5/10/22, 10:06 AM Ribs and Bosses Design Guidelines in Plastic Parts – SIDOTEK TECHNOLOGY

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Ribs and Bosses Design

Guidelines in Plastic Parts

Sea 

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 The
Basics of
(Last Updated On: July 8, 2021) Parting
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5/10/22, 10:06 AM Ribs and Bosses Design Guidelines in Plastic Parts – SIDOTEK TECHNOLOGY

Unreasonable design of plastic parts often

 Ribs and
leads to some inherent defects in the product.
Bosses
Problems such as unreasonable structures,
Design
plastic material too much used, poor quality
Guidelines
may occur. The design of plastic parts is
in Plastic
directly related to the quality, cost and level of
Parts
your product.
7
This article lists the design basic guidelines of
Strategies
ribs, bosses and fillet, connected with
to Win in
problems that are common in the actual
New
development process. I hope it is helpful for
Product
designers and engineers in practical design
Development
work.
 The
Ribs Ultimate
Guide:
Ribs are indispensable functional structures on Purchase
many plastic parts. It can effectively improve Your
the rigidity and strength of plastic parts like the Injection
H beam. By using ribs, it is not necessary to Molds &
greatly increase the wall thickness of the Products
plastic parts, and ribs are not undercut in China
structures like the H beam whose structure will
be difficult to make for plastic injection  Injection
molding. So ribs work well for plastic parts that Molding
are subject to pressure, torsion and bending. Material
Ribs can also act as internal flow passages to Selection
aid in the plastic melt filling flow, which is of Guide
great help to the formation of complex and
large plastic parts.
Catalogue
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5/10/22, 10:06 AM Ribs and Bosses Design Guidelines in Plastic Parts – SIDOTEK TECHNOLOGY

Ribs are generally designed on the non-  Injection

appearing surface of the plastic part, and its Molding
direction is as close as possible to the flow
 New
direction of plastic melt filling. Ribs should
Product
neither be too long nor too thick, otherwise, it
Development
will increase the difficulty of injection molding,
causing problems such as voids and sink marks
on the back.
Sea 
Regarding the ribs design, we need to talk
about mainly 2 kinds of plastic materials,
thermoplastic and thermosetting plastic.
Tags

Thermoplastic refers to a plastic that has heat China

softening and cooling hardening properties. guide

Most of the plastics we use in our daily lives
injection
fall into this category. They can be recycled and
material
reused, such as ABS, Acrylic, Nylon, PE, PP, PS,
PC… molding

New Product
Thermosetting plastic refers to a plastic that
Development
cures when heated, it is insoluble and does not
melt. They can only be formed once, such as NPD

Epoxy resin, Polyurethanes, Vulcanized rubber… plastic

pricing

products

purchasing

Strategy

FREE
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5/10/22, 10:06 AM Ribs and Bosses Design Guidelines in Plastic Parts – SIDOTEK TECHNOLOGY

Generally recommended measurements for ribs Do you need

in thermoplastics (Figure above) help with
custom part
T: Nominal wall thickness
development?
A: Base width of a rib: 0.3-0.7T
Fill out this
B: Rib height: less than 3T
form to get
C: Spacing between ribs: more than
in touch.
4T
D: Radius at base of rib: T/8 [contact-
E: Draft of rib: 0.5°-2° form-7 404
"Not Found"]

Generally recommended measurements for ribs

in thermosetting plastics.

A: Base width of rib

B: Top width of rib: 0.5T
C: Rib height: 3T
D: Radius at top of rib: T/4
E: Radius at base of rib: T/4
F: Draft of rib: 5°

Bosses

Bosses are common structures on plastic parts

in home appliances and interior and exterior of
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5/10/22, 10:06 AM Ribs and Bosses Design Guidelines in Plastic Parts – SIDOTEK TECHNOLOGY

automobiles, mainly for positioning and

fastening.

(Size in mm)

The base of bosses often cause sink marks on

the back surface of a part, this is because of
the large wall thickness. The solution is to core
out some material at the base, as in the below
figure.

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5/10/22, 10:06 AM Ribs and Bosses Design Guidelines in Plastic Parts – SIDOTEK TECHNOLOGY

Fillet

It is important to create a smooth transition as

possible as you can between two intersecting
surfaces of a plastic part. There are four
advantages to do so:

1. Disperse the stress, enhance and fully

utilize the mechanical strength of the
plastic parts.
2. Improve the fluidity of the plastic melt
facilitate filling and demolding, and
eliminate defects such as the sink at the
corners of the wall.
3. Conducive to the machining and heat
treatment of the injection mold, which is
helpful to improve the service life of
injection mold.

The chart below shows the relationship

between wall thickness and the fillet radius.

F: Stress

R: Fillet radius

T: Nominal wall thickness

Reasonable fillet radius: 0.25≤R/T≤0.6 or R

min≥0.4mm

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5/10/22, 10:06 AM Ribs and Bosses Design Guidelines in Plastic Parts – SIDOTEK TECHNOLOGY

Fillet: Poor design VS Good design

These are some of the design points and

common problems of ribs, bosses and fillets. In
future articles, I will continue to share the
basic design guidelines for other design
elements.

If you have any questions about the and

development of plastic parts, please feel free
to contact us at www.sidotek.com. Contact
Email: [email protected].

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