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Jaco's customer needed to produce
8,700 pieces of carrier button manufactured from Ultem.
Although Jaco's customer viewed injection molding as the best
process to produce the Ultem button, the customer assumed that the
tooling charge would be unaffordable. Jaco was requested to
identify the best process for this application, machining versus
injection molding.
Machining
Jaco's solution was to machine 100 prototypes which allowed Jaco
to work out the fastest feeds and speed to machine the Ultem
design. Ten different operations were required including, sawing,
vertical & horizontal milling, drilling and counterboring.
Advantages that machining offered:
- Quick turnaround using Ultem sheet
stock
- No tooling cost
- Price $5.50 each. |
Injection Molding
To achieve the lowest tooling cost, Jaco presented an
insert concept. The customer was charged for a core and cavity
which mounted into a Jaco quick change MUD frame. The price
for 8,700 injection molded pieces was $1.50 each which included
the Mold Insert amortized into the selling price. Savings of
$4.00 per piece over machining.
Conventional machining is a good
choice for plastics but injection molding was the best and lowest
cost solution for this Ultem project. |
