MiMo Personal Protective Equipment

MiMo personal protective equipment

The challenge: Shortage of PPE during the global pandemic in regulated environments.
The solution: Rapid production of customized adapter for Ocean Reef mask.

The part is a medical grade adaptor for a divers mask.
The material used is Medico TPE.

Part Design(s)

Part Design(s)

Part design of the initial part for the MiMo case.

The adaptor was designed to help in the fight against Covid-19. The part was designed together with Medical Officer Michael Mølmer after whom it is named.

The challenge was the perfect fit for the divers mask while in a medical grade material that needed long lasting and to be sterilized repeatedly.

90 minutes

Mold Design(s)‍

3d render of mold design for the MiMo case.

Next step is converting the STEP file into a mold design which is done by inverting the part into a cavity, in a block of material, and then adding the inlet gate(s) and initial venting.

The 2-part initial design allows for quick visual Quality Assurance.

60 minutes

Printed Tooling

The first molds were printed in a 200µm resolution. Speed was prioritized over visuals.

5 minutes

Freeform Injection Molding (FIM)

The parts were molded on a 50-ton Krauss Maffei. However, the molds work hand-in-hand with any installed base molding unit.

An aluminum mold frame was used to hold the assembled mold, cycle time per part was around 5 minutes, and 1 minute cooling time was needed after each shot.

5 minutes

Demolding‍

Final part of the adapter made for the MiMo case.

In this specific case the split mold allowed for manual demolding. Meaning no part of the mold had to get dissolved, as the part could be pulled off.

Total time to 1st injection molded part:
160 minutes

Portrait of Michael Mølmer wearing the Ocean Reef Mask.

Observations:

- The mold design is an easy process; similar to building a mold box around the design, and then make it a cavity.
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- The Medico TPE material filled the molds nicely in the first test rounds.
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- Datasheet materials were used for molding data, settings, pressure, temperatures, and more.
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- Early hands-on testing for i.e. assembly and performance using first-out-of-tool parts is valuable for most team members: materials, design, process, regulatory, and if you need to make another round of iterations, you can do these the same day.

Freeform Injection Molding
in the fight against Covid-19