Making a mould from my model?
hi koltonmcconkey,
nice little chair design.
so getting this thing made. hmmm. I'm guessing you don't have a lot of experience with designing for manufacturability. Here's were I would start.
getting this design ready for manufacturing will likely cost a lot of money, upwards of a couple of hundred thousand dollars for plastic injection molding, so unless you're planning on making tens of thousands of these, I don't think I would go down that path.
try to find a local furniture builder or a model shop (also costly as a custom piece of furniture could cost you upwards of $10k to have made) or a diy club (in the San Francisco area there is Tech Shop where you can have access to the tools, machinery and training to make something like this) that could help you figure out how to fabricate one of these.
go through the process yourself to learn how to make your chair. the things you will learn in doing this wil influence how you might modify your design or design your next project.
Take a class in furniture or cabinet making so you can learn the tools and methods how to make something like this.
I certainly don't want to discourage you from persuing this, but the reality of mass manufacturing and even custom low production manufacturing is costly.
good luck.
Jamie Gilchrist
Senior Principal Experience Designer
Jamie Gilchrist
Senior Principal Experience Designer
If you are planning to pursue Industrial Design, getting started with various methods of fabrication and developing a hands on relationship with making things is probably the best path you could possibly take. I have dealt with some industrial designers who are great at cool looking conceptual models, just maybe not so hot at making things that can actually be built. Understanding building processes is crucial.
The first thought I had with your chair is to mock it up full size with inexpensive materials, like foam from a building center. Cutting out sections and gluing them together can give you a full sized perspective. You can put kerfs in some sheet foams and bend them also. For making a full sized version, building a foam core and covering it with fiberglass is relatively easy and inexpensive. I built a 21’ rowing shell using this basic technique, which is also how most surfboards are made. If you have a TAP plastics store or similar in your area they can help.
It’s not mass production, but building functional models should be a first step, and they don’t have to be difficult or expensive.
Mostly Mac- currently M1 MacBook Pro
Hello looking into your model, if you are planning to make something like 200 sets in some kind of plastic, you should use Rotational Molding method. Most of the big plastic like furnitures are made with big Rotational Molding machines. Of course your Mold making will be super expensive. One cheaper way is to use companies that can make plaster molds based on your dimension. They can usually do that quite accurately like "Elephant Parade", which are all made in Thailand. A little picture of my Elephant made of some kind of resin from Thailand is attached here. "Watch! is the name of this animal, by Elephant Parade.". Another way is go to China, A company owns by an Irish Gentleman, who were born in Australia is making big scale models for many companies in the world. For one piece or a few pieces manufacturing this might be the way to go. I would not suggest injection molding because the design is not suitable for injection machine, which does have a size limitation.
Please look into the web and search for "Rotation Molding Method".
A big Elephant at my office made in Thailand. You should explore this method too:
If you are going to make any kind of molds using your present designs. Looking at your png I think you have to export and save each individual sets into separate stp files. 2D drawings are also needed if you chose to use Rotational Molding. Your components should not be combined together and the mold designer (yes, it is a separate technology that needs to be studied. I use them to make molds for my own products) has to be able to separate them for a certain layout. Since your designs required assembly later the components are important. Also you have to check your dimensions and making sure that they fit human bodies. Something that looks good in illustration might needs more work to put them in a state that can be manufactured. Like my Avatar here, it is in fact an injected product but I used special effects to make it looks like a picture. Injection Molding requires the knowledge of draft angles, wall thickness and you have to understand the process of "Injection Molding". If you required the mold to open up four ways the mechanism involved will be quite complicated. Rotational Molds can be made by hand + machines because of the size. Sometimes this method could be more economical. Let me give you an example of a design already in the market, designed in Fusion360. This product is made by injection molding, and the parts were layed out on the side of the big cups. Acrylic Glue was used to put the parts together after the process.
This model is made by colored translucent Acrylic (PMMA) (we mixed the color ourselves):
This is the rendering in Fusion 360.
I hope this will show you a little direction which could be a great future industry for you!
Hi to show you more, if you are trying to make smaller items like Pen Holders using Plastic Injection, this is a sample of the actual product and its Plastic Injection Molds. The molds cost HKD22,000.00 to make, which is USD2,800.00. Took 45 days to build in Zhuhai China. Even Big rotational molds do not cost hundreds of thousands USD in China. It will cost you more in Germany. That is why most of the mold makers and designers are doing the job in China now.
This product is called "Twins." As you can see, all the parts on the body should be made separately. In fact for USD2,800.00 we had to build two sets of molds, one for the main body unit, the other mold for the space ships, spaceman, etc. These were glued on the Acrylic Body by Acrylic Glue. The middle tube is designed for an artificial flower. This product is of course designed in Fusion 360. The Main body is completely straight, so there is no problem pulling the model out of the mold after the injection molding cycle.
TWINS
A complete set of molds for "Twins".
