. 3, 4 and 5 will be described together. Specifically, FIG. 4 to a sectional top view of mold part 48 looking into the mold cavity 50. FIG. 5 is a side sectional cutaway view of the mold part 48. Shaping or forming surfaces 54 and 56, (See FIG. 3) respectively, create a cavity therebetween representative of the part to be produced. At least one forming surface may be textured or grained, depicted by reference 67. This mold cavity accepts the supply of moldable material under pressure through a spue or gate provided in one or both of the tooling members 43 and 48. The mold members are constructed of a plurality of laminate sheets or plates that are formed, cut or machined to create a shaping surface corresponding to the 3D graphic representation of a part to be molded. At various locales along the mold cavity surface 54, several interruptions may be provided. For example, the interruptions may include slides 58 or cores 59, ejectors 60 and 62, or lifters 64 to interact with a molded part surface corresponding to interruptions over several contiguous plates. In addition, the interruption may also be a vent, such as at 66, or a channel 80 as will be discussed in reference to FIGS. 6 and 7. Importantly, the laminate plates or sheets are, for the most part, in face-to-face contact with each other, being separated only by the various interruptions as described. However, it is equally understood that the interruptions or functional features may occur along adjacent or non-adjacent laminate plates. The construction of the laminate tool creates a mold that does not have venting lines between the laminate plates and greatly reduces or eliminates mold lines or witness lines on a part. After the molding events have occurred, the various lifters, slides or ejectors can be used to mechanical advantage to eject the molded part from the mold. As seen in FIGS. 4 and 5, the doghouse 68 is in the cavity 63. When the lifter 64 is activated, it pushes the part up and away from the doghouse to free the part from the mold. It is also contemplated that the vents or channels can be used to eject parts from the mold by the application of pressurized air through the vent or channels and into the open mold cavity, thereby ejecting the molded part from the cavity. Instead of spacing the plates apart to provide venting, the vent or channel is limited to those functional features that may be between adjacent or non-adjacent plates. The surface of the resulting molded part may be understood to require minimal refinishing to create the molded part with no mold or witness lines.
[0034] FIGS. 6, 7 and 8 are detailed views of the laminate sheet or plate according to one aspect of the disclosure. The laminate sheet or plate has a first planar face 70 and an opposed second planar face 74 separated by a sidewall 76 to define a laminate plate or sheet body 78. The planar opposed faces have a length L and a width W. The sidewall has a thickness T. The channel 80 is shown cut into or interrupting the first surface of the laminate sheet or plate. Note the channel does not extend through the entire thickness of the laminate plate or sheet, but rather only extending into the thickens dimension of the laminate plate or sheet. The channel may be circular or semi-circular in cross section or may be any other shape convenient to the toolmaker. The channel has a length 82 which is greater than its width 84. The channel has an inlet 86 at a first end 88 and an outlet 90 at its second end 92. The inlet 86 is in fluid communication with forced or pressurized air, vacuum or atmosphere. This fluid communication at the inlet may be through a bore 94 in the laminate sheets or plates the communicate with a source of pressurized (forced) air, vacuum or atmosphere. The outlet 90 of the channel is in fluid communication with the mold cavity of the tool. When the tool is in operation, the channel serves to communicate a vacuum to the tool cavity to facilitate drawing the molding material, such as a plastic, into the tool cavity. Because the channel outlet is small, there is minimal or no witness line or mark on the molded part. When the part is molded, the channel further serves to permit the introduction of forced or pressurized air into the mold cavity to demold the part.
[0035] Those skilled in the art will recognize that the terms in this specification are words of description and not of limitation. Many variations and modifications are visible without departing from the scope and spirit of the invention.
