Injection Molding

International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) Standards

  • 1. Empowered Learner -- Students leverage technology to an active role in choosing, achieving and demonstrating competency in their learning goal, informed by the learning sciences.
  • 1a. Students articulate and set personal learning goals, develop strategies leveraging technology to achieve them and reflect on the learning process itself to improve learning outcomes.
  • 1b. Students understand the fundamental concepts of technology operations, demonstrate the ability to choose and use/troubleshoot current technologies.
  • 1c. Student are able to transfer their knowledge to explore emerging technologies.
  • 2. Digital Citizen -- Students recognize the rights, responsibilities and opportunities of living, learning and working in an interconnected digital world, and they act and model in ways that safe, legal and ethical.
  • 2a. Students engage in positive, safe, legal and ethical behavior when using technology, including social interactions online or when using networked devices.
  • 2b. Students demonstrate an understanding of and respect for the rights and obligations of copyright and sharing intellectual property.
  • 3. Knowledge Constructor -- Students critically curate a variety of resources using digital tools to construct knowledge, produce creative artifacts and make meaningful learning experiences for themselves and others.
  • Students plan and employ effective research strategies to locate information and other resources for their intellectual or creative pursuits.
  • 4. Innovative Designer -- Students use a variety of technologies within a design process to identify and solve problems by creating new, useful or imaginative solutions.
  • 4a. Students know and use a deliberate design process for generating ideas, testing theories, creating innovative artifacts or solving problems.
  • 4b. Students select and use digital tools to plan and manage a design process that considers design constraints and calculated risks.
  • 4c. Students develop, test and refine prototypes as part of a cyclical design process.
  • 5. Creative Communicator -- Students communicate clearly and express themselves creatively for a variety of purposes using the platforms, tools, styles, formats and digital media appropriate to their goals.
  • 5a. Students choose the appropriate platforms and tools for meeting the desired objectives of their creation or communication.
  • 5b. Students create original works or responsibly repurpose or remix digital resources into new creations.
    • *All standards listed above are based on the ISTE standards.
    Using CAD software, Students are to make an object, then reverse that object so that it fits into two blocks that can be put into our blank injection mold for quick reproduction.

    Students must first create a shape that can be molded with a simple two part mold. Only undercuts that can be separated into two parts are allowed to be used. Things like a tool handle, sculpted face, custom keychain tab, and toys (army men, game pieces, airplanes, etc.) are good ideas.

    Next, students should make the two halves of the injection mold, imbed their shape into each part halfway and make it a negative shape or "hole", cutting into each side of the mold.

    Students must consider how the hot plastic will flow into and around the molded part to fill the entire mold cavity and must consider the thickness of specific parts so as not to create "unfillable" areas.

    The students' injection mold must fit inside our injection mold blank and align with the fill hole. Below are the specific measurements: (click the image to bring up a larger view) Note corner radius is 1/4 inch.


    Vital considerations:
  • Sprue, runners, and gates
  • Thinness of parts
  • Undercuts
  • Placement of fill line(s) (Runners and Gates)
    • The teacher illustrates how to use negative shapes or "holes" to produce pieces that fit together perfectly.

    Students' work will be printed to proof the fit of each part.

    Evaluation:
    2 point -- No unmoldable undercuts
    4 points -- Mold and sprue line fits our blank
    4 points -- Complexity (don't make it too simple)
    10 points -- Successfully set up in preform, printed and 3 injections made.
    ALWAYS spray Mold Release into mold before injecting!
    20 points total

    Original part (Keychain)


    Part with sprue, runners and gates added imbedded into mold block.


    Part cavity in mold block






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