Shaping of Things to Come (1951)

[Music] this is a picture about the molding of Plastic Products first shown in 1942 it has been revised to meet the changing and improved techniques of molding the film is presented by the Boonton molding company with the hope that this new ition will prove as popular as the original version the photography is by Paul Manor it was written by Ralph scholman edited by Elmer mcover and narrated by me it was produced by Max lasy film Productions we have entitled it the shaping of things to come [Music] you know what molding is you did it way back in your childhood days when you filled a form with moist sand and there wonderful sight of molded Valentine then maybe you tried it with dry sand and came up with only a mound of sand with no shape to it at all don't mind fella we've had our problems too but out of them we've learned that some things mold some don't uh-oh here's another younger do for a disappointment if she's expecting to mold the shape of that picture it's no use little girl it won't work but at least you've discovered that the way your mold is shaped plays a big part too remember when you watched with Hungry Eyes as mother turned a golden sunshine cake out of its mold a thing of beauty then when your new bride tried the same thing same recipe you found that conditions of baking or molding had to be just right too well anyway molding Plastics has the same problems and a great many more here for example are Plastic Products which except for color may look as if they've all been made from the same kind of material actually each one is different they have just one thing in common all are made of Theros setting plastic materials such Plastics when subjected to heat first soften then cure and Harden permanently but there are three kinds of Theros setting plastics in commercial use and each has different properties phenolic melamine and Ura and these as they come to the molder have been combined with any one of a score of different fillers for different uses here the resin is phenol from Malahide the filler wood flour canvas with a phenolic resin to take really bruising wear ASB bestus with phenolic for heat resistance other fillers are cotton flock graphite short lengths of fish line anything that best suits the purpose here is Ura th alahh combined with cellulose where pastel colors are wanted and here is shirt material shredded and combined with melamine where light color and shock resistance must go together for other uses other fillers we carry over a half million pounds of these materials in stock at all times and feed them through 130 presses at the rate of 2 to 300,000 lb a month the molding of the very first balite products started here in this little town of bton back in 198 so a great deal of plastics activity has grown up here through the years and many compound makers are within easy Trucking distance of this plant each drum contains a definite material phenolic melamine acetate nylon and on through the list but the different colors and varying degrees of flow characteristics in each compound make it necessary to carry about 150 types in stock so there are your materials now you need molds to Fashion these materials into 10,000 different shapes many of these shapes are commonplace in our everyday lives we use them time after time without giving them a second thought yet for each there is a perfect mold designed by an artist blueprinted by an engineer fashioned into Steel by a m Craftsman we design the molds but making them is a job for specialized die makers using a lot of intricate and complicated machines but you need more than materials and molds to make molded Plastics in molding it's important that just the right amount of material gets into the mold so the compound is accurately weighed out into the required units before going into the molding room for certain jobs the material goes through pre-forming machines the material doesn't change character at all it's just pressed into shape very much as you'd pack a snowball pre-forming makes the compound easy to handle and also provides quick accurate weighing of small amounts the pellets are made in various sizes and shapes depending upon the mold in which they're to be used materials and molds come together in The Press Room where they meet the Four Horsemen of the molding process time temperature pressure and maybe the most essential of All Care the large presses are for semi-automatic molds the small presses are for hand molds let's start molding with this simple little piece the trick is to keep it flat to within two 1,000 of an inch for it has a Precision job to do the mold for this piece comes in three sections and turns out seven rings in each molding cycle a pre-formed pellet goes into each of the seven individual feeder holes leading to the mold cavity each pellet makes a single ring with a little despair as you'll see the top section has seven plungers these fit the holes exactly and when the top goes into place the mold is ready for pressing the platins in the Press are heated by circulating Steam and in turn heat the molds to well over 300° F these are known as hand molds because they're assembled and separated by hand outside the Press they weigh from 18 to 100 lb and in actual operation remain pretty close to press temperature heat for the presses is supplied by our power plant two boilers do the job but there's a third on hand so that maintenance and repairs won't stop production instruments of all kinds keep that power under constant control there's also a pump room to supply hydraulic pressure pumps for high pressure and low pressure double sets here too so if one bows out the other goes to work a vacuum cleaning system for the entire plant makes for cleaner working conditions and products from these sources pipes run all over the place each with its special color so you'll know which is bringing water air or steam to the presses both temperature and pressure are under careful control and the time in the Press is accurately measured when the pressing is over our seven rings are joined together by a thin sheet of excess material known as flash later they will be finished as individual rings here we have a more difficult job and at the same time evidence of a happy marriage between Plastics and metal holding the metal inserts in exact position during the curing period is a problem it's solved here by using a transfer mold the actual mold cavity for the piece comes in two halves two of the Springs fit into one half one spring fits into the other half then the two halves come together and there's the mold but we still have to get the material into it so the split mold goes into a holding ring and a transfer pot is fitted over it there are small channels in the pot chamber that lead down to the mold itself the powder is poured in the top of the transfer pot has a plunger that fits