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Design and manufacture of plastic homologation supports

Design and manufacture of plastic homologation supports

What was the challenge or problem to solve?

In this project, INFINITIA’s Product Development team had to design and manufacture a support for plastic homologation, to carry out laboratory tests on plastic specimens under controlled humidity and temperature conditions in order to obtain the homologation of this material.

Design and manufacture of plastic homologation supports
The customer commented that there were several limitations. First, the area available for testing was small, so the fixture should not exceed certain dimensions. Second, the fixture had to be able to hold a large number of specimens in order to perform the approval tests more efficiently. Thirdly, as the test was to be carried out under high humidity and temperature conditions, the support had to be made of a material suitable for these conditions without suffering deformation or damage.

Taking all these constraints and specifications into account, the Product Development team designed a tool that met the customer’s requirements.

Design and manufacture of plastic homologation supports
How was it addressed or what was the solution?

The first step to be taken in this project was to measure the specimens to be used in the homologation tests and the space available for the assembly, using precision metrology tools. Due to the size restriction, this part was very important since the available space had to be optimized.

Then, the specimens were digitized to obtain a 3D model of them. Next, the specimen holder was designed taking into account the dimensions of the specimens and the space available in the laboratory.

 

After finalizing the design of the support, it was validated together with the customer and the drawings of the part were made for its subsequent manufacture by CNC machining. Due to the humidity and temperature conditions that were necessary to perform the test, it was decided to manufacture the tool in stainless steel to have good mechanical properties.

Finally, and once the manufacturing process was finished, the support was delivered to the customer, who was able to verify that the support met all the requirements and limitations set at the beginning of the project.