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SOLUTIONS COPY

2.810 Manufacturing Processes and Systems

Quiz # 1 Oct 18, 2017

Open book, open notes, calculators, computers with internet off.

Please present your work clearly and state all assumptions. Put a box around your
answer(s) for the problems with numerical answers.

Problems: Points

1. How are these parts made? 25 pts

2. Injection Molding 25 pts

3. Profile cutting performance 15 pts

4. New Thermoforming Process 30 pts

5. Thermoforming Tooling 5 pts

100 pts


1. (25 pts) How are these parts made?

Please look at the parts in front of you which are depicted below in the pictures
and make 2 determinations: 1st what material is this part made from, and
secondly what process or processes are used to make this part. Please explain
what features about the part prompted you to give these answers. (Do not
neglect giving your explanation. It is very important). If a part has multiple
components address all of them.

a) (6 pts max)

Material:
(+3) Aluminum/zinc/alloy. Low density. Non-ferrous material for die-casting.

(We gave credit to all of these answers. Partial credit was also given to wrong
materials but decent explanations. Little to no credit given for selecting a non-
feasible material).

Process:
(+3) Die casting. Ejector pin marks. Flash clearly visible. Material often die-
casted because of its low melt temperature.

(Note there are different types of casting that are definitely not the same! For full
credit, die casting must be explicitly written).

b) (7 pts max)

Material:
(+3) Steel with zinc plating. Needs the strength for application and low spring-
back. Zinc plating for the appearance.

(A common answer here was aluminum. Aluminum would be too expensive for
this application and have higher spring-back).

Process:
(+4) Steel wires are drawn (+1). Glued together with adhesive (+1). Sheet metal
forming to create the crown and ends (+1). Cut into pieces (+1).

(This was a very tricky part. The majority of students thought this was stamped
and skipped over the full process. For the application to work, stamping or
perforation would either be way too expensive or not high enough quality to
ensure proper stapling).

c) (12 pts max)

Material (body):
(+3). Aluminum. Application doesn’t require high strength and needs to be light
weight. Aluminum is also easily extruded.

Process:
(+3) Extrusion. The constant cross-section suggests this process because of the
low-cost. The shear marks are visible as the part was cut from the extruded
stock. The body was then drilled/tapped.

Material (end pieces):

(+3) Stainless Steel. Common material for screws and simple hardware.

Process:
(+3) The material could be extruded into the rod stock. The threads need to be
cold rolled. The hook and eye are then formed.

(Some students thought the threads were machined. This would be far too
expensive of a process for such a low-cost part).

2. (25 pts) Injection Molded Part – Please consider the injection molded part
below (there will be a copy of the part on your desk.)

Section A-A

a) Please draw the tooling required (core and cavity) to make this part. Also draw
a top view of the cavity at section A-A. Draw on the picture where the fate is
located. (15 pts max)

(+2) The gate is located on the bottom of the cuvette, or shown at the top of the
drawing above).

(+4) The core dictates the geometry on the inside of the part. It is important to
show the both views.

(Points were deducted for poor detail on the core and cavity that may suggest not
understanding the extent/function of the tool as well as the need to have it fully
define the shape of the part).

(+4) The cavity dictates the geometry on the outside of the part. Very important:
no side pulls are needed in this orientation, which is why this tooling is correct.

(Partial credit was given to other orientations of the mold, however if you had two
symmetrical halves of the mold, you needed to accurately define the core and

cavity as well as the multiple side pulls that you then introduced. Failure to do so
left you very susceptible to deductions).

(+5) The cross-section of the cavity looks like this.

(Points were deducted for not explicitly labeling the gate and cavity in this cross-
section. It is critical to note that the cavity is the tool, not the empty space in the
cross-section).

I have attached a SolidWorks Part file at this link for you to download if you would
like to see a 3D view of it or create your own sectional drawing to convince
yourself of the geometry.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/wszn21t4yno8xpt/Cuvette.SLDPRT?dl=0

b) Please make a rough estimate of the cycle time to mold this part (sec). (6 pts
max)

(+1) Estimate the cooling time of the part using this thickness.

ℎ' 4 𝑇./$0 − 𝑇23$$/.#$5

𝑡"##$ = '
𝑙𝑛
𝜋 𝛼 𝜋 𝑇/6/"07#8 − 𝑇23$$/.#$5

Note that under traditional temperatures, this can be reduced to

(ℎ/2)'
𝑡"##$ =
𝛼

(+1) Estimate the thickness of the part (constant) to be about 1mm. Note that if
there were any larger thicknesses, that it would be the largest thickness not the
average.

