Ultrasonic welding
Two molded halves joined at the joint line by vibration, with no adhesive, no screws and no cure time. A sealed housing leaves here as one piece.
Every quote starts with two numbers.
Projected area decides the clamp. Shot weight decides the barrel. Thirteen presses stand on this floor, from 120 tons and 8 ounces up to 720 tons and 124 ounces, and those two numbers tell you which end of the building your part belongs on before anybody picks up a telephone.
So the press list is the first thing on this page and the arithmetic is printed beside it. Work it yourself, then send the model and we will check it against the machine.
01
Which press your part runs on
The clamp
projected area × tons per square inch
- Polypropylene, polyethylene
- 2.0 to 2.5
- ABS, HIPS, acetal
- 3.0 to 3.5
- Polycarbonate, nylon, 30% glass filled
- 4.0 to 5.0
A 9 inch by 7 inch housing has 63 square inches of projected area. In ABS at 3.5 that is 221 tons, so it will not go on the 220. It goes on the 300 and runs there at 74 percent of clamp, which is where a mold should live.
The barrel
part weight × cavities + runner
Keep the shot between 20 and 80 percent of the barrel's rating. A 124 ounce barrel making a 6 ounce shot cooks resin while it waits, and the color you see on Monday is not the color you see on Thursday.
| Clamp | Shot, GPPS | Tie bar opening | Max mold | On the floor | What it runs | Match |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 120 ton | 8 oz | 15.0 × 15.0 in | 24 × 20 in | 2 | Caps, bushings, clips, small covers | |
| 165 ton | 12 oz | 17.7 × 17.7 in | 26 × 22 in | 1 | Handles, knobs, cable guides | |
| 220 ton | 20 oz | 20.5 × 20.5 in | 30 × 24 in | 3 | Brackets, small housings, lids | |
| 300 ton | 32 oz | 23.6 × 23.6 in | 33 × 27 in | 2 | Housings, trays, equipment covers | |
| 390 ton | 48 oz | 26.4 × 26.4 in | 36 × 30 in | 1 | Enclosures, deep-draw containers | |
| 500 ton | 74 oz | 29.5 × 29.5 in | 40 × 33 in | 2 | Panels, large enclosures, tote lids | |
| 610 ton | 96 oz | 32.3 × 32.3 in | 44 × 36 in | 1 | Totes, dunnage, structural covers | |
| 720 ton | 124 oz | 35.4 × 35.4 in | 48 × 39 in | 1 | Pallet-scale parts, bulk containers |
Shot capacities are stated in general purpose polystyrene, which is how machine builders rate a barrel. Divide by roughly 1.05 for ABS and by 1.2 for glass filled nylon, or send the part weight and we will do it properly.
02
Where the mold gets built, and who repairs it after
We add nothing to a tool invoice.
Three of the offshore builders we quote against have been building our customers' molds for more than twenty years. Their number is the number you pay, and you can see the invoice. What we charge for is running the tool and looking after it, which is the part that lasts twenty years.
| Question | Built in our tool room | Built at a partner shop |
|---|---|---|
| Lead time | 6 to 10 weeks | 12 to 16 weeks, including the ocean |
| Tool cost | The reference price | 40 to 55 percent less |
| First shots | On the press it will produce on | Shipped here and sampled on the same press before you pay the balance |
| Engineering change | Cut and running the same week | Two to four weeks by drawing, or we cut it here |
| Repair after a crash | Same day. The mold does not leave the building. | Same day. It still does not leave the building. |
What is in the tool room
CNC vertical machining, sinker EDM, wire EDM, surface grinding, and a bench with a person at it. Every mold that runs here carries a cycle count, the count sits on the setup sheet, and preventive maintenance happens on the count rather than on the day somebody notices flash.
03
What happens after the part comes off the press
Ultrasonic insertion
Brass threaded inserts driven into the boss under the horn, so your assembly takes a machine screw and can be taken apart in the field without destroying the part.
Heat staking
A molded stud melted over a metal bracket, a screen or a board to capture it. No hardware, no torque spec, and nothing to come loose in shipping.
In-mold labeling
The label goes into the cavity and the shot is made around it, so the graphic sits under the surface. It cannot peel in a wash-down, scuff off in a tote, or be picked off by a customer.
Each of these removes a vendor, a freight leg, and one more place for a part to sit in somebody's warehouse waiting on a purchase order. Parts ship packed to your print, labeled to your part number.
04
What to send, and what comes back
- The solid model. STEP or Parasolid. We will work from IGES, and from a print if a print is genuinely all that exists.
- The resin, or the requirement. Temperature, chemical exposure, UL rating, food contact, outdoor UV. Name a resin and we will tell you when a cheaper one does the same job.
- Annual volume and release size. Forty thousand a year in four releases is a different tool from forty thousand in one.
- The two or three dimensions that actually matter, with their tolerance. Not all of them.
- The cosmetic requirement. Is there an A surface, and is a gate vestige or a knit line on it a reject.
- Who owns the tool. Yours, or ours and amortized into the piece price.
Back inside three business days
- The press it runs on and the percentage of clamp it uses
- Estimated cycle and the cavitation that pays for itself
- A tool quote from our room and a tool quote from a partner builder, side by side, both at cost
- Piece price at three volumes
- The moldability problems we can see in your model, drawn on your model
Or telephone and describe the part. (816) 555-0142
Under about five thousand pieces a year a steel tool rarely pays back against machining or printing the part. We will say so, and we would rather say it in week one than in month nine.
