Hey together,
i had a nice little sunday project where I designed a small injection machine, as an addon for a standard drill press. We have here in Eindhoven the standard PP injection machine, as well as a bigger pneumatic version.

However I will run many injection-sample tests in the upcoming weeks and I really needed a smaller injection machine to test different color variations faster, and make sure to always have a clean barrel before the next shot.So I decided to build a injection machine addon which can be easily replicated by everyone, using just things you can buy in a hardware store everywhere in the world. No machining or welding required. The only things you need to order is a band heater and a PID controller ~20€. All together the price was around 40€ in new parts.

In the last picture you can see how a mould was bended open, just by the injection pressure.

Some data from the test-setup:
Volume: ~30g (can be increased up to 50g-75g with a longer+wider barrel)
Force/Pressure: Depends on the gear-ratio of the drill press
Barrel ID: 20mm
Barrel OD: 22mm (adapted to a 40mm band heater, will be tweaked)

Right now it is assembled on a big drill press, but I will build a generic CAD file around it so everyone with a drill press can use one optimized for his machine.

Things to optimize:
– Switch from a 22mm to a 28mm barrel to accomodate standard 30mm band heaters directly

– longer barrel, so the setup does not fall down while not in use, inlet from the side
– Nozzle Design with a round cap nut -> chamfered hole fit (saves screwing the mould to the barrel) and reduce the injection diameter to increase the applied force to the nozzle on the mould

Would like to hear your thoughts, critics and questions 🙂

Have a nice day

Friedrich