".A ..A
(+1) Note that the thermal diffusivity of plastic is 𝛼 = 10>? B
= 0.1
B

(+1) Solve for the cooling time.

(1𝑚𝑚/2)'
𝑡"##$ = = 2.5 𝑠𝑒𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑑𝑠
𝑚𝑚'
0.1
𝑠

(+1) Note that we are looking for the cycle time which includes fill time, ejection,
and reset of the mold, not just cooling time. These can normally be ignored and
the cycle time is roughly equal to the cooling time.

(+1) However, in this particular situation, the cooling time is so short (seconds)
that the other steps should not be ignored, since they account for several
seconds themselves and would double or triple the cycle time.

(There are a number of ways to calculate the other times. The key was to identify
them and the magnitude similarity. Full credit was given for estimates, detailed
calculations, as well as explanation).

c) Please make a rough estimate of the clamping force to mold this part. (4 pts
max)

(+1) We can estimate the force using the maximum pressure that the plastic
material can withstand in the mold and the projected area.

𝐹𝑜𝑟𝑐𝑒 = 𝑃𝑟𝑒𝑠𝑠𝑢𝑟𝑒 𝑥 𝐴𝑟𝑒𝑎 (𝑝𝑟𝑜𝑗𝑒𝑐𝑡𝑒𝑑)

The maximum pressure is approximately 1000 bars according to Boothroyd’s

Table 8.5 in Design for Injection Molding. 1000 bars = 1000 MPa = 1000 MN/m2.

(+2) The two dimensions in question are the length and width of the cross-section
A-A. A good estimate is around 10mm or 1cm each.

𝐴𝑟𝑒𝑎 𝑝𝑟𝑜𝑗𝑒𝑐𝑡𝑒𝑑 = 1.2𝑐𝑚 𝑥 1.2𝑐𝑚 = 1.44 𝑥 10>T 𝑚'

(+1)
𝑀𝑁
𝐹𝑜𝑟𝑐𝑒 = 100 𝑥 1.44 𝑥 10>T 𝑚'
𝑚'

𝐹𝑜𝑟𝑐𝑒 = 14.4 𝑘𝑁

(The biggest mistake here was misinterpreting the projected area needed to keep
the mold closed. This has to be from the perspective of the core and cavity that
you drew in part a) since the material flowing in will cause them to separate. If
students used a pressure drop formula rather than the Boothroyd estimate, it was
equally important for them to correctly use the dimensions based on the
geometry from part a). The answer could be calculated in either SI or English
units depending on the conversion used.

3. (15 pts) Profile cutting performance

Consider the profile milling of an aluminum bar stock 2cm X 4cm in cross
sectional area and 10 m long. The tool has three teeth and is rotated at 400 rpm
and is moved into the stock at 10 m/min (this is along the long axis of the bar
stock). Please make rough estimates, the cross-sectional area of the materials
removed is 2cm2:

a. Estimate the material removal rate (cm3/minute). (5 pts max)

(+2) The MRR is the volume removed in a given time frame. Here it would be the
cross-sectional area multiplied by the linear feed into the stock.

𝑑(𝑉𝑜𝑙) 𝑑𝑥
𝑀𝑅𝑅 = =𝐴∗ =𝐴∗𝑣
𝑑𝑡 𝑑𝑡

(+2) Both of those values are given.

𝑐𝑚
𝑀𝑅𝑅 = 2𝑐𝑚' ∗ (1000 )
𝑚𝑖𝑛

(+1) Solve with the correct units.

𝑐𝑚?
𝑀𝑅𝑅 = 2000
𝑚𝑖𝑛

(Points were deducted for misinterpreting the feed and rotational velocity). Many
people also did not convert meters to centimeters correctly.

b. Estimate the power needed to cut his aluminum stock (Watts). (5 pts max)

(+2) The power can be estimated using the specific energy of removal for the
material and the material removal rate. We calculated the MRR earlier.

𝑃𝑜𝑤𝑒𝑟 = 𝜇B 𝑥 𝑀𝑅𝑅

𝑐𝑚? 2000 𝑥 10? 𝑚𝑚?

𝑀𝑅𝑅 = 2000 =
𝑚𝑖𝑛 60 𝑠

(+2) Using Table 21.2 from Kalpakjian (copied into the lecture notes), aluminum
has a specific energy of removal of between 0.4 and 1.0 Ws/mm3. We can use
an average of 0.7 Ws/mm3.

