Subject:
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Re: What's the story with all the recent mold changes?
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.general
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Date:
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Mon, 20 Jul 2009 19:12:22 GMT
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Viewed:
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11443 times
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In lugnet.general, David Simmons wrote:
> It seems to me that since Lego began outsourcing their brick production, a
> lot of needless mold changes have occurred. The first one I noticed was the
> 1x2 brick with Technic axle hole (which no longer has the nice cross/plus
> design),
I noticed that one as well, but the second change makes less sense. The first
one, I'd guess was to relieve stress when an axle is pushed through the hole,
and help prevent the bricks from splitting in half. The second change, they
filled in most of what they removed with the first change. They still left some
room in there for stress relief, but I'm not sure what adding the extra material
back in accomplished. Maybe there was an issue with the first change reducing
holding friction on axles, or maybe it was because it wouldn't grip bars and
flex tubes the way the original design would. I know the Dino Pod actually had
at least one official model that had you do that with a lightsaber blade.
> then the 1x2 Technic cylinder, which now has a slit in it (why?).
The old style piece was actually two parts combined into one so they could get
an internal groove for TECHNIC pin ends to hook on. The new piece is a
one-piece design, and the slit is there to accomodate the mold insert that forms
the internal groove. That one change did make the mold and molding process more
complex, but it reduced the total amount of tooling they'd need to produce one
single part, and eliminated the need to combine the two halves entirely.
> Then the 1x1 cone with the ridge at the top (the one change that makes
> sense),
Clearly I can't agree with you on it being the only one that makes sense, but it
was obviously done to prevent parts other than plates and tiles from being
pushed down so far that they'd be split open by the cone flare. I know I
cracked open the ends of a 1x5 TECHNIC beam by sticking cones in the holes at
both ends. I ended up having to space them out from the next beam I used by
putting 1x1 round plates in the middle. My guess is that this part change was
actually caused specifically by the introduction of the cheese wedge slope,
which is very prone to splitting open at the narrow end due to the little hollow
they carved out for a stud connection making the it very prone to splitting
open, and the fact that if it's put on a regular cone stud the uneven height
prevents it from staying locked in a fully horizontal position. Any tipping on
the stud will just make it more likely to split open.
> and the most recent one has been the 1x1 plate with top clip (the outside
> edges of the clips are no longer squared off but tapered)
I'm pretty sure that part change has been around for a while, since the mold
port scar moved from the side below one of the clip tines to the center of the
stud cavity where you don't have to see it anymore. I'm looking at a white part
from a 2009 set (Ice Rally) that I just bought, and while I see some rounding on
the tips (probably helps reduce scarring on bars and fles tube that are pressed
into the clip), but I don't really see any change in the taper. It's tapered on
the ends of the clip, but not that I can see on the sides, and the tile body
itself shows no taper at all. If it _is_ tapered, it's possible that it was
done to help with mold release.
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> Aside from the 1x1 cone, the other three alterations just don't seem
> necessary. They're neither functional nor aesthetic. Is TLG still in such
> dire financial straits that they've been forced to cut such small corners in
> order to conserve costs in their manufacturing process, or is there some
> other reason?
Oh, that surely has nothing to do with it. Injection molding is abusive on the
mold surfaces, so they regularly have to retool high-volume parts. I'd guess
they have to retool the 2x4 brick molds every year, and I know they run multiple
copies of that same mold simultaneously, even though it's an 8-cavity mold.
Plus, tooling is very expensive, and any small reductions in the amount of
plastic are unlikely to recover the cost of retooling just to save money. You
run the molds until they need to be replaced, and then you make any necessary
changes when that time comes.
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Message is in Reply To:
 | | What's the story with all the recent mold changes?
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| Hey all, It seems to me that since Lego began outsourcing their brick production, a lot of needless mold changes have occurred. The first one I noticed was the 1x2 brick with Technic axle hole (which no longer has the nice cross/plus design), then (...) (15 years ago, 20-Jul-09, to lugnet.general)
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