Machining an injection mold for an acylic lenses

Injection molding: a lot harder than you'd think! I picked up a benchtop injection molding machine to play with, and thought a "simple" double convex singlet lens would be a good first project. This video is a mix of machining, injection molding theory chat, molding some acrylic lenses, and then analyzing their stress concentrations with polarized light and birefringence. Hold on to your butts! Oh, and we played with a new polycrystalline diamond (PCD) end mill too.

The machine I have is a Proto-Ject 150HP: it can deliver ~9k PSI injection pressure via an air cylinder plunger, 0.75-1.5oz shot size and has a 25T hydraulic clamp (I incorrectly stated it was 20T in the video). Max mold size is around 9" square, and 4-6" deep. The machine is still very new to me, but I love it so far!

Machine is from: https://www.manninginnovations.com/

Note: the clamp is a pre-production unit that the company was graciously willing sell to me, so I don't believe is available for general sale yet. But this is _not_ a sponsored machine, I paid for it all with my own hard earned dubloons ;)

Видео Machining an injection mold for an acylic lenses канала Breaking Taps