Functional Moulded Part
by Matthew Wilson

Functional Molded Part (FMP) is a new product for designing cast, molded and forged parts with unmatched productivity and flexibility. It’s history-free functional design approach for defining the complete functional specification for both parts and their associated tooling makes FMP a breakthrough product for reducing the design-to-manufacturing cycle.

Traditional methods of producing moulded parts involves taking the external styled surface, to which you introduce the functionality of internal components. FMP allows the styling and the functional engineering activities to happen simultaneously reducing the time to market by employing standard commands like rib, boss, cut-out, grill, pocket, etc.

So how does it work?

• Pull in internal assembly – Items that need to be housed within casing.
• Identify components to be protected – Components that casing needs to avoid during it’s creation.
• Create a basic shellable feature – Define overall parameters of casing.
• Set parameters – Define wall thickness, draft angle, fillet radii.
• Identify split – Define split on two piece casing.
• Add internal features – Ribs, pockets, reinforcements etc. Identified protected items are not encroached.
• Introduce external styling – Function design applied to new surface.

This approach enables the external styling to be changed quickly and simply between variants, still retaining the internal functionality of the design.

AEC Seminar 2