MILLING A LARGE MOLD FOR THE THERMOFORMING OF A PLANT FIBER COMPOSITE CHAIR

Abstract

The paper presents the design, manufacturing and testing of an innovative and low-cost mold used for the thermoforming of an armchair shell. The shell of the chair is made of a proprietary blend of plant and thermoplastic fibers which target the replacement of conventional wood products in order to improve the environmental sustainability of the furniture industry. The armchair was initially made of a welded steel frame and injected polyurethane foam and the task was to redesign it and develop the technology for prototyping a small run of 20 pieces. The mold was designed to be made of laminated wood sheets. The sheets were contour milled, assembled together using threaded bars and finally both the core and cavity of the mold were finish milled. All the milling was carried out using a Kuka KR210 L150-2 2000 industrial robot with a KRC2 control system and the programming and simulation of the process were done with SprutCAM Robot. The mold was tested and successfully produced the required armchair shells.

Keywords

• mold design
• industrial robot milling
• robot CAM software
• plant fiber composite material
• composite thermoforming