In-mold assembly: safety glasses molded in one tool

Full transcript

00:00 Another example of in-mold assembly is shown with its case history. This is a pair of glasses, safety glasses, made by Uvex. They are called PoolSafe, and they were made using the in-mold assembly approach. So let me show you a picture of the glasses. This is a computer rendering. And next, I would like to share with you how they actually were made. So we use, this is the earpiece, and we have, it's made in three components. All the components are molded in the same tool consecutively.

00:45 The first one, which is in-molded, is the PBT resin, which has the highest temperature of molding, the melt temperature, and has the lowest. So you don't get a shrinkage. Then the tool opens, rotates, but you don't eject anything from the tool. The tool closes again, so the cavity is changing, allowing to inject the second component through gate two, as shown, which is a POM, or an acetone. And then the tool opens again, rotates again, and the last component is molded in the same tool in a different cavity.

01:26 which is called the TPE material, and this TPE material has the highest shrinkage and the lowest the molding temperature. Also, the nose piece, which is shown in this picture, also is molded via in-mold assembly. So, to be able to see this, I have the glasses right here in my hand. So, this flex turning is taking place in the tool, is made in the tool. The adjustment of the ear piece, this is the TPE part sliding over the acetal part, and then we also have the nose piece,

02:11 which is shown in here, which you see how it's moving, and this is achieved also in the tool.