Light Guide Plastic Injection Moulding for keyboard Enclosures

Manufacturing Services: Injection Mold (CNC machining, EDM sink machining), Injection Moulding Runner System: Cold runner Mold Cavity: 2+2+4+2+1 Surface Treatment: Polish Mold Material: S136 Product Material: PMMA Product color: Clear

About the Project

This client is a professional purchasing manager in USA and the company he worked is focusing on design and production of membrane keyboards and keypads. He found Alpine Mold as his manufacturing partner with expertise in repeatable, reliable injection molding production to make a new project possible.

This Project is mainly consisted of five light guide of keyboard, made of PMMA material.To cater to the cost-saving requirements of the customer's smaller product, our tool engineer have provided an optimized mold design strategy. We designed 2+2+4+2+1 number of mold cavities for this product, which can effectively balancing production capacity while maximizing cost efficiency.

Plastic Resin PMMA

We molded keyboard light guides using a plastic resin called PMMA (Polymethyl methacrylate) due to its transparency, aesthetics, durability, chemical resistance, ease of processing, and cost-effectiveness. These characteristics collectively contribute to the overall functionality and user experience of keypads in various applications.

Design for Manufacturing Review

As with all of our projects, we began with a comprehensive design review for 3D drawing of light pipes. We make a DFM report to our customer, which includes detailed information such as parting line, draft analysis, thickness analysis, dimension tolerance analysis and so on. Our team worked closely with this customer to explain any suggested modifications. After the customer approve the DFM report, our engineer starts to make the mold design and manufacturing.

1. Part Issues And Proposals

Side edge is suggested to add 0.3 radius. Because it can help enhance safety, aesthetics, stress distribution, manufacturing feasibility, and user comfort of this product.

2. Gate Type And Location

Given these will be molded in a tree, but our customer didn't sure if each part really need it's own individual gate. So we made a tree design for more clarification.

Mold trial and mold modification service

Based on the feedback from the mold trial, we collaborate closely with this customer to implement necessary adjustments or enhancements to the mold design. This may involve fine-tuning the mold cavity, optimizing cooling channels, adjusting gating systems, or making other modifications to address any issues discovered during the trial phase.

During mold trials, we record accurate weight information and optimal injection parameters for the parts produced by each mold. We aim to provide our customers with comprehensive data and guidance to ensure mold stability and production consistency.

Plastic Injection Moulding for Light Guides

Upon receiving the samples, the customer tested the light guides and confirmed their satisfaction, prompting us to commence mass production. Throughout the mass production process using our Fanuc Injection Molding Machine, Our QC diligently monitored quality, conducting sampling checks every 2 hours.

We successfully manufactured a high-quality mold for keyboard light guides, leading to a significant enhancement in the injection moulding production process. Subsequently, we produced keyboard covers that precisely met the functional and aesthetic requirements of our customers.

We hope this case study can provide you valuable insights for your next injection molding projects. Alpine Mold is a professional plastic company with over 22 years manufacturing experience. If you have a new project involving plastic parts, please feel free to contact us for a free quotation.