(+1) Solve for power in the correct units.

𝑊𝑠 2000 𝑥 10? 𝑚𝑚?

𝑃𝑜𝑤𝑒𝑟 = 0.7 𝑥
𝑚𝑚? 60 𝑠

𝑃𝑜𝑤𝑒𝑟 = 23333 𝑊 = 23.3 𝑘𝑊

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c. Estimate the force on the tooth (Newtons). (5 pts max)

(+2) Note that this is a profile mill and not all teeth are engaged with material so
we can’t just immediately go to the orthogonal cutting formulas. Instead, we need
to use this formula for the force per tooth (slide 28 of the machining lecture).

𝐹" = 𝑓 𝑥 𝑑 𝑥 𝜇B

(This is a tricky question. Many people strictly went directly to the F = P / V or F =

u x A equation, which is very simple to calculate using the two above results in
parts a and b. However, that is for plunge milling. In this scenario, we are profile
milling along an edge and so the most correct answer is estimating the depth of
cut so that you didn’t need to estimate (or wrongly assume) the number of teeth
engaged).

(+1) Let’s estimate the depth of cut as 1 cm = 0.01 m.

(Any reasonable estimate was accepted based on the above diagram. Partial
credit was also given for those that mentioned the need for the depth of cut but
didn’t calculate it).

(+1) Calculate the feed per tooth.

𝑣
𝑓 =
𝑁Ω
m
10 m
𝑓 = min = 0.0083
teeth rev tooth
(3 )(400 )
rev min

(+1) Calculate the force per tooth using the correct units and comment on its
large magnitude.

m 𝑊𝑠 1000𝑚𝑚 ?
𝐹" = 0.0083 𝑥 0.01 𝑚 𝑥 0.7 ?
𝑥 ( )
tooth 𝑚𝑚 𝑚

𝐹" = 58100 𝑁 = 58.1 𝑘𝑁

(Some people were thrown off or noted that this calculate force seemed very
high. That is because of the extremely fast linear feed into the stock material of
10 m/min. Many people also had issues converting into Newtons. This stemmed
mostly from not knowing how to break out Watts into fundamental units).

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4. (30 pts) Please consider a new thermoforming process innovation as shown below.

Using a nonstick, porous, heated platen, the new device claims to greatly reduce the
time to heat the plastic sheet prior to forming. In this process, the sheet is heated by
conduction with a constant wall temperature. The heating step functions as follows (see
the diagrams above):
a) A plastic sheet at T = T room is loaded onto the nonstick porous platen at T = T
platen. The sheet stays in this position until the top side (side A) of the sheet reaches T
target.
b) At this point, the platen and the sheet are rotated and the sheet is gently removed
from the platen. In some cases, a slight air blast through the porous sheet may be
needed to release the sheet.
c) At this point the heated sheet is hanging free and the rest of the process is the same
as in conventional thermoform.
To prevent the sheet from overheating near the heated platen the nonstick surface also
provides a heat transfer film coefficient with a resulting Bi-1 = 0.25. The temperature of
the sheet must not increase beyond Tdegrade

Please analyze this process. Assume that the sheet is 2 mm thick. The properties of the
sheet give a conventional thermal diffusivity as used in class, and the temperatures are:
Troom = 20C, Tplaten = 300C, Ttarget = 180C and Tdegrade = 250C. You may assume

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that during heating of the sheet heat loss from side A is minimal. In fact, assume; dT/dz
= 0 at side A during heating on the platen, where z is the through the thickness
direction.

Please answer the following questions:

a) How long will it take to heat the sheet (side A) to 180C? (10 pts max)

(+2) First we need to recognize this is a heating situation (not cooling, so the numbers
are reversed, although you achieve the same answer if you did not reverse) and
calculate the dimensionless temperature.

𝑇p$30/8 − 𝑇03qr/0 300𝐶 − 180𝐶

𝜃= = = 0.43
𝑇p$30/8 − 𝑇q##. 300𝐶 − 20𝐶

(+1) L is the thickness here (2mm) because dT/dz = 0.

(+4) The key here is realizing that x/L = 0. This is the most important part of the
problem. We have one-sided heating and so side A is actually in the center of the
diagram that is drawn to supplement the Fourier charts. We know Bi-1 = 0.25 and can
find the Fourier number on the upper left chart from the attached page.

