Injection Moulder
An automatic, easy-to-use injection moulding system for rapid small-scale production, using inexpensive 3D-printed moulds instead of costly machined metal ones.
- Program
- Manufacturing
- Status
- Deployed
- Project lead
- Oscar Veldhoven
- Built on
- Buster Beagle Mark 4 kit, ESP32
Automatic, easy and inexpensive mass production
The project gives the team the capability to automatically produce injection-moulded parts from a variety of materials. Mass-producing parts lets prototypes and single-run projects become useful tools for the wider university community and industry, not just proofs of concept.
The moulder is built on the Buster Beagle Mark 4 kit, with the team automating a manual design through sensors and a microcontroller such as an Arduino or ESP32.
Project origin
The project began as a solution to the time-intensive process of making the calluses for our podiatry kits used by medicine students. Podiatry EduKit is an important partnership between the team and the Monash community, and the moulder greatly expands production capacity, potentially opening the door to wider distribution of the kits.
Moulds
Injection-moulded parts are traditionally made with milled or cast moulds that are expensive and slow to create. The team is experimenting with 3D-printed moulds, especially for parts made from wax. If successful, this lets the team respond rapidly to demand while avoiding the cost of metal moulds.
