Tupperware - 1998 Excellence Award Winner

Thin Shell Nickel Tooling Brings Sipper Seal to Market Without a Spill

The quest started with a brief visit to Vintage Industries to learn about Vintage's new NCT Tooling process. Tupperware was looking for a rapid tooling method that could produce a durable, high quality tool quickly and economically. Tupperware found what they were looking for with Vintage's NCT Tooling process.

Vintage had never before worked with stereolithography (SL) core and cavity master patterns, and were impressed by the quality and surface finish that these SL patterns provided. Vintage's process replicates exactly what it is given, and in this case, Tupperware produced and supplied the insert master patterns from their 3D Systems' SLA located at Tupperware's corporate offices.

Tupperware counted on the reliability and technical capabilities of this process, which produces highly uniform, extremely durable, high quality inserts for prototype, bridge and even volume production requirements -- up to 200,000 plastic parts can be produced from a single NCT Tooling insert.

Tupperware's sipper seal project consisted of two parts: the outer seal with dimensions of 3.0" x 3.0" x 1.5", and the non-spill mechanism with dimensions of 0.75" x 1.5" x 1.5". The outer seal was a single cavity insert, while the non-spill mechanism was a family insert that allowed the testing of three unique designs. The material for the outer shell was linear low-density polyethylene, and the final material for the non-spill mechanism has not yet been determined. While both inserts had a planar parting line and a small shutoff area located on the neck, the outer seal had an undercut on the outside, which creates the sealing action, and the non-spill insert had to be properly balanced.

Tupperware produced the SL master patterns on their SLA 250 using SL 5170 epoxy photopolymer. For the sipper seal project, stereolithography and NCT Tooling provided an excellent opportunity to produce plastic parts in the actual end-use material quickly, affordably and easily.

In less than seven days a backfilled thin shell nickel insert had been completed which was more than sufficient for prototype part molding. this same NCT Tooling process can be utilized to produced higher yield bridge or even production inserts in just two weeks' time.

Tupperware now has a tested and successful method for future projects to produce real parts, in final materials, quickly and easily, so they can guarantee mold-sampling success prior to investing in the expense of production tooling.