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(In order to use these charts for your answer, you have to accept this convention,
therefore a solution with x/L equaling anything but 0 but using the chart must be
incorrect).

(+1) The Fourier number is 0.7 based on the chart analysis above.

(+1) Since the Fourier number is just a dimensionless number relating the time, length,
and thermal diffusivity, we can use that Fourier number to calculate the time to heat
since the thermal diffusivity can be assumed and we know the thickness from earlier.

∝𝑡
𝐹=
𝐿'

𝐹𝐿'
𝑡=
∝

(+1) Solve for the time in the correct units.

(0.7)(2𝑚𝑚)'
𝑡= = 28 𝑠𝑒𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑑𝑠
𝑚𝑚'
0.1
𝑠

(Partial credit was given if you used the conduction equation without the chart, although
it is very difficult to solve both of these correctly because of the film thickness
contribution which is not accounted for with that conduction equation. Most of the partial
credit came from identifying the thickness and dimensionless temperature, which are
the same for each method).

b) How long will it take side B to reach 250C? (10 pts max)

(+2) Like in part a, first we need to recognize this is a heating situation (not cooling, so
the numbers are reversed, although you achieve the same answer if you did not
reverse) and calculate the dimensionless temperature.

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𝑇p$30/8 − 𝑇5/rq35/ 300𝐶 − 250𝐶

𝜃= = = 0.179
𝑇p$30/8 − 𝑇q##. 300𝐶 − 20𝐶

(+1) L again is unchanged (thickness = 2mm) since we are using the same assumption
of dT/dz = 0 and the geometry is the same.

(+4) The key here is realizing that x/L = 1. This is the most important part of the
problem. We have one-sided heating and so side B is actually at the boundary of the
diagram that is drawn to supplement the Fourier charts. We know Bi-1 = 0.25 and can
find the Fourier number on the upper left chart from the attached page.

(In order to use these charts for your answer, you have to accept this convention,
therefore a solution with x/L equaling anything but 1 but using the chart must be
incorrect).

(+1) The Fourier number is 0.4 based on the chart analysis above.

(+1) Since the Fourier number is just a dimensionless number relating the time, length,
and thermal diffusivity, we can use that Fourier number to calculate the time to heat
since the thermal diffusivity can be assumed and we know the thickness from earlier.

∝𝑡
𝐹=
𝐿'

𝐹𝐿'
𝑡=
∝

(+1) Solve for the time in the correct units.

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(0.4)(2𝑚𝑚)'
𝑡= = 16 𝑠𝑒𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑑𝑠
𝑚𝑚'
0.1
𝑠

(Partial credit was given if you used the conduction equation without the chart, although
it is very difficult to solve both of these correctly because of the film thickness
contribution which is not accounted for with that conduction equation. Most of the partial
credit came from identifying the thickness and dimensionless temperature, which are
the same for each method).

c) Does this process work as it is currently done? Why? Do you have any suggestion on
how to further improve on this process? (10 pts max)

(+3) This process currently does not work.

(+2) It does not work because side B degrades approximately 12 seconds before side A
is fully heated.

(You must explicitly say if the process worked or not and also must give a reason why).

(+5) Some ways that this process could be improved:

• Heating from both sides (changes the heat distribution)
• Using a lower platen temperature (and running the process longer)
• Using a thinner plastic sheet (thickness has a second power in the calculation)
• Using a more conductive material (changing the given Biot number)
• Achieving a higher film thickness (changing the given Biot number)

(If you incorrectly interpreted this question, you were inclined to discuss the
thermoforming process in this answer and not the heating. Partial, albeit minimal, credit
was given for this as the process would fail during heating before the forming step, and
commenting on heating was a much better answer).

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5. (5 pts) Please consider the cross section of a thermoformed plastic cup as shown
below. The measured thicknesses at several locations are shown. Was this cup formed
on a male or female tool? Please provide a sequential drawing showing the forming
process to support your answer and comment on why some sections are thicker than
others.

(+1) This part was clearly created on a female tool based on the thickness distribution.

(+1) The part cooled first at the top of the mold.

(+1) The material then touched the bottom and froze.

(+1) Afterwards as the material continued to thin, it touches the side and then the
corners last.

(+1) See next page for the expected sequential drawings.

(Points were deducted if you did not explicitly show that the corners touched last versus
the sides and bottom. This normally required at least 2-3 drawings. Many students also
did not draw sequential drawings which left them susceptible to deductions).

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