[ExI] plastic turkeys

[spike at rainier66.com]

From: spike at rainier66.com <spike at rainier66.com> 
…

 

>…Where I was going with that thought experiment: go one level up.  The guy right upstream of the packaging guy is the one who runs the injection molding machine.  She is given the mold pieces, usually two for this kind of end product, and mounts them into the device, sets every dial, and hits start.  spike

 

 

 

 

OK go one level up again.  Someone had to make the mold pieces to give to the technician to mount in the injection molding machine.  That to me is the best job of all, because it is a fun interesting inventor’s job.  That person must decide what kind of mold would be the right thing and how to design it.

 

Whenever I see something like a plastic turkey being used to sell gas grills, I look closely at that plastic device and learn much every time I examine one.  I don’t see a replica of a turkey, I see a piece of marketing equipment that must be manufactured in moderately low quantities (perhaps 10 thousand units (because every household doesn’t want a plastic turkey)) and wonder about the manufacturing process to bring it into existence.

 

For instance…

 

In 1962, Dustin Hoffman’s character in The Graduate was given the advice to go into plastics.  He didn’t want to, thought that would be so boring.  It isn’t!  That isn’t boring at all.  If he took one day or even one hour to look into plastics, he woulda had a great career rather than wasting his talent making movies.  OK so I like Dustin Hoffman’s work so he is a special case, but still.

 

For instance… you have examples of stuff all over your house made of thermal-setting plastic, nearly all of them acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) or some chemical close cousin of ABS:

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acrylonitrile_butadiene_styrene

 

which include things like milk jugs and shampoo bottles and that kind of stuff, low cost, easy to make in quantity, durable, etc.  Since I named those two ABS examples, pls go examine them right now and tell me what you see.  Did you notice the seam?  Both of those and anything made of ABS or any injection-molded plastic will always have those seams, and most of the time they are easy to find.

 

OK then, what about that seam?  And what about the two pieces on either side of that seam please?  What did you notice about the seam itself and the two pieces?  What does that tell you about how that item was designed?

 

spike

 

 

 

 

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