Creating Vacuum-Cast Prototypes Precision Tools Instruments ABS PEEK for Reliable Performance

Product Description:

Wearable devices like fitness trackers, smartwatches, and health monitoring equipment require custom-designed housings that are not only functional but also comfortable and aesthetically appealing. Vacuum casting is an excellent solution for producing custom electronic housings and cases for these devices, as it offers high precision, complex design capabilities, and cost-effective low-volume production. Silicone and ABS (Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene) are two popular materials used in the production of wearable device housings.

Silicone is a versatile material commonly used for wearable devices due to its flexibility, soft touch, and skin-friendly properties. It is ideal for creating comfortable straps, seals, and gaskets that come into contact with the skin, providing a soft and durable surface. ABS, on the other hand, is a rigid plastic known for its excellent impact resistance, toughness, and ease of molding. ABS is typically used for creating the main body or housing of wearable devices, where a balance of strength and aesthetics is important.

The vacuum casting process begins with the creation of a master model, often made from 3D-printed prototypes or an existing product design. This master is then used to create a silicone mold. Silicone or ABS resin is injected into the mold under vacuum conditions, ensuring that the resin fills the entire mold and produces components with smooth surfaces and accurate dimensions. This process can accommodate intricate designs with fine details, such as buttons, ports, and sensor openings, ensuring that the final product meets the functional and aesthetic requirements of wearable devices.

One of the key advantages of vacuum casting for wearable electronics is the ability to quickly produce prototypes and low-volume production parts. Manufacturers can test designs, evaluate ergonomics, and make adjustments before moving to mass production. The flexibility of silicone allows for the creation of custom molds for various shapes, ensuring that the final products are tailored to meet specific user needs. Vacuum casting also helps reduce lead times and costs for producing small batches of wearable devices, making it an ideal method for companies developing new products or limited-edition items.

Applications of vacuum casting
Vacuum casting is one of the most cost-effective ways to produce high quality, low volume plastic parts which can be similar to injection moulding parts

The parts are especially suitable for form, fit and function tests during the embodiment design stages, where they can be used for marketing, field user testing and product design verification purposes

There are many Urethane casting resins commercially available that can be used to create parts to satisfy a wide range of design requirements such as temperature requirements, different surface textures, hardness, etc.

Materials are also available to create parts that are fully opaque, translucent or completely transparent

Sometimes high-quality wax masters can be made using vacuum casting for investment casting to increase the finer details of intricate features

Typical technical specification

Polyurethane (PU), the full name of polyurethane, is a polymer material formed by polyol and polyisocyanate through polycondensation reaction with excellent mechanical properties

[1], which is extremely plastic. Its synthesis can be traced back to 1937, when Professor Byaer first synthesised straight-chain linear polyurethane resins using 1,6-hexanediisocyanate and 1,4-butanediol as raw materials

[2]. Several major classifications of polyurethanes include polyether-type, polyester-type, polyimide-type, and polyurea-type, etc. They can be made into materials such as polyurethane plastics (mainly foams), polyurethane fibres (known as spandex in China), polyurethane rubbers and elastomers

[3].After nearly eighty years of technological development, this material has a wide range of applications involving products such as coatings, adhesives, fabric finishes, leather modifiers, polyurethane soft/rigid foam, elastomers, etc., which are used in the fields of textiles, construction, aviation, shipping, transportation, medicine, electronics, and so on.

Flexible polyurethane mainly has a linear structure with thermoplasticity, which has better stability, chemical resistance, resilience and mechanical properties than PVC foams, with less compression variability. Heat insulation, sound insulation, shock resistance, anti-virus performance is good. Therefore, it is used as packaging, sound insulation and filtration materials. Rigid polyurethane plastic is lightweight, sound insulation, superior thermal insulation performance, chemical resistance, good electrical properties, easy processing, low water absorption. It is mainly used in construction, automotive, aviation industry, thermal insulation structure materials. Polyurethane elastomer performance between plastic and rubber, oil resistance, abrasion resistance, low temperature resistance, aging resistance, high hardness, elasticity. It is mainly used in the shoe industry and the medical industry. Polyurethane can also make adhesives, coatings, synthetic leather, etc.

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