Designing for Manufacturability – Part 3: Materials
Material Considerations:
Mechanical: How strong does the material need to be from a mechanical perspective? Is it a product that deals with high loads? Is it something that needs to be metal or can it be a plastic part?
Optical: Is there transparency or optical clarity that is required?
Thermal: Are there high/low temperature heat requirements that need to be met?
Color: Does color matter? Is it a part that is seen every day that has human interface? Or is it hidden inside a machine, so color won’t matter? Engineer Note: A material like a silicone and its base polymer is a milkier translucent appearance, so in theory, you can color silicone to meet almost any pantone color; however, a material like FKM will limit your color options because the base polymer is not translucent.
Electrical: Does the material need to insulate, or does it need to conduct electricity?
Flammability: Is the product exposed to an open flame or high temperature? If so, you would need a material that doesn’t burn.
Panova Real World Example:
We had a client that was designing products and using EPDM foam, because it was readily available; but it severely limited the design of the component parts. Therefore, we spoke with them about the option of molding the product out of gum rubber. Their concern about materials remained, so the team at Panova stuck with the same base polymer they were using with the foam and made additional recommendations on materials that could be colored, handle higher temperatures, and have better chemical resistance. Eventually, we convinced the client to change to a silicone material and it opened a whole new depth of color that the client’s designers and marketing team could consider when developing future models of the product.
Read Other Blog Posts:
Related posts
Combining the Strengths of Metal and Plastic with Insert Molding
Insert molding has become much more popular in plastic injection molding, being a unique way to combine the mechanical properties of plastic and metal for much stronger components. While it can be used with other types of inserts–such as ceramics or other rigid...
The Rubber Overmolding Process Explained: Bonding Rubber onto Substrates to Enhance Your Products
Rubber overmolding is a unique process that allows us to mold different rubber materials “over top” of a metal or plastic substrate. Essentially, that means your end products receive the advantages of both materials: high strength, structure, and rigidity from the...
Injection Molding vs. Transfer and Compression Molding: The Advantages and Applications of Each Process
There are a number of unique manufacturing methods that we use to produce custom molded rubber products as efficiently and effectively as possible. Injection molding is often the go-to solution in the industry. It’s a versatile process compatible with many types of...
Subscribe to our Blog!
Stay in the loop on the latest Panova news, trends in product development, case studies, and other stories on how we Simply Solve product design challenges. Sign up for new blog posts alerts today!