Depending on the material, a company like thermoflex which uses cnc lathes to make very precise high end rubber floor mats... they could do a thousand plus in a multi cavity mold... but how many do you need?

Have you considered molding a few of your own?

The dimensions in your drawing are not clear. I guess it is 20 x 4 x 30 mm lg and hollow inside. Again depending on the type and quality of rubber used, it should be easily possible to extrude long tubes of required cross section and then cut it to whatever length required. I have seen fine hollow silicon rubber tubes of about 1 mm OD used for medical application.

Hi there,

it seems that the rounded edges need to be discussed further, as extrusion and cutting will create an issue for these.

Attached is a picture showing rads - are all edges rounded like my 3D CAD or just the inner and outers is the question. What is the surface roughness allowance and the overall tolerance is another question as it will also affect manufacturing processing.

Mirco

Thanks mircoconsultant for your comments(and your diagram) they are appreciated.

Again if circular are cheaper and easier to do then thats the way forward. When you say 'surface roughness allowance and the overall tolerance will affect the manufacturing', I presume you mean cost?

By the way what software package did you use to draw your diagram?

I notice you have give it a blue colour. Does manufacturing it in different colours add to the cost?

Dear Humble,

We used Pro-E Wildfire 4.0 and the internal rendering engine. This was used to create the image.

The reason I asked about the roughness, etc. was to determine partially what final manufaturing method would apply to you. We were looking at this due to the fact that there are now rapid prototyping processes out there which allow rapid manufacturing to be used. Such is the case with some of the products we are familiar with such as Z-Corp(R) elastomer 3D printing. These machines can make small part runs of up to a few hundert parts cost effectively with virtually no delay. All you need is an .stl file (most all 3D CAD programs can output these files in one way or another). The .stl file is then uploaded into the printing software and your parts are made, depending on size, not one at a time, but perhaps the entire batch of lets say 50 pcs. Be cautious though, as the 3 D prototyping printing method is meant for just that primarily - prototypes. It really depends on your application, in some cases it may be possible to actually use these prototype parts for production of your assemblies.

Tolerance: as with RP (Rapid Prototyping) processes, the tolerance is someting that can not be defined clearly, although the 3D printing process gives reasonable finishes. Generally, the smaller the tolerance (or number of zeros perceived after the decimal point) the grater will be your price of manufacture, or perhaps the manufacturer will reject your design drawing or model and tell you that the part can not be manufactured. It is important that you know what the maximum allowable part size variation in your part is, in terms of your assembly.

A rubber tube may just be easier, although it is not much easier than hitting the 3D print button from the software, regardless of the complexity of the shape you are printing, and then getting your part from the machine.

The blue colour in our previous 3D model was used as we feel that it more effectively shows the rads. Colour may increase the cost of manufacture, especially if you hold your manufacturer to a specific colour spec rather than saying "blue please".

I hope this helps a little, www.canstampconsulting.com currently provides more links to Z-Corp(R), as well as some video footage links on RP processing.

MG.

Thanks Humble Ess for your response, although I thought the drawing should clarify everything.

If it is easier and costs less to manufacture circular tubing rather than my proposed rectangular tubes then I stall choose circular.

Try:

http://www.applerubber.com/

Send a drawing and quantity information to me at hburt@robin-industries.com. Molded rubber is what we do, and we do it well.

This was my post. Forgot to login.

Hello,

You can send a request for further information to sales@canstampconsulting.com, there you will likely get help and perhaps some short run / Rapid prototyping ideas if you need that, is this personal product development or industrial?

Mirco.

THERMOPOL INC

13 INTERSTATE DR, SOMERSWORTH, NH 03878-1210

http://www.THERMOPOLUSA.COM