u/rootbeer608

Hello all! I am a mechanical engineer, who is in the process of bringing my part from low volume manufacturing (3d printing) into injection mold process.

My part has a thin wall requirement & I am either searching for some advice, a vendor/mfg, or possibly even consultant that can help prepare my design for insert mold process.

The main requirement of the part is for a metal insert to be centered upon the part. The total park thickness is .16" (~4mm). Insert thickness is .076" (1.93mm) leaving a wall gap of .042" (~1mm).

The current design fully encapsulates the steel insert; however, I do understand that the insert may need to be held by standoff features to hold the insert in place, thus exposing the metal, which is OK

This is a consumer product so I would like the surface finish of the part to be nice/consistent.

The insert is also a window frame shape, so plastic can flow in the middle of the insert. I am not sure if that is advantageous or can create a sunken area on the surface.

From my basic research and part requirements I was thinking of utilizing glass filled nylon for this.

Anyone have some insight into achieving thin walled parts with an insert? My design requires to this wall thickness to be minimized as much as possible.

I haven't dealt with injection mold let alone insert mold process so I'm curious to see what the limitations and feasibility of this design is for this mfg process.

Here's the cross sectional view.

https://preview.redd.it/mehqdfu5mj2h1.png?width=552&format=png&auto=webp&s=a29e3fe5fda91a5d57109c937c57344255f93384