It is a combination of technological capabilities, expertise, and a passion to succeed that drive innovation for customers.īut beyond such supplier selection considerations, it is important not to lose sight of the non-process focused / team focused elements that are required to ensure a successful micro moulding initiative. The micro moulding space is dynamic place, and the challenges in terms of exacting applications are an everyday experience for companies such as Accumold. So much for capabilities and vertical integration, but what is also needed for successful micro moulding outcomes is a team with exceptional knowledge and experience, able to think on the fly, and create scenarios that break down the restrictions that less experienced moulders would see as prohibitive to project success. That way interdisciplinary teams can easily integrate and work together to optimise the process. And so the absolute must is that a micro moulder has to be truly vertically integrated, with every step of the design-to-market process housed under one roof. Therefore, for optimal product outcomes, representatives from all departments need to be present and influential at the conceptual design stage to avoid costly and time-consuming re-iterations later in the product development process. This is fundamental in micro moulding where the laws of moulding as generally understood are stretched and in some instances turned on their head, and the vagaries of tooling and assembly when manufacturing tiny parts are many and varied. Parts must be designed with manufacture in mind. This means having knowledge and understanding of design for micro moulding (DfMM), micro tool fabrication, micro moulding, and micro automated assembly. Micro moulding specialist companies work as product development partners with their customers, in many instances translating design intent into reality via a knowledge of required process steps between design conception and final manufacture. To be able to do this requires a heady mixture of technological capability and extraordinary levels of experience and expertise, especially when working with medical OEMs for whom the end-use micro moulded parts and components are often safety critical. Micro moulding is an exceptionally difficult discipline to master, and very few companies in the world have done so to the point where they can manufacture geometrically and dimensionally accurate parts and components repeatably in the multi-millions. It is easy when looking at the production of micro plastic parts and components to become overly focused on the intricacies of the micro moulding process per se.
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