Compression Molding Cost Model Variables

The fractional percentage of the cavity height that is within the cavity plate for a cup-shaped part. Valid inputs range from 0 to 1. See Compression Molding Machine Selection, Total Core Cavity General Machining Hours Calculation, and Cavity Plate Height.

The fractional percentage of the cavity height that is within the cavity plate for a flat part. Valid inputs range from 0 to 1. See Cavity Plate Height and Core Plate Height.

Minimum distance from the shallowest point of the cavity to the back of the cavity plate.

Minimum distance from the deepest point of the cavity to the back of the core plate.

Minimum distance from the shallowest point of the cavity to the back of the cavity plate. See Cavity Plate Height.

Rate at which an operator can clean the tool surface using an air tool. See Compression Molding Cycle Time Calculation.

Rate at which an operator can clean the tool parting line perimeter using an air tool. See Compression Molding Cycle Time Calculation.

Default behavior to automatically include manual flash trimming of parts which do not include internal cutouts. See Include Manual Flash Trimming When No Internal Cutouts Exist.

Minimum distance from the deepest point of the cavity to the back of the core plate. See Core Plate Height.

Bottom clamp plate thickness. See Compression Molding Machine Selection, Total Tool Material Cost Calculation, Clamp Plate Drill Hours Calculation, and Clamp Plates Surface Area Calculation.

Default finish applied to cavity surface for Compression Molding. Available options are contained in the 'Finish Name' column of the SPIFinishes table. See Cavity Finish.

See Cavity Texture.

Time required to cut SMC material to required length or acquire a piece of BMC material for charge. Time is per charge piece. See Compression Molding Cycle Time Calculation.

Time required to weigh SMC or BMC material to specified charge weight. Time is per charge piece. See Compression Molding Cycle Time Calculation.

Linear spacing of clamp plate mounting holes in lengthwise direction. See Number of Clamp Plate Holes Calculation and Clamp Plate Drill Hours Calculation.

Linear spacing of clamp plate mounting holes in widthwise direction. See Number of Clamp Plate Holes Calculation and Clamp Plate Drill Hours Calculation.

Minimum number of holes in clamp plate. See Number of Clamp Plate Holes Calculation and Clamp Plate Drill Hours Calculation.

Allowance added to mold base dimensions to define required clamp plate dimensions. See Total Tool Material Cost Calculation.

Colorant or pigment concentration percentage in raw SMC or BMC material. See Material Cost Per Volume Calculation.

The time required to counterbore a tool heater line hole. See Labor Cost – Drilling Heater Lines Calculation.

The time spent setting up the machine prior to counterboring the heater lines in the mold core or cavity. See Labor Cost – Drilling Heater Lines Calculation.

Complexity factor applied to the base mold tool CNC time to increase this for complex molds. Complex molds are defined when parting line complexity is NON FLAT. See Design Cutter Path Hours Calculation.

Complexity factor applied to the base mold tool CNC time to increase this for simple molds. Simple molds are defined when parting line complexity is FLAT. See Design Cutter Path Hours Calculation.

The threshold percentage for which a simple hole's surface area is considered reasonably equivalent to a cylindrical hole of the same diameter. Used to check the viability of simple holes for offline cutting operations.

Time required to design large rib insert. Time is per rib. See Total Tool Material Labor and Misc Services Cost Calculation.

Time required to design medium rib insert. Time is per rib. See Total Tool Material Labor and Misc Services Cost Calculation.

Time required to design small rib insert. Time is per rib. See Total Tool Material Labor and Misc Services Cost Calculation.

Minimum time required to design the surface of the mold tool. See Total Tool Material Labor and Misc Services Cost Calculation.

Time required to design mold tool surface for vents. Time is per vent. See Total Tool Material Labor and Misc Services Cost Calculation.

Default method for compression molding part ejection. Available options are Air Poppets or Hydraulic Ejector Pins. See Part Ejection Method.

Linear spacing of holes in ejector box rails. See Total Ejector Box General Machining Hours Calculation.

Minimum number of holes in ejector box rails. See Total Ejector Box General Machining Hours Calculation.

Default ejector box rails height. See Compression Molding Machine Selection and Total Tool Material Cost Calculation, Total Ejector Box General Machining Hours Calculation, and Ejector Box Rails Surface Area Calculation.

Number of ejector box rails used in mold tool. See Purchased Tool Components Cost Calculation and Total Ejector Box General Machining Hours Calculation.

Default ejector box rails width. See Total Tool Material Cost Calculation and Ejector Box Rails Surface Area Calculation.

Area covered per ejector pin. See Total Tool Material Cost Calculation, Labor Cost – Mold Assembly Calculation, and Total Ejector Box General Machining Hours Calculation.

Diameter of ejector plate support pillars. See Total Tool Material Cost Calculation, Labor Cost – Mold Assembly Calculation, and Total Ejector Box General Machining Hours Calculation.

Default ejector plate thickness. This is the thickness of one plate. See Total Tool Material Cost Calculation, Total Ejector Box General Machining Hours Calculation, and Ejector Plates Surface Area Calculation.

Linear spacing of ejector plate mounting holes in lengthwise direction. See Number of Ejector Plates Holes Calculation.

Linear spacing of ejector plate mounting holes in widthwise direction. See Number of Ejector Plates Holes Calculation.

Minimum number of holes in compression molding ejector plate. See Number of Ejector Plates Holes Calculation.

