Alternative to Overmolding?

Hello all,

I am lead development designer for a new cosmetics packaging (compacts, bottles lipsticks etc)for a very high profile fashion house. The core concept of the the look we have been directed to acheive is a clear acrylic shell with a colored inner wall that shows through from the inside. To acheive this effect, the best way we know is to overmold the two layers and so all design direction for tooling has been to this end. However, the tooling costs that we are recieving from our candidate manufacturers are a little prohibitive. Therefore, I would very much appreciate some input into alternative processes to achaive the colored inner wall effect.

So far, we have considered: spraying - ruled out because hard to control

Separate moldings then inserted: ruled out because fused effect of two materials against each as seen from outside can not be achieve due to reflection from inside surface of acrylic- Any methods to reduce reflection?

insert molding: a form of overmolding, we will proably use in some cases because cheaper methodology but still bond between surfaces can lack integrity

Cubic transfer: won't work because concave area is to be coloured

Our first year production requirements will be @ 100,000 pieces.

Very much appreciate any input,

Scorsi

Reply to
scorsi
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Scorsi, I hope you've also posted this message on alt.machines.cnc, where there are some very knowledgable moldmakers.

You may also want to look into the information that Hoescht makes available for sequential molding of electrical components. They discuss methods for layering conductive- and non-conductive plastics. I would guess that the problems are similar.

-- Ed Huntress

Reply to
Ed Huntress

You haven't really provided sufficient information but hot stamping, pad printing or in-molding a vacuum formed sheet might work.

Reply to
John R. Carroll

We have built some molds for a company where we inserted a plastic graphic into the mold, then filled the mold.

Email me if you want some more detail.

Reply to
Dave Lyon

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