muadib3d 1 Report post Posted October 10, 2011 can you forward me to resources which describe and discuss indeep complex injection where several compounds are injected together - see attached example Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Cyberdemon 17 Report post Posted October 10, 2011 Typically these parts are done by co-molding/insert molding. A hard plastic material is shot, and then depending on the tool the part is either manually placed, or automatically rotated (auto-rotating tool) into another mold for the rubber (in this case, most likely done twice since it looks like they are doing 2 durometers or at least 2 colors of rubber). You can basically do as many different shots as you want onto a piece of plastic, it just becomes more complex because common issues include warping (the heat from the second mold distorts or damages the first part), or poor adhesion between different materials (the rubber/TPE can peel off). Once the tooling is properly worked out though, it's a fairly common process these days. You can see all kinds of this on everything from tooth brushes to power tools. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Mark Marzouk 5 Report post Posted October 11, 2011 The black plastic with the metal part is one mould. The metal part will probably be inserted into the mould by robot. Then this part will be put into another mould on another machine and the grey plastic and rubber will be shot on a multi-material machine. Quite a bit of investment into the tooling and but an impressive part. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
muadib3d 1 Report post Posted October 14, 2011 thx guys. I was wondering if this approach/technology is possible ragarding something bigger like a drill? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites