Polishing Aluminum Molds

Can you provide an innovative and cost-efficient method to overcome the surface roughness of large aluminum molds, made by shear casting and used in rotomolding of plastic products, to overcome the deficiencies of current methods?  A call for mechanical and mold design engineers to devise a technique or tool to be used in smoothing the roughness and decrease the surface irregularities of molds thus provide attractive and high quality products.

A 20,000 EGP reward will be presented by USAID’s SEED Project in collaboration with Kenzi, a leading company in rotomolding plastic. Please read on for more details!

Background:

Sand casting is a cost-efficient and simple method used to make molds of different metals such as iron, bronze and aluminum. However, they result in  different defects such as surface roughness, veining, burnt-on sand and mold erosion which  consequently affect the quality of the final molded plastic products. It is a necessity to overcome these defects as any imperfections can contribute to further problems such as  adhesion where a part sticks in a mold requiring extreme measures to force the release that can lead to broken mold edges and grooves on the surface itself.

Different smoothing and polishing techniques were used by the company such as sandpapers and polishing chemical compounds but they affected the mold’s dimensions and did not overcome all the defects.

The Challenge:

An innovative technique is required to overcome the problem of surface roughness of large shear cast aluminum molds as it affects the surface of final plastic products (e.g. Toys) which lowers the products quality, reduces the percentage of accepted pieces, and consequently results in wasted resources and economic losses for the company. The tool or method must fulfill the following requirements:

• Can polish contoured or curved surfaces and very tight corners or pockets;

• Does not result in surface discoloration;

• Does not  affect the tooling surface thickness;

• Reach mirror like finish in smoothness ;

• Reduce surface self made scratches;

• Maintain consistency over the whole surface;

• Does not cause  metal scouring and pores.

Reward and Conditions:

The winner will receive a reward of 20,000 EGP provided by USAID’s Strengthening Entrepreneurship and Enterprise Development (SEED) Project, to implement the solution in cooperation with the solution seeker. In addition, the Solution Seeker will provide access to their workshop and tools for solution development and testing. according to the following conditions:

1.     The solution should meet the aforementioned criteria;

2.     The solution should include a clear plan of action including implementation stages, timeline, required tools/materials, estimated budget, and technical support required (if applicable);

3.     The reward will be given in installments, in accordance to milestones set by the innovator(s) according to their plan of action;

4.     As per our platform Terms and Conditions, in case the intellectual property rights are not registered, the innovator should include the minimum details required to judge the technical validity and feasibility of the solution without full technical specifications.

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