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News Release from: DMS Diemould Service | Subject: Standard winkle gates
Edited by the Manufacturingtalk Editorial
Team on 11 October 2005
Standard winkle gates save toolmaking
time
In addition to the major time savings in toolmaking, other advantages of standard winkle gates are the ability to change gate sizes quickly and minimise down-time during maintenance.
Northampton-based Tyne Tools is a specialist UK injection mould toolmaking firm on a mission - a mission to provide its clients with top-quality tooling in the shortest possible time One way it succeeds is by incorporating standard components, such as bolster sets, pins gates and hot runner systems from DMS Diemould - into its tooling solutions - allowing Tyne Tools to concentrate its highly skilled toolmaking resources on the key value-added aspects of the job
This article was originally published on Manufacturingtalk on 10 Jun 2005 at 8.00am (UK)
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Tyne Tools' customer specified automatic de-gating on the items even though they were a mere 3mm thick and varied in length between 17mm and 35mm.
The solution to this tricky design issue was the integration of standard winkle gates into the tooling, which not only provided minimal witnessing but also saved hours of toolmaking time.
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The eventual tool design incorporated a total of 38 winkle gates over the four four tools, all of which were supplied as standard components from DMS-Diemould.
Explaining the reason for his choice, Steve Bussey, managing director, Tyne Tools, commented; "We have established a very good working relationship with DMS over several years; they consistently deliver on-time and to order and their pricing is very competitive".
"DMS components form part of much of the tooling we produce." DMS offers an extensive range of standard winkle gate inserts which can save days of toolmaking time when the tool design calls for a minimal gate witness on a non-cosmetic surface.
Hand-crafting individual winkle gate inserts requires many man hours of work, but DMS has now extended its offering of standard winkle gates with a new range which is manufactured in one piece using a Metal Injection Moulding process, and then hardened and polished.
Conventional winkle gates restrict injection speed and 'freeze off' early due to the long tapered profile but the unique design of the DMS gates allows the material to flow freely resulting in a larger process window and improved quality.
Only a very small witness is left in non-visible areas of the moulded part.
This gate mark is minimal and repeatable, which makes it particularly useful when gating onto thin walled parts.
In addition to the major time savings in toolmaking, other advantages of standard winkle gates are the ability to change gate sizes quickly and the minimisation of down-time during maintenance.
Gate sizes from 0.5mm to 2.4mm are available in round, square and blind inserts.
In the past winkle gates have generally been used only to feed small components, but now the larger inserts can feed components up to 1000g, depending on the viscosity of the polymer being processed.
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