How To “Over-Mold” Clear Parts

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My name is Eric Strebel, I am an Industrial Designer and run Botzen Design Inc., a product design and development company focusing on handheld and table top consumer products. I design products for global partners from initial concept to mass production, including hand drawn ideation concept sketches, mock-ups, prototypes, as well as CAD and pre production samples. I bring dreams to life and I also document and preserve my craft & process on my Design and Making YouTube channel .

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September 28th, 2021September 28th, 2021

This week’s video is about creating a flexible over-molded polyurethane clear acrylic lid using a four part 3D printed mold.

I start by creating a 3D printed self locking 4 part PLA mold. I laser cut my acrylic with some teeth and holes in the edges for the Polyurethane to bond with. Next I add some release agent to the PLA mold to prevent the urethane from sticking.The acrylic is sandwiched in the mold and then I inject a flexible shore 80A urethane into the mold cavity to create the part.Once the part is cured, some clean up is required and the prototype part is born.

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