Over the past several months we have been building new SA sculptured PBT tooling that will be used exclusively for sublimation printing.
Our original SA tooling was designed for ABS which has a different shrink rate than PBT. It was also designed to accept a first shot insert. The number one rule in designing a tool for injection molding is to have uniform wall thickness throughout the part, as much as possible, or there will be uneven cooling and shrinkage in the part resulting in sink and bowed walls. This new SA-P tooling has thick, uniform walls, and is designed for PBT shrink. The key profiles will look identical to the original SA tooling however the finish will have a very fine matte finish as opposed to the more glossy 2-shot tooling. One benefit of this slightly textured finish is the keys will not scratch as easily.
We will have more information on this new tooling once we begin first article testing. We hope to have it ready for production in April.
