After 15 years: Axxicon’s AIM™ Mould System still going strong

AIM™ Mould System, Axxicon’s proprietary multi-functional injection mould with interchangeable inserts, is 15 years old and still as popular as ever. The system is being used by leading raw material suppliers as well as compounders, OEM’s, moulders, test institutes and universities in over 25 countries. A recently introduced celebratory project (“new inserts at 1989 prices”) proved such a success that it had to be extended until the end of the year. Axxicon Account Manager Twan van den Eijnden, suggests why the AIM Mould System has been so popular since its first introduction.

“Manufacturers operating in a global arena need to ensure that a product’s performance is consistent wherever it is made or sold. So we first introduced AIM in 1989 to help companies comply fully with the internationally accepted ISO standards - which are also used by CAMPUS®, the plastics database. The system is used to obtain data to determine key material properties such as tensile strength, hardness, stress cracking, flammability, multi-axial impact behaviour and gloss/colour matching. The AIM Mould System fully complies with all the requirements for an ISO approved injection mould, with strong emphasis being placed on greater standardisation and uniformity of tests.

“The AIM Mould System is a multi-functional injection mould with interchangeable inserts. It can be used on conventional injection moulding machines and is capable of producing plastic specimens for quality tests according to international standards. These types of specimens are commonly used to determine material’s key properties such as tensile strength, Izod and Charpy impact strength, hardness, stress cracking, flammability, multi-axial impact behaviour and gloss/colour matching.

”The first reason for the mould system’s enduring popularity is the speed with which the inserts can be changed. Their lightweight makes them easy to handle. Thanks to an incorporated quick coupling system of cooling channels, inserts may be changed over in less than 30 seconds. Another key reason is their design flexibility. Apart from supplying ISO standard inserts from stock, Axxicon Moulds Helmond is able to manufacture inserts for the production of test specimens according to standards (ASTM, UL94, etc.) or custom-made products (color plaques).

”The AIM Mould System delivers considerable savings in cost and time when compared to traditional, not recommended, ‘family moulds’. There is no need to produce large numbers of different samples per shot, only those specific samples required for any particular test are produced, thus avoiding waste.

“Having a successful product, however, has not made us complacent. Recently, new developments have been introduced such as 2K test moulding and a pre-heating unit to bring inserts up to the mould temperature before use. We are constantly updating the AIM Mould System and working on extending the AIM product by offering additional product packages and enhancements.”