Design optimization: improve performance by replacing metal with high-performance plastics. Key points:
High performance plastics can reduce weight and cost while maintaining mechanical properties
Reducing the number of parts can further reduce the weight and simplify the design
Eliminate secondary operations to save time and cost
Increase production cost and productivity through injection molding
Design and manufacturing professionals are constantly faced with the challenge of improving product performance, whether it is reducing fuel or energy consumption in transportation applications, the comfort of wearable devices, or the efficacy of medical devices and medical devices.
Advantages of high performance plastics
In some applications, the payoff is obvious: saving a few kilograms on a racing car means winning or losing, and although high-performance plastics cannot replace metal alloys in many applications, metals cannot play the role of polymers in countless applications. Between these two spaces, the polymer or metal can perform the desired function in commercially meaningful quantities at an acceptable manufacturing cost. So where should people start when they want to achieve high-yield and cost results by transitioning from metal parts to plastic parts?
Evaluate simple material substitution for component design-can meaningful improvements be achieved using engineering grade polymers with basically the same physical/geometric design? This situation is not common because of the great difference in mechanical properties between metals and high-performance plastics, but it may occur when the initial metal design is far from optimal, thus replacing lighter and lower-cost plastic parts.
The evaluation takes into account the redesign of the advantages of molded plastics-once the injection molding process is verified, plastic injection molding components can be very complicated under the condition of high productivity and low single piece cost. This allows designers to consider reducing the number of parts in an assembly by combining functions into a single component. This can save weight, production time, extra project logistics, and ultimately reduce costs. In addition, molding polymers can combine aesthetics through more complex organic shapes and molding colors, thus reducing secondary operations again. Finally, the wide range of mechanical, physical and chemical properties of polymers opens up many new avenues for ingenious design that metals cannot achieve.
Polymer components and clad molding inserts can be used in combination with the above-mentioned advantages of injection molding as well as metallic features in certain key areas, such as threads, embedded wiring, metallic tubing for fluid or gas lines, thermal dissipation features, or aesthetic elements.
