Advanced Technology Injection Molding

Purchasing the box, some assorted socket rails, and some additional clips for the socket rails, I took the box home with me to see how well it would stand up as a replacement. The box is quite simple in construction. It's a plastic injection molding case made of a very thick plastic. The case consists of a flip open lid (with two latches that are padlock compatible) covering a deep top storage area, and three drawers that are very similar to the large rolling tool chests that many professionals and advanced amateur home mechanics have in their garages. When you flip the lid open, the lid will immediately release the latching mechanism for the three drawers. Unfortunately, the lid does not contain any hinges or tethering that prevent it from flopping open and hitting itself on the back of the tool box. This was my only gripe involving the tool box.

Over-mold injection molding and two-shot injection molding are two distinctly different molding methods even though both are used to combine multiple polymers into a single part. Because of this similarity, the two are often confused or misapplied by the design engineer. The more finite capabilities of these two molding methods differ as much as their required tooling, machines and often, the resulting part cost. Choosing the right method can be a critical factor in achieving targeted features, cost and time-to-market. Both methods can be used to create the soft-touch products popular in today's marketplace. However, both methods can be applied to other applications where multiple polymers must be combined into a single part. Over-mold injection molding is used for parts that do not require fine detail and can absorb the higher cost of machine time and labor. 2-shot injection molding is reserved for parts requiring fine detail and low part cost.

Composites with polypropylene (PP) and jute fiber were prepared by injection molding technique. One of the important investigations of the research was the effect of fiber attrition, which occurred during the injection molding, on the mechanical performance of jute/PP composites. Contribution of a fiber to strengthening the composite performance is considerably high, when the fiber is sufficiently longer than the critical length. On the other hand, the higher the adhesion between fiber and matrix polymer, the shorter is the critical fiber length. The ideal situation occurs when the fibers in the composite are longer than the critical fiber length and when the adhesion between the fibers and the matrix polymer is high. Generally, hydrophilic jute fibers do not adhere well to PP, which is hydrophobic.

About 2 years ago I purchased a tool set. It came with a wonderful set of tools, but a really low end, thin and hollow plastic injection molding case that belies the namesake and tradition. Needless to say, the case finally gave up the ghost this past week. I began shopping for a replacement tool box for the old set that has since grown to over 200 pieces. Wanting some level of organization that is needed on the trail while off roading, the plastic tool box intrigued me due to its thick plastic construction and it's similarity to a larger tool chest with extendable drawers. Its size and depth allowed me to place it in the same spot as where I held the old plastic injection molding case in my truck.