10-30-2005, 01:41 PM
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BARCLONE Rocketry
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Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: Mobile, Alabama
Posts: 5,357
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by Royatl
Ok, trivia time.
So, I'm looking around the house, trying to organize things, and I notice I have a bunch of Estes Porta-Pads, some dating back 30+ years, and I notice that [I]no two are alike  ... Given that injection molds wear out, I guess it makes sense that they have to get new ones made, and take it as an opportunity for a redesign, but what ideas went into the redesign?
Later today I'll put up photos of the versions I have, so we can see if there's any more, and we can speculate as to why there are so many versions... |
First thing I can think of is reduction of the amount of plastic needed to accomplish the task -- less plastic per unit means more units per given quantity of raw plastic...
Second, hand-in-hand with the reduction of material, is the simplicity of the design -- reducing the complexity of the mold(s), speeding up the production process, reducing the wear-and-tear on the mold over a given period of time...
Third, the opportunity to use more advanced plastic compounds which don't require the same temperature to liquify, yet still give the same degree of rigidity and strength (though I believe the earlier yellow, and even the red, versions were much stronger than the current black "lightning bolt" version)... |