AUTOMATED MULTI-CUSTOMER MOLDING

摘要

A first customer provides a CAD file (22) defining the surface profile for a part (10) to be molded to the system (14), and a second customer does the same for a second part (12). The system (14) determines whether the materials match and the run dates overlap, thereby qualifying the parts for use in a multi-customer mold block (52). The system (14) assesses the part surface profile (which could have any of a virtually infinite number of shapes) of the parts (10, 12) submitted and lays out the parts (10, 12) from multiple customers on one or more multi-customer mold blocks (52). Savings are generated, such as by reducing redundancies in press clean-up, in set-up, in tooling, and in surface finishing. Due to these savings, the system (14) provides a quotation of the part to at least one of the customers which differs from the quotation that would be provided if each part was run independent of parts of other customers.