Design for Manufacturing: Tips for Molding Components in Silicone

Device functionality is usually the starting point when designing devices. Another element that needs to be considered when designing devices and their subsequent components is their manu-facturability. Part design should also be focused on the ease of manufacturing because it can help reduce cost and lead to a robust and reliable process. Several aspects should be considered regarding manufacturabil-ity: part geometry, location, and size and shape of critical surfaces, among others. These may seem like more obvious characteristics, but there are a few others that can be overlooked, but should be considered just as important. These are material selection, dimensioning/tolerancing, and the selection of critical dimensions. To better understand the impact of these factors, this article explores each characteristic in detail.