The difference in width between the tool cavity/core plates and the ejector plates. Used to calculate ejector plate width. See Total Tool Material Cost Calculation, Labor Cost – Mold Assembly Calculation, Number of Ejector Plates Holes Calculation, Total Ejector Box General Machining Hours Calculation, and Ejector Plates Surface Area Calculation.

Thickness of the flash cavity in Flash type mold tools. See Material Charge Mass.

Factor used to account for the complexity of a flash closure mold type. Affects charging time, part finishing, spotting cost, try out time, and design hours. See Compression Molding Cycle Time Calculation and Mold Closure Complexity Calculation.

Width of flash ridge allowance included in mold tool for tool types producing flash. See Material Charge Mass.

Thickness of the flash ridge in Flash type mold tools. See Material Charge Mass.

Thickness of the flash ridge in Semi-Positive type mold tools. See Material Charge Mass.

Factor applied to the heater line diameter to determine the thickness allowance for the cavity (A Plate) and core (B Plate). See Cavity Plate Height and Core Plate Height.

The diameter of a tool heater line. See Labor Cost – Mold Assembly Calculation, Labor Cost – Drilling Heater Lines Calculation, Cavity Plate Height and Core Plate Height.

The time spent setting up the machine prior to drilling the heater lines in the mold core or cavity. See Labor Cost – Drilling Heater Lines Calculation.

The average spacing between heater lines in the mold core and cavity. See Labor Cost – Mold Assembly Calculation and Labor Cost – Drilling Heater Lines Calculation.

Time required to manually load an insert into the compression molding tool. See Compression Molding Cycle Time Calculation.

Cost per individual inserted component loaded into the mold tool. Used to calculate additional direct costs. See Inserted Component Cost.

Default behavior of how internal cutouts will be assumed. Available options are true or false. True assumes that all modelled internal cutouts are capped during the compression molding process. See Internal Cutouts Are Capped.

Linear rate of manual flash removal.

Maximum deviation from draw direction where vector is still considered parallel to draw direction.

Minimum time to apply release agent to compression molding mold tool. See Compression Molding Cycle Time Calculation.

Percentage of calculated mold weight added for additional miscellaneous components. See Misc Cost – Freight Calculation.

Allowance added to part length to define required mold base length. See Mold Base Size – Length.

Allowance added to part width to define required mold base width. See Mold Base Size – Width.

Default mold closure type. Available options are Flash, Semi-Positive, Positive. See Mold Closure Type.

See Plating of the Mold.

Threshold of number of surfaces on the part which define the part as average complexity. See Labor Cost – Spotting Calculation and Design Cutter Path Hours Calculation.

Threshold of number of surfaces on the part which define the part as simple complexity. See Labor Cost – Spotting Calculation and Design Cutter Path Hours Calculation.

Scaling factor used to adjust design surface base hours for FLAT parting lines. See Total Tool Material Labor and Misc Services Cost Calculation.

Scaling factor used to adjust design surface base hours for NON FLAT parting lines. See Total Tool Material Labor and Misc Services Cost Calculation.

Allowance added to each side of top and bottom plates for overhanging the mold base. See Compression Molding Machine Selection and Clamp Plates Surface Area Calculation.

Factor used to account for the complexity of a positive closure mold type. Affects charging time, part finishing, spotting cost, try out time, and design hours. See Compression Molding Cycle Time Calculation and Mold Closure Complexity Calculation.

Safety factor applied to the calculated required compression molding press force. This should remain greater than 1. See Compression Molding Machine Selection.

Rate at which mold release agent can be applied. See Compression Molding Cycle Time Calculation.

Time required to remove backing film from SMC material. Time is per charge piece. See Compression Molding Cycle Time Calculation.

Factor used to account for the complexity of a semi-positive closure mold type. Affects charging time, part finishing, spotting cost, try out time, and design hours. See Compression Molding Cycle Time Calculation and Mold Closure Complexity Calculation.

Total percentage of ejector plate area which is covered by support pillars. See Total Ejector Box General Machining Hours Calculation, Labor Cost – Mold Assembly Calculation, and Total Tool Material Cost Calculation.

The time spent tapping a single heater line. See Labor Cost – Drilling Heater Lines Calculation.

The time spent setting up the machine prior to tapping the heater lines in the mold core or cavity. See Labor Cost – Drilling Heater Lines Calculation.

Thermocouple spacing in mold base. See Labor Cost – Mold Assembly Calculation.

Basic time required for compression molding tooling tryout for presses less than 5000kN. See Misc Cost – Tryouts Calculation.

Top clamp plate thickness. See Compression Molding Machine Selection, Clamp Plate Drill Hours Calculation, Clamp Plates Surface Area Calculation, and Total Tool Material Cost Calculation.

Multiplier used to factor part height to determine required opening stroke for cup shaped parts. See Compression Molding Machine Selection and Compression Molding Cycle Time Calculation.

Multiplier used to factor part height to determine required opening stroke for relatively flat parts. See Compression Molding Machine Selection and Compression Molding Cycle Time Calculation.

Threshold of machine press force which would require additional try-out time per try-out. See Misc Cost – Tryouts Calculation.

Linear spacing between vents. See Total Tool Material Labor and Misc Services Cost Calculation and Total Core Cavity General Machining Hours Calculation.

Factor used to scale a void's depth in the accessible direction when comparing to the void's projected area equivalent square length dimension. Increasing this value will result in voids with smaller depth to opening ratios being assigned to No Cost Feature operations.

1", threshold for when a higher press force is required to drive material into mold crevasses. See Compression Molding Machine Selection and High Required Press Force.

The default number of shots per tool which is used to determine tool life. This is the median value of the available data relating to tool life by part material type. See Number of Tools.