Cellular Micro Moulding at Kamek
07 July 2009
All-pneumatic 21.2-t/3g presses with plunger injection, programmable controls, built-in gate cutters, needle valves and Kamek's homemade M1 Series automatic micro moulding systems are built to run nonstop, 24/7. Mr Kerber, president of Kamek Precision Tools, built the original models for sale but pulled them off the market two years later when approached to mould parts.
Three M1s team up to automatically produce 20,000 three-piece light detector components a day. They are moulded in PC, PA 66 and FR-PC. Light pipes moulded on M1 #1 are first automatically loaded into a mould on M1 #3, a turntable press. Lenses reel-to-reel moulded on M1 #2 are then punched out and pushed into the M1 #3 mould by a moving plate. A load sensor verifies the presence of the light pipes and lenses in the mould. The mould closes and the third part, a diffuser, is over-moulded by M1 #3 onto the other two parts in the mould. Finally the mould opens for part and runner removal and the cycle repeats.
Mr Kerber said: "Everything is in the tooling. Most of our moulds are made of D-2 or H-13 tool steel with a Rockwell C of 56-58. Our micro moulds are designed by Kamek and constructed as per our specification by a select group of mould making specialists."
