Here is an injection mold design tutorial for Best Mold Components SolidWorks mold base assembly.
HASCO plastic injection mold components and HASCO injection molding standards have been used.
BestMoldComponents.com are Solidworks 3D models of HASCO mold components.
HASCO is one of many injection mold base suppliers.
If you are ready for mold design using SolidWorks, just follow the instructions below.
The HASCO mold base layout 1 consists of 22 files.
3 SolidWorks assemblies and 19 SolidWorks part files.
They are available in 3 languages - English, German and Swedish.
The English, (default) version is shown in this tutorial.
F = To be used with fixed side.
M = To be used with movable side.
de = German (BOM, file name and description in German).
en = English (BOM, file name and description in English).
sv = Swedish (BOM, file name and description in Swedish).
Assembly files:
Part files:
Download the needed files to the HASCO mold base layout 1 from our download section.
Extract all files at once with winrar or similar software.
It does not matter where.
In this tutorial we will extract to C:\MoldDesign\Moldbases\BestMoldComponents
Under SolidWorks Options, click System Options tab, category External References
Allow multiple contexts for parts when editing in assembly must be checked.
Please check your SolidWorks settings.
In the top-level assembly Layout_1_en.SLDASM you will find 2 subassemblies.
Layout_1_en_fixed_side.SLDASM for the fixed side and Layout_1_en_movable_side.SLDASM for the movable side.
Let us open the top-level assembly and have a look.
The top-level assembly contains three display states.
These are All, Fixed side and Movable side.
All: Shows both the fixed and the movable side.
Fixed side: Shows the fixed side.
Movable side: Shows the movable side.
View the top-level assembly display states.
The top-level assembly contains 2 custom views.
These are the Fixed side and the Movable side.
Fixed side: Shows the fixed side from the parting plane combined with display state Fixed side.
Movable side: Shows the movable side from the parting plane combined with display state Movable side.
View the top-level assembly custom views.
The configuration names are made so that SolidWorks sorts them in ascending order.
It will then be much easier to find the right variant or size of your selected HASCO component.
Show me the HASCO Z10 guide pillar configuration naming.
The HASCO components tolerances are included in the underlying sketches of the SolidWorks 3D models.
Show me how to find the tolerances in SolidWorks sketches.
Before starting the design of your first injection molding tool you may want to customize the mold base for your needs.
There may be recurring details such as cooling systems or attachment of the ejector system in the injection molding machine.
When they need to be designed the next time you will have saved that time if the mold base already has been customized.
Use the assembly features as much as possible and do not use the Propagate feature to parts checkbox yet.
If needed we will use it later. Otherwise it is easy to get problems if we want to replace any components later.
Please see our example of customize the HASCO mold base.
You can replace components without any SolidWorks relations or SolidWorks mates being broken.
Again - if there is a problem with SolidWorks relations being broken, make sure that the checkbox Propagate feature to parts is not ticked.
Example of SolidWorks replace components in HASCO standard mold base.
DAKO is a CAD catalog software to generate a solid model to eg SolidWorks,
Autodesk Inventor, Catia, Cimatron, Creo or other similar CAD programs.
Custom properties in all the components are compatible with DAKO custom properties.
Therefore, you can mix components without editing custom properties manually.
It ensures that you get a correct Bill Of Materials (BOM) in your SolidWorks drawings.
If you do not have the HASCO DAKO module installed download it for free here.
Show me how to combine HASCO DAKO module with Best Mold Components.
As we want to work as efficiently as possible, we are interested in having many different mold dimensions.
We do this by adding new configurations to the SolidWorks assemblies fixed and moving side.
In this tutorial it is a minimal change but it explains the principle.
Later, we will use the new mold dimension, insert a SolidWorks plastic part, a SolidWorks cavity and a couple of HASCO ejector pins.
How to add and change HASCO mold dimension in mold base layout 1.
Now we have a new mold dimension in our mold base.
Since we do not want to destroy our master mold base as we will create more mold dimensions and easily reuse them,
it is time to save the design of the mold base as a copy or a project and work with it instead.
Show me how to save a SolidWorks mold base as a project.
Now we can remove SolidWorks configurations that not will be used.
If necessary, enable Propagate feature to parts checkbox in assembly features.
Now it is time to add the part or product to be molded to the mold base.
The injection molding part design has already been made.
It is a simple box that certainly is not useful for anything except to explain how it works in this tutorial.
The mates for the K20 cavity plate in the assembly for the movable side will be updated as well in order to fit with the parting plane for the box.
Show me how to insert the box to be molded in the SolidWorks mold assembly.
Now we can add custom properties to the top-level assembly for the mold.
Keep in mind that if you want to include for example shot weight or shot size, it can be a good idea to design the runner system in the injection molded parts.
This is the easiest way to get the right information in that way.
If you link the custom properties from the part to be molded, in this case our box,
you can make changes to the box and the custom properties in the top-level assembly will update automatically.
Show me how to add custom properties to the assembly.
For the moving side we make a SolidWorks extruded cut to clear the core and add a SolidWorks cavity.
Try to use sketches and plastic part designs (the box in this case) as external references wherever possible.
This reduces the risk of problems with broken external references and SolidWorks rebuild errors.
For the fixed side we just add the cavity in SolidWorks.
The mold gate is a a direct gate or sprue gate in the center of the plastic part design.
Show me how to add a cavity in SolidWorks to the HASCO cavity plates.
Mold ejector pins come with 3 configurations of each length.
The additional configurations are made to speed up your work.
For example when the ejector pins have the same dimension and a similar length.
The HASCO vendor number are the same but still it is a different length of the ejector pin.
They are called the configuration name with an extension of "-L1" and "-L2".
If you need more configurations they can be added manually.
This means, you have a lot of HASCO ejector pin sizes to choose from.
Show me different HASCO ejector pin sizes to choose from.
We start a SolidWorks assembly feature to create ejector pin holes as SolidWorks hole series.
Make sure the sketch relationships are linked to the box.
Then you will have no problems with broken external references in the mold assembly.
Show me how to add HASCO Z40 mold ejector pins to our injection mold design.
Now it is time to create SolidWorks 2D drawings or mold drawings.
SolidWorks bill of materials (BOM) from SolidWorks bill of materials template BMC_Layout_1_BOM also will be added.
One SolidWorks drawing view with lines for the SolidWorks section views have been added in advance.
This is because it takes a few minutes to complete that task.
Show me how to create a SolidWorks mold drawing and add a SolidWorks bill of materials (BOM).
Now we can export the fixed and movable side using a coordinate system.
In this way both sides will be properly positioned when importing the mold to your CAM software and facilitates your manufacturing.
Show me how to export my injection molding mold design using a coordinate system.