A fast and reliable tool for making estimates of pocket machining

摘要

This paper presents an evaluation of mould machining costs for plastic blow moulding. The time required to estimate costs from process plans is not always justified especially for single and small serial pieces. For estimating costs of single units a method was developed using semi-analytical techniques. This method is based on the breakdown of the shape to be manufactured into cavities and every cavity is further broken down, in the same way, into complex machining features. This leads us to a means of evaluating the machining process and hence machining time, the volume to be removed and the surfaces produced.