did any of you guys,
ever wonder what the inside of a model factory looks like,.
all them molds and they way the melf the palsitic,
does any body have any pics or links,
of pictures in side a factory

I work across the street from an Injection molding Company.......

I worked for a plastic injecting place in 19..., well let's just say a long time ago. They made display cases for watches. Not a pretty site. Hot, dirty, smelly. By the time they laid us all off, they were paying us in cash!

Al, hot, dirty, smelly? Are you sure you weren't working with me here at the foundry?

On topic: There was an article some time ago in FSM where they went into Revell's factory, I think. Pretty neat little article. I will see if I can find out the particulars when I get home.

Shaun

I didn't...but I would like for sure to visit Tamiya!!
I remember I read, some time ago, on MMIR magazine a good article about Accurate Armour factory....they manufacture mainly resin kits, but I found it interesting too

ciao
Luca

The medical company where I started out in my career (?) had a whole injection moulding department. 26 machines of different sizes. Very clean and sterile though! So injection moulding machines wouldnt be very much to see ......... only what falls out from the bottom or is lifted out by a robot!
What I wonder is, if they re-grind the sprues and miss-shots etc. Would be a great way to fill the spares box if you worked there!

My Son-in-Law operates the plastic injection mold machines. He sets the molds and does the maintenance on them. He says it gets hot in the room and the molds need constant adjusting. I don't know much about them. But he says that if a part comes out messed up they just grind them up and remelt them to make more parts. Very little waste.

I believe those photo/'s in FSM were of the Monogram facility before they shipped off to China (this year)

Very true, that's why sometimes you got plastic that is in wierd colors, sometimes they are recycled PS.

If you guys wanna I can ask one of my factories to take a pic of a tool as well as an injection machine for you.

One stopping point in my career was designing those robots. I have also designed Injection and Vacuum molded parts (no, not hobby related), but very rarely did I ever get to see the tooling or the parts being made. Just the end result. One of my part designs could still very well be flying in P3C (Update III) Orions.

I once visited a foundry here in town on a job related matter. I was really amazed how accurate sand casting was/is that I just had to feel the surface of a finished part.... YEEEEOUCH! That was HOT!

An injection molding plant is pretty much like any other factory. Some are as clean as hospitals and some are pig pens.

I put in eight years as a Project Mgr. for an Injection molding company and did the quoting, sourced the injection molds, and and managed prototype production.

Scrap parts are re-ground into pellets and (supposedly) mixed 20% re-grind with 80% virgin material.

Looking at some of the eastern European kit sprues, I can just about gurantee they're running close to 100% regrind that has oil contamination just by looking at the flow lines in the material.

Hey,

If this counts, I was given a tour by the nice folks at Plus Models, when I was visiting my son in the Czech Republic. They did resin and ceramics. If you want to see the pix, let em know.

Sealhead (Kansas Sunflower)- Yes, Toto, when we are at Plus Model, we are not in Kansas anymore.