Microcellular Foam Molds 'Impossible' Parts
At the Molding 2011 Conference in San Diego last month, sponsored by Executive Conference Management (executive-conference.com), Markus Lettau, director of sales and application engineering for custom molder Empire Precision Plastics, Rochester, N.Y., discussed some of the unique capabilities of microcellular foam molding.Empire has three injection presses equipped for the MuCell foam process licensed by Trexel Inc., Woburn, Mass.
At the Molding 2011 Conference in San Diego last month, sponsored by Executive Conference Management (executive-conference.com), Markus Lettau, director of sales and application engineering for custom molder Empire Precision Plastics, Rochester, N.Y., discussed some of the unique capabilities of microcellular foam molding.
Empire has three injection presses equipped for the MuCell foam process licensed by Trexel Inc., Woburn, Mass. As an example of this technique’s problem-solving capabilities, Littau presented the case of a fiber-optic harness for circuit boards made of SABIC’s Ultem polyetherimide (photo). It has a wall thickness of less than 1 mm and overall length of about 130 mm. It was hard to fill conventionally, and multiple gates produced numerous knit lines. Using MuCell eliminated the knit lines and filled the part completely and consistently, Lettau said.
(585) 454-4995 • empireprecision.com
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