the chamber exactly and that's the way it goes into the press a bit of Animation will show how the material flows in a typical transfer mode the powdered material goes into the upper chamber heat softens it to a honey-like consistency and the plunger forces it down the channels into the mold below this type of molding has has many applications and solve some difficult problems in this case to hold the inserts against the movement of the molding compound taking the mold apart is sometimes more of a problem than putting it together quite often you'll find that the real Ingenuity of mold design comes in getting the piece out after it's molded in a few instances we've changed actual production procedure so that you can see what's going on but there's no Royal Road to mold opening it takes time and it takes care or you'll end up with a broken piece or what's worse a broken mold making handles for Farberware kitchen utensils gives us a different reason for using transfer molding these handles are solid irregular in shape and must be parted along the center line molding in the conventional manner would result in a heavy flat High Cost of finishing and probably an unsightly Mark along the top of the handle in spite of our best efforts so the logical thing to do is to clamp the mold closed and shoot the material into it it's done in a semi-automatic transfer press first steel cores are inserted in the mold to provide holes in the handle for attaching to the utensil the cores must be removed after the piece is molded when the Press is closed the material electronically heated preforms are placed in the pot built into the top half of the mold the transfer Ram starts down when the safety gate closes forcing the material into the mold when the Cure is completed the transfer cylinder is withdrawn and the Press opened eight complete handles that need only a minimum of finishing to become perfect complement to a fine product here's a piece believe it or not that's a windshield wiper case for an ocean liner of course it has 22 brass inserts that must be embedded in the plastic at specific points there's an added problem of depressions and undercuts those require a mold with many removable parts or the piece won't come out of the mold this is the bottom section of the mold in which the piece is made it's a semi-automatic mold rather than a hand mold a final difficulty as you'll see is presented by the molding of the post in one corner but special problems need special handling there are the inserts to be put in place all around the mold and pins to hold them and small parts of the mold itself so it's easier to make the whole bottom section of the mold removable than to walk all around the Press when this section is fully assembled it's lifted over to the Press the top of the mold is fastened permanently into the press and it too has its complement of inserts and small removable mold Parts there will be 600,000 lb of pressure on this mold and keeping those inserts in place and intact presents a bit of a problem here's the brass insert that goes into the top of the post now the compound goes into the mold cavity this is a canvas filler material that will make all of the piece except the post the loose compound bulks up to six times its molded volume so there's quite a lot of it to go in the space available when the material is all in the bottom of the mold is lifted into position additional preforms to complete the post are fed in at the bottom the mold comes together and the curing goes on to completion getting the bottom section out of the press was no problem as the top and bottom were pulled apart when the Press opened but now every one of those pins that held the inserts in place has to be removed and all the smaller mold Parts taken out it's a hot and heavy job when you consider that the operator is wrestling with about 80 lb of Steel heated to 320° here's a molder dream or a molder nightmare depending on your point of view this is one of the most complicated pieces ever molded it takes a total of 22 different pieces of Steel to make up the complete mold and putting the different parts of the mold in place is a long slow process still it's a tiny fraction of the time that would be required if you tried to machine this piece out of any other material there's only one way to make it that's out of plastics shaped in a steel mold those pieces fit together within the thickness of two human hairs and they can't be forced or in no time at all you'll have a $10,000 mold ready for the Scrapy it's after the curing cycle is completed that the fun really [Music] begins we won't take you through the entire operation but just give you a fast count 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 anyway at long last there's the piece yep sometimes molding really becomes complicated for economical production and fine quality control the molding of Bonton wear is a good example here is a complete modern molding operation carried on in an air conditioned room it starts with the preforms being electronically heated before going into the press the operator just pushes a button and three sets of platins go to work at the same time as a constant check on proper curing charts automatically record the time and temperature the molding compound is Melmac perfectly suited for dinnerware because of its extremely high resistance to breakage among other qualities it withstands rough treatment washing chipping in fact we even guarantee it for one year in home use uh pardon the advertisement when it comes to little fellas like bottle caps or even larger parts then we can really go to town in these completely automatic robots of our own design the material is automatically taken from the drums and the cycle begins with 96 feeder tubes releasing the raw powder into 96 tiny buckets the cycle continues as the buckets slide over and empty the material into 96 cavities here it's pressed into pellets and preheated at the same time all the while every movement is under the watchful eye of an electrical control system that is its only operator the wafer like preforms are pushed up through the holes in the tray that carries them to the curing mes for final shaping in just 40 seconds the Press opens and here at the front we can see another tray sliding into position to receive the finch caps the plastic is still soft enough so that the stripping action does not injure the threads the Caps slide into a tumbler that removes all the Flash and the job is done 96 finished bottle caps in less than a minute's time the Caps now go through another machine that turns them all face up cuts paper liners from a long strip of treated paperboard and inserts a liner into each cap from here they go to the inspection department where every cap must pass a top and bottom scrutiny before a row of eagle-eyed inspectors even if it's only to prove that the world still can't get along without the human touch there's another group of molding materials that soften when heated harden when cooled these are called thermoplastic polystyrene fast molding colorful transparent if you want it this is the material that floods the stores with all sorts of housewares and toys acrylics for transparency toughness and Optical qualities polyethylene made from ethylene gas produces such things as flexible bottles and ice cube trays and this material you know well as glamorous stockings for this is nylon but it also molds in tough thin sections and so has a number of important jobs to do in Industry then there's cellulose acetate for toughness resilience and high polish thermoplastic materials call for a different type of molding injection molding a large range of different products are turned out in these machines singly or in multiple units which are joined together by a sprew the sprws are removed here and then the pieces are ready for finishing and inspection in this type of molding quite a bit of finishing is done right here and the material that's snipped off goes right back into the machine CU thermoplastic materials will again become soft when reheated first all moisture must be removed from the material that's done either in wall type drying ovens or in drying units attached to the hopper of the press and here's what happens inside the machine during actual operation the heating chamber remains filled with a material which is softened by the Heat the plunger at the back picks up a definite amount of the material released from the hopper and forces it into the chamber at the same time it exerts a pressure which forces the soft material through the nozzle into the mold pressures range up to 20,000 lb per square in when the plunger retracts the pressure is released and the mold opens this machine is molding bird baths a top and bottom every 25 seconds this rapid cycle is possible because the mold is kept cool by circulating water so the hardening takes place almost at [Music] once cementing the two halves together for a leak proof joint is easily accomplished with an acetone gun right at the Press these threaded liners for electrical insulators are an example of some of the unusual possibilities of injection molding they're made this way in clusters of four to remove the piece from the mold without Distortion the mold must be unscrewed not the piece it's done by a set of Gears that rotate the inside threaded cores as the press opens here's a view from underneath and here's the same view with the camera action slowed down so you can see the operation in more detail and now just in case you are enjoying the pleasant myth about Plastic Products popping out of their molds all finished and ready to go to work let's go upstairs and watch some pieces go through their finishing and inspection routines every single part that is molded goes through a preliminary inspection this is not a spot or percentage inspection it goes over every piece whether large as a tabletop or small as a dime in all there are 16 possible causes for rejection at this point but the inspector knows just where each piece is likely to go bad even so he's better off than the molding Foreman there's an average of eight possible causes for each of the 16 defects the first job after inspection is to have rough edges smoothed down the flash or overflow must be removed here the good old-fashioned hand filing will probably be with us always small Lots odd shapes interfering inserts all limit the possibility of automatic machine finishing pieces that are difficult to hold can generally be fitted up with a wooden form that helps the operation Al scraping and cutting too will likely continue to be a part of finishing scratching out bits of flash that can't easily be reached in any other way punch presses fitted with special dyes do a number of trimming jobs these canvas parts that are made in multiple molds would be hard to trim by hand because the flash between the pieces is just about as strong as the canvas itself blades do a host of precision jobs here here a commutator ring has its Center diameter finished to a tolerance of half a thousandth of an inch it's first drilled then boarded to exact size by a fine Diamond Tool a plug gauge checks it to within a fifth of the thickness of a human hair some lathe jobs are merely to remove the flash from circular edges even tiny objects like this get the same type of precision handling and here's a set of special grinding Machines of our own design they perform a number of unusual operations they work on odd shapes they grind just parts of a circle and Skip other parts Not a Bad Trick at that there are batteries of drills that ream holes and bore holes singly or in multiple units here 10 holes are being bored at the same time for the most part these are not actually drilling operations they're flashing operations the excess material is is being removed from Holes that can't be molded all the way through and finally there are the varied hand finishing operations on scores of different parts tens hundreds thousands of each part every single piece individually handled and carefully turned out to be sure it's ready to do its job then there's buffing and polishing to do if you want a really deep finish though many pieces are quite satisfactory with the surface finish they get in the mold and at the end every Precision piece is individually checked we have to be sure that flat surfaces are really flat that Precision threads fit the go end of a go noo gauge and don't fit the noo end that all electrical contacts are secure and dependable that round pieces meet their tolerance limits at every point of the circle remember those little rings they're checked here for flatness on a shadow graph the shadow is enlarged 40 times and must stay within tolerance limits while the piece is being revolved a microphone mouthpiece must have a definite thickness and a definite outside diameter four prongs must not only be the same length they must be an exact length three indented corners must check to a hair's breath simple pieces or complicated pieces all must take every test and meet it remember that Plastics are not of themselves Precision materials it takes skilled molding and painstaking finishing to get Precision results every day thousands of molded parts are on their way to go to work somewhere to do a job better in many cases than it could possibly be done by any other material and in some cases to do a job that was considered impossible until the Advent of plastic but the value of any product must be measured by what it means to the welfare of people that's one thing we here in Bonton always keep in mind so when you examine these many different products and find our name on them you will know that we are always trying to keep that a proud name in the shaping of things to come [Music]