Plastics Help

[cgorton]

Does anyone know of someone I could talk to about plastics manufacturing? I'm looking for a consultant who knows the whole industry and not just one process. Someone who can think outside the box and help me find the best solution to my particular application.

Thanks

[mnphysicist]

Lots of them.... but to avoid wasting your time and theirs, I need to know a little more. Eg physical size and rough volume estimate. There are generalist guru's, but even amongst them, their are biases based upon their background.

My injection molding guru knows it best, but has also done thermoforming, RIM, spin casting etc.

My generalist guru is great if you need millions of parts.... but if you only need ten thousand, I'd send you to another guy.

The only odd ball is rotomolding, as those guys live in their own world....

Ron

Originally Posted by cgorton

Does anyone know of someone I could talk to about plastics manufacturing? I'm looking for a consultant who knows the whole industry and not just one process. Someone who can think outside the box and help me find the best solution to my particular application.

Thanks

[cgorton]

Thanks for the replies, mnphysicist.

The parts would each be 40"x32" and trapezoidal. The panel would need return flanges 2" all around and possibly a 2" stringer down the centerline.

As for material, I was thinking open-molded fiberglass, because that's what I know and the tooling costs are low. The parts will be outside in the elements. Also, it needs to have a similar stiffness to 3/16" thick FRP. And be able to accept hardware being thru-bolted.

I would be purchasing these in lots of 100, with maybe 1000 orders per year within my first year.

Thanks for any advice,
Craig

[mnphysicist]

With those volume requirements, fiberglass seems most reasonable.

The tooling for thermoforming would be spendy, but as your volume grows, it might become practical as fiberglass is so insanely labor intensive. Gut feel says the changeover point is around 3000-5000 units/year.

Send me a PM, I'll forward it to my composities guy.

Ron