|
|
Introduction to Mold Design In my opinion, the initial mold design is the hardest and most important step in mold making. This is the reason why most companies making custom molds charge so much money as a mold set-up or mold creation charge. Most people really underestimate the complexity of their designs. If you think about most mass produced novelty chocolates, they seem so simple. Think about the Santa head or solid bunny that you see on the shelves every year. Then ask yourself - how did they make that? Chocolates such as these are really works of art and sometimes require complicated engineering to make. So, when you consider a concept for a mold, you must first think about how you are going to make a model to determine its feasibility. In order to make a mold, you need to have an exact model of what you want your finished chocolate to look like. If the object is already made, you don't need to go through the design and model making phase and can skip directly to the mold making process. A word of caution is appropriate here. One thing you need to consider if you intend on replicating an existing object is whether or not you are infringing upon someone else's interests. You really must be careful that you do not violate any copyright or other intellectual property rights. Say your concept is something that is not available, or you want to make a chocolate miniature of some real life item. How do you start? There are many ways to make an model. Whether you can make it yourself is dependent on the complexity of the design, your artistic abilities, your access to materials, your knowledge of graphic design and modeling programs, as well as, your access to equipment. If you can't make it yourself, can you hire someone to make it for you? Is it cost effective? These are all questions you need to answer. In general, some of the methods of making the model can be classified into three categories: sculpting or carving by hand, made by photochemical processes, or made by machinery. The next few topics will discuss some of these methods making models and the various types of materials that can be used. It is useful, but not necessarily a requirement, to have an idea of what type of mold you will be making during the intial design phase. For example, if you are going to be making a vacuum formed plastic mold, the material you make your model out of must be able to withstand heat. Also, if you are going to be making a silicone rubber mold, it needs to be able to hold up in liquid for a certain period of time. |
|
|