Plastics for Use in Pre-school Toys
Name:
Nick Belshaw Hi
I am currently in the middle of a final year project for my engineering degree. Our project is to develop a childs Toy (3-5 yrs old), a business plan, manufacturing and material costs. We have a current design which would have a plasic outer shell, containing electonic circuitry, an LCD Screen, battery and a memory card.
When trying to find out about plasic moudling techniques and plasic costs I found there would a staggering amount of plasics on the market.
My question is what type of plasic would be appropriate for this project, and what sort of cost per lb this sort of plastic would be?
Any help would be greatly appreciated
Regards Nick
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Hi Nick.
Nah, there aren't that many plastics, just some hundred thousands. Fortunately, you don't have to worry about that.
I suggest you try a toy shop to look at different toys. Generally, they will come with the plastic type on them.
Depending on the type of object, perhaps PP or ABS+PC (common in mobiles) would be all right. On PP you can find the price in the following http://www.prw.com/subscriber/resin/marketoutlooks.html
I dont actually know the price of ABS+PC, but I believe it must be somwhere 2-3 times more expensive than PP.
One thing very important for costing is the manufacturing process you'll choose for plastics. Without having in mind technical considerations and if are aiming for, perhaps 100 000 units, injection moulding is the best option. This 100 000 units is a guideline, but again it's dependent on your product and its price (with price being the money paid by the customer).
Just to throw some wood to the fire, if your target group is 3-5 years, maybe you should consider protecting the LCD screen with a plastic (perhaps PC).
Depending on the product electronic equipment, design and weight, child safety can be an issue. If he/she decides to throw it up in the air (or to the mother) and it is hit in the face, it could be harmful. One possible way is to use rubbery compounds (like the "soft grip" handles for bikes or hammers), which can also be injection moulded. look in google/wikipedia for thermoplastic elastomers.
Good luck with your project. I suppose you'll have to use SI units, instead of Imperial.
MPS
Hello nick,
I have the same idea with nuno, we are a small coffee machine and electronic tools maker, normally, we are using ABS+PC for shell of coffee machine, and PA6 for shell of electronic tools.
For inside pats, we mostly use PP and POM.
B.RGDS/ivan
Shuangcheng electronic tools