Design and Manufacturing of a Rotational Molding Apparatus

Abstract

In today's world, the use of polymeric materials is increasing dramatically. One of the reasons for this increase is the unique properties of these materials such as oxidation and corrosion resistance. Many products which used to be made of metals have been replaced by polymeric materials. Among them, various types of fluid storage tanks can be mentioned. Production of parts with polymeric materials has various methods. One of the available methods for producing large polymeric products is the rotational molding technique. This method is used to produce hollow polymeric parts. The advantages of this method include the availability of equipment, low cost of the mold, no need for a skilled operator, and production of parts without residual stress. On the other hand, the biggest drawback of this method is the waste of a lot of time during the process for heating and then cooling. Lots of research is performed to issue this defect, and in the future, innovations are needed to eliminate it. In this research, it has been tried to reduce the production costs and keep the final properties of the produced part unchanged by simplifying the devices in the rotational molding method. Eventually, a device was designed and manufactured that produced a product similar to the existing models, but significant savings were made in terms of setup and construction costs.