SolidWorks 2010 Bible

Part VII: Working with Specialized Functionality

Mold Tools are really meant for tooling engineers, but part designers often use the first part of the

process to apply draft to parts. Tooling engineers often need to add or correct draft to plastic parts

they receive from part designers without draft or that are not designed with any process in mind

whatsoever.

Cross-Reference
The Split Line feature was covered in Chapter 7, and is not covered again here. Draft was covered earlier in
this chapter. n

The general workflow for using Mold Tools to create cavity and core blocks for an injection mold

is as follows:

1. Create split lines to add draft where needed.


2. Create draft as needed (Move Face can be used to angle faces much like the Draft
   feature).


3. Scale the part up to compensate for shrinkage during molding.


4. Identify the parting lines that separate cavity faces from core faces.


5. Create Shut-off faces, which are surfaces that close any through holes (windows or
   pass-throughs) in the part and represent places where the steel from the cavity side
   of the mold directly touches steel from the core side of the mold. These openings in
   the part are capped by surface features.


6. Create Parting surfaces. These are the faces outside the part where the steel from oppo-
   site sides of the mold touch.


7. Create the Tooling Split. Tooling Split uses the faces of the Shut-offs and Parting
   Surfaces, and the faces of either the Cavity or the Core side to split a block into two sides.


8. Create any Core features. Core is an unfortunately named feature in SolidWorks. Even
   in mold lingo, the word has several meanings, and it doesn’t become any clearer when
   translated into SolidWorks terminology. In this case, the word “core” refers to the mate-
   rial used to make core pins, side action, slide, lifter, or pull in a mold.

If you were to create a mold with manual modeling functions, you might go through roughly the

same steps in the same order. The SolidWorks process often breaks down in the automated surface

modeling areas, such as shut-offs and parting surfaces. You may need to manually intervene in the

process for these steps. Fortunately, the SolidWorks process is flexible enough to allow for manual

modeling as needed.

Each one of these process steps may have several steps of their own. Cavity and core creation is far

from a push-button operation, but when you understand the overall process, the detailed steps

become clearer.