This design engineering project began with a quick meeting and a few images of a similar mould that our customer had previously manufactured. Because a new type of water heaters was about to start production, a new type of mould had to be designed and manufactured.
The mould is used for pouring polyurethane foam around water heaters to provide insulation. Basically, the water heater is placed into the mould and the mould is closed. Via a small hole on the top of the mould, polyurethane foam is applied around the water heater. After the foam is dry enough, the mould is opened and the water heater with insulation is taken from the mould.
The project was quite complex for modelling because the mould had to be made in multiple stages that required welding and machining in the correct order. For making the manufacturing process as easy as possible, we changed the structure of the model in SolidWorks a couple of times to assure a good fit with the process. To find more about how we handle design engineering projects, visit our team page.
In the end, the customer received:
- detailed PDF drawings of parts, weldments and assemblies,
- BOM’s for ordering,
- DXF and STEP files for machining,
- support during manufacturing.
Due to an agreement, only insignificant details can be disclosed.