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Frustrated by the limited access to plastic blow-moulding equipment, George Fereday went ahead and developed his own, outfitting a standard 'mastic gun' with a specially designed extrusion nozzle and air-compressor fitting. The tool is designed to work specifically with Polymorph plastic, which can be melted with hot water. First, a billet of the stuff is extruded into a cylinder, then it's inflated inside a mold with an air compressor, then allowed to cool.
As proof of concept, he made a mold for plastic bricks that could be stacked and lightly melted together to create temporary interior walls and retail displays. When finished with the bricks (or anything else made from this process), the plastic can be melted down and reused in the same way.
The video above takes us through every step of Fereday's process, from melting the plastic pellets in a bowl of hot water, extruding the material, and then inflating it in the specially designed mold.
More photos after the jump.
Comments
How is the nozzle designed? It looks like a billet forming tool, but with air empingment some how. How is the air introduced into the plastic billet? What considerations were used in your mold design? I'm wanting to make a prototype blow molding device for a clear long necked vase like shape about 1/8" wall thickness with a 4" raised neck. The 5/8" raised neck is for a screw type cap. The over all is about 12" tall, 10" at the widest, tapering rapidly to a 5 1/2" long cylindrical neck. How should I go about building a mold for this shape? How much pressure should the mold be able to with stand? Can the mold be made of resin or other castable?
Mike McHugh
865-640-1700
Dalton, GA
Hi George;
Handy piece of work. So it looks like the feed tube.nozzle might have holes pierced in it to allow the air to assist forcing it into the mold(?); although the externals are pretty self-explanatory, some working plans for the gun nozzle would be appreciated. Is PSI a trial & error thing? What determines flow, volume expansion & hardening rate, etc? Could this work with liquid silicones?