Yoyo Manufacturing

Thermoformed Part Design
Spring 2015

In my Design and Manufacturing II class (MIT 2.008), I manufactured 70 plastic Minion themed yoyos in a team of 7 people. I worked on a thermoformed part, the goggles, that integrated with three injection molded parts.

I designed the goggles in Solidworks, created G-code in Mastercam, used a CNC mill and lathe to machine the aluminum mold, and operated a thermoforming machine and punch and die to produce over 150 parts from clear PETG. The finished goggles were coated with silver spray paint.

Solidworks drawing of goggles design

Solidworks drawing of thermoform mold design

Aluminum thermoform mold for goggles, machined on a CNC mill and lathe. The pins are used to ensure consistent part placement on the punch and die after the plastic has been thermoformed.

Back of thermoform mold, suction holes visible

Thermoforming machine, newly formed part ready to be brought to the punch and die.

Near the end of the production run, finished pieces next to the sheets of PETG they started as.

Testing fit of goggles part in injection molded parts, focusing on the outer diameter (determined by the punch and die size). The part shown here was too small- a larger diameter allowed the part to be clamped in place securely.