Assembling the Mold Base

In this section, we will learn how to select, better define, and place a mold base assembly.

If at any time you receive a message that a component cannot be retrieved, this is because your setup is not performed completely or properly.

Pick to select a Mold base assembly. The Mold Base Selection wizard appears:

This Dialog box shows what will need to be selected to complete the mold base selection.

Vendor: you see by default that the vendor is preset to the value of the config.pro option we set previously
The Series indicates the series catalog of the mold base you want to use; we will leave the default option of K
Width and Length: to determine the best size to use, we will run a very quick test as follows:
- You remember the core/cavity assembly is a square based 135x135. Search in the list for the closest dimensions (156 x 156) and then press OK
  
  From the locations of the pillars and guides, we see that this is obviously too small!
- Press again to re-enter the dialog box with your previous selections.
- Select a WIDTH of 296 (or bigger; we will continue with 296 in this tutorial). This will automatically select the Mold Base 296 x 296 in the list.

There is then a Parameter / Value section: this section is used to select from all standard dimensions the plates that need to be used.

To better understand the action of the parameter, refer to the image on the right of the dialog that shows the mold elements.

We can now continue to define the Mold Base dimensions.

CORE plate:

We have measured the core component thickness to be 39.86 mm:

Find and select the parameter Core--thick

Select the value that is the most applicable; in this example, 46 mm.

CAVITY plate:

We have measured the cavity component thickness to be 30.14

Find and select the parameter Cavity--thick
Select the value 36mm

Other values:

You may want to play around with other parameters, for example the Spacer_Blocks--thick that we will increase to the standard value 76 mm.

Press OK when you are done, and check the result:

The plates and other components are not transparent by default. It is strongly recommended that you define some colors and change the transparency of the components for a better view of the assembly.

The last important thing to notice is that the mold layout in this example is upside down! The mold core/cavity assembly has the core in the cavity plate, and vice versa. We need to open again the Mold Layout wizard to change the values Cavity--thick to 46 mm and Core--thick to 36 mm.

This is not enough; we need to flip our assembly around as well. To do so, create a new coordinate system in the assembly that is rotated 180 degress around the X-axis of the assembly csys, and then redefine our cavity placement to use this csys as the mold layout assembly CSYS. The steps are straightforward and not described in detail here (create a new coordinate system, reorder it in the model tree, then redefine the cavity location to the new csys).

You may want to change too the Bottom_Clamping--length to 396 mm.

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