Thursday, June 30, 2011

The Benefits using Custom USB Flash Drives

The benefits of utilising custom USB flash drives are rather obvious.

First, these made-to-order blink drives can be customized in any forms or forms. You can effortlessly mold the outside covering in the form of your business logo or emblem logo. Wholesale Card USB Drives This will make persons identify your business or emblem title easily. To capitalize competently on this specific facet, confirm that the form you select is aesthetically appealing and eye-catching.

cvSecond, you can effortlessly publish the logo of your company/brand on the most evident exterior of the USB drive. Wholesale Jewelry USB Drives Just as the USB manufacturers have their business title and logo published on the drives, you can get your company's title and logo published on them. Less than a quarter of the proposed goal assembly really utilised these goods in the kind intended. However, with promotional blink drives, achievement is guaranteed because it is very strong to oppose storage space, particularly when taking multiple backups of significant articles and documents has become vital so as to bypass decrease of data due to random facts and numbers corruption.

Last but not the smallest is the cost factor. Good made-to-order USB flash drives with decent allowance of storage space, cost round $10 to $20. wholesale Sandisk USB flash drive This is a feasible buying into per USB propel granted the assuredly high come back on investment. Instead of donating multiple customized goods in a fiscal year, you can rather than opt for promotional USB blink drives. Through the buy of flash drives wholesale, you can optimize the cost to a larger span and thereby boost the come back on investment.

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Customized USB Flash Drives

Product branding is one of the latest strategies in business marketing. With the increasing use of computer technology by almost every American, why not take advantage of that with your product marketing? Using customized USB flash drives as a marketing tool will not only showcase your business as one up-to-date with the latest technological advances, but as a company conscious of convenience to the client as well.
While there are an incredible number of options available in marketing mediums, most businesses play it safe and use the same types, such as pens or calendars. Choosing a customized USB flash drive will make your company more noticeable. The selection of customized USB flash drives also exhibits your business as willing to adapt to necessity of flash media. A customized USB flash drive will offer consumers and clients with a very positive image of your company with every use.


dfThe convenience of using customized USB flash drives as promotional tools is more prominent that you think. USB flash drives are available in an assortment of memory sizes, and when ordered in bulk are relatively affordable. Many low cost promotional USB flash drives can be customized with your company's name or logo.
Given its convenience and portability, a custom USB flash drive will more than likely stay with the client for most of the time whether it is used to load or save media. With the custom USB flash drive's practicality and manageability your company's logo will be flashed every time the device is used, no pun intended.
Whatever way you choose to distribute your promotional USB flash drive, you can remain confident that your choice of promotional item will give your clients a positive impression of your company: one that is progressive, reliable, and available for a long time.
Sarah Reece writes for Ciniva Systems, an award winning Virginia web design company. Ciniva specializes in web design and SEO. Sarah Reece is an SEO Specialist with Ciniva. Ciniