Automatic injection moulding machine (DIY)

[@mosisamesfin4690]

That's a great job. Can you share me the design of your machine? I wish to build it?

[@AndysMachines]

I've built better ones since this, check out my other videos. I also have some plans on Patreon, but I can't really teach you how to build the entire machine, more you can take away ideas and inspiration and adapt it for your own use.

[@OlivierCR]

Dude that's so cool, congrats

[@МаксимБаданин-з5о]

Чувак это круто) спасибо тебе за твои старания !!!!

[@AndysMachines]

Спасибо!

[@shrestainternational9171]

Freaking awesome made injection machine on your own

[@AndysMachines]

😁

[@josie9079]

Nice job! Your extremely talented!

[@pris_6969]

impressive

[@skaltura]

Wow :O Also interested in the design and build process of this :O

[@sheepman6291]

I was wondering if you need to have your injection barrel stand off the mold. I have seen machines that have the barrel touching the mold and others that don't. Yours doesn't. I was thinking that having the barrel touching would be fine, but I want to know for sure.

[@AndysMachines]

Yes, in my machine (and other similar designs) the nozzle is only in contact with the mould during the injection. This is because they need to be held at different temperatures. All the time they are touching the nozzle is cooling down and the mould is heating up, neither of which I want. There is another system known as the 'hot runner' where the nozzle (usually multiple nozzles) are always in contact with the mould or even part of it, but this is more complicated and requires active heating and cooling of different parts of the mould so that the sprue (runner) is always kept above the melting point of the plastic and the cavity is cooled so the part will solidify. This is normally used on large industrial machines producing multiple parts at high speed.

[@sheepman6291]

@@AndysMachines Thank you so much. This helps out a lot.

[@marceloVSC]

Beautiful work, although I have read in the comments that you have found a couple of problems in it. I would like to know how much is the motor that moves the screw and the pressure that both cylinders have: the injection cylinder and the closing one. You would greatly appreciate that information. Best wishes.

[@AndysMachines]

The injection cylinder could produce a max. of around 500 bar/7500psi and also any pressure below that. The clamp closing was done with an electric motor, not a cylinder, though I think my estimates of it's force were wildy inaccurate and I had no good way to measure it (I have addressed this in the new version, see my more recent videos). As for the screw motor it did not need a lot of power, I think it was around 1/4 - 1/2 HP.

[@SzymonKowalski87]

Nice job. Nice made movie. Congrats. Let me know if you need CNC moulds ;)

[@Lorenz.Machine]

That part you shipped looks like a shredder Shaft for the precious plastics basic shredder...?

[@AndysMachines]

That's exactly what it was. I used to supply these for previous versions of their shredder.

[@Lorenz.Machine]

@@AndysMachines I just delivered three shafts today. Looked familiar 👍

[@akshayd211]

BLOODY AMAZING!

[@Gameomg]

Very impressive! Were you limited to that clamp force hence the mould opening during the injection or was that something you changed later on?

[@AndysMachines]

Thanks! I think the clamping force may not have been as high as I thought, also the frame rails under tension were quite long and not large enough in cross-section so would stretch under the extra pressure of the injected plastic. Eventually I gave up with this design and am building a totally new one, heavier duty and it also has a way to accurately measure the clamp force. I'll have some videos on this soon.

[@sohan2510]

What is the power of the motor in horse power, which is injecting the plastic ?

[@AndysMachines]

The screw is driven by a motor but the plastic is actually injected with pneumatics

[@Sparrow-ky9tt]

Hi, do you thing using only the spindle to make pressure into the mould would work or wouldn't it be enough?

[@AndysMachines]

That would only work if the cross sectional area of the mould was smaller than the cross section of the barrel, otherwise the pressure in the cavity will force the mould open.

[@mattmckay4345]

So freakin cool!!

[@bbprojectsbarcelona7608]

Really nice machine, although I saw you already built a new one. You there put a big focus on the clamping system which is of course important. Bit if I am not mistaken, you do not use any venting in your mold. I bought a book about injection molding engineering standards amd followed the design guidelines to evacuate air from the mold, once the plastic gets injeczed. What shall I say, I am using maybe 10% of your clamping force and have no flesh whatsoever.

[@AndysMachines]

I'm not convinced the clamp on this machine actually produced as much force as I thought at the time. Which is why the new machine has a way to measure the force and it works much better (with the same amount, or less clamping force than I thought I was using in this machine). When I first make a mould I don't add vents as I usually find the air has no problem escaping between the mould halves and through the ejector pin holes. Sometimes I will add a vent if there is a problem area where air can be trapped.

[@bbprojectsbarcelona7608]

@@AndysMachines good to know the air can escape there as well, thank you! Next mold (already in preparation) i will work 1st time with ejector pins. Do you also buy stock ones or you do something yourself? Does your ejector plate or mold have special inserts for the pins or are they operating directly on the aluminium?

[@AndysMachines]

@@bbprojectsbarcelona7608 I used to always make the ejector pins but now I've mostly settled on one size of commercially available ones, they are cheap and just need cutting/grinding to size. I don't use bushings for the pins, I only make low volumes of parts, not tens of thousands, so they aren't really necessary.

[@skyh.5727]

Very impressive! Where do you buy all the mechanical components? Or are they also self-made?

[@AndysMachines]

Most of the components I made, apart from things like the band heaters. The gearmotor that drives the screw I also re-purposed from something.

[@CNCEVOLUTION]

Where did you buy the screw?

[@AndysMachines]

I made it myself, check out my other video: kzbin.info/www/bejne/mZeXlYRordxnha8

[@josiaspereira984]

Sell the plans?

[@AndysMachines]

This was an earlier design of my IM machine, I also have several videos of the newer improved one and there are some basic plans on my Patreon. I built it mostly with what I had to hand and it's unlikely anybody would be able to duplicate it exactly or even want to as you would probably need to adapt it to suit your own use.

[@sohan2510]

Bro, which sensor you use to detect whether the part is stuck on the mold or not !

[@AndysMachines]

Currently there are microswitches on the clamp that detect it's position. If it doesn't fully open it's because the part is stuck. I will also add a light beam below the mould to detect the part falling.

[@svin3819]

Did you do the controller?

[@AndysMachines]

Yes, all of it, controller, PIDs, It's not finished. I was going to add more features and menus for storing settings for different moulded parts.

[@svin3819]

@@AndysMachines I'm about to start building one and would love to know more about how you built the controller.

[@svin3819]

Like what are you using for screen and how did you get it to display all that?

[@AndysMachines]

It's just an LCD matrix screen, 192x32 pixels. I control it with an AVR. I'm sure you could do it with an arduino, somebody's probably written a library for it, but I like to code things in assembly.

[@svin3819]

@@AndysMachines, haha looks like I have a lot to learn because I know nothing about coding or arduino. Just mach3 and GCode.

[@svin3819]

What screw did you use? Robotdigg?

[@AndysMachines]

It's a custom screw that I made myself: kzbin.info/www/bejne/mZeXlYRordxnha8

[@svin3819]

What did you use for your injection cyl? What kind of piston seal did you use? Or how is you seal it if no seal was used?

[@svin3819]

And more videos of this please. Looks great.

[@AndysMachines]

Watch this space! More videos on this topic coming from next month, not this exact same machine, but the Mk 2 (bigger & better)! As for the injection cylinder, it was a piece of seamless steel tube, I think I've answered questions on the piston already, but I used different diameter steel pistons and bronze bushings to vary the volume/pressure depending on what sized parts I was moulding.

[@FunkyHumi]

you are my hero !

[@dayzmelttogether]

how did you build this???

[@copypaste815]

Awesome

[@POPULARCULTURALHISTORY]

what is cm3 capacity

[@AndysMachines]

Good question! The piston can be changed for different diameters, the largest will give an injection volume of 28cc, but also lowers the pressure quite a lot and is only suitable for parts without thin walls or fine detail. It seemed to work best with a piston sized to give a shot of around 7cc.

[@POPULARCULTURALHISTORY]

@@AndysMachines ı will make high pressure by pneumatic do you have mail ı want ask quastions

[@AndysMachines]

@@POPULARCULTURALHISTORY Check the 'about' section of my main channel page

[@SasTech_]

Seems nice. How you measure the amount in the piston? And how you made sure the plastic not flows back to the melting zone at the screw? From an engineering point of view this is quite interesting. I could help you with design ideas if you want. I have several ideas, but way less time to make them myself. What you think?

[@AndysMachines]

Good questions! There's a check-valve at the end of the screw cylinder that stops the plastic from returning, though it also restricts the forward flow a lot, it needed to be bigger. As for measuring the piston travel this is something I planned to do but never got that far (with an optical linear encoder). I've actually given up with this design and have been building a totally new machine, some videos on this coming soon.

[@SasTech_]

@@AndysMachines Cannot wait to see that. Still, if you need a helpful brain, i'm open to collab :)

[@aymankidwany8119]

what is the material of the platens (movable plates) ??

[@AndysMachines]

The platens are steel, the mould halves are aluminium.

[@aymankidwany8119]

@@AndysMachines do you know what type of steel and what is the thickness ?

[@POPULARCULTURALHISTORY]

@@aymankidwany8119 what is your cyclinder diamater and what is pressure bar? 32 or

[@Andreyrkt]

Круто. Я тоже хочу такой аппарат :)

[@sametnurettinaslan8118]

Hello, I really like your project. I wonder if you have drawings and materials, can you send me a message

[@TheAyhan76]

Uauu 😂😂😂😮

[@jouhaed841]

Tm

[@gatyi28]

Love it :)