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Injection Molded Back Door Panel for Coffee Maker
Product Description
This project was about some plastic accessories for a new coffee maker which designed by a major coffee machine brand in USA. One part was a back door panel for the new coffee maker.
Product Requirements
The part should be with high flatness.
The snap structure on the opposite side cannot be broken.
Mold Type: Injection mold
Mold Making Processes: CNC machining, EDM machining, WEDM machining
Mold Material: P20 Steel
Cavity: One
Product Material: Black flame-retardant ABS
Plastic Back Door Panel Design
Mold Design Review
1. Injection Gate
Considering the high-level flatness of product requirements, the original design was large side gates. The client was worried that the trimming of the side gate would be uneven, which affected the final assembly. After discussion, the product structure was slightly modified. We added a groove to the upper surface and gates were made in the grooves, As shown below:
Large side gate in the design
Design with grooves
2. Ejection System
The 14 snap structures on the reverse side used the lifter structure with some added dome pins. The client worried that the product possibly moved along with the liter during ejection, and the snap structures might be deformed. So, we made a textured structure on the end faces with the four big pins. In the result, the product could be pulled and would not be moved with the lifter during ejection, as shown below:
Plastic Back Door Panel Design
Plastic Back Door Panel Design
3. Cooling System
This product was a large flat part which was easily deformed. After discussion, we used as many cooling channels as possible on the mold to improve the flatness. The cooling water system on the cavity and core was shown as below.
Cooling system on the cavity
Cooling system on the core
In Conclusion
This project was a great example of how to help customers to overcome the design difficulties through full communication and ultimately manufacture the perfect products that matched customer’s requirements.
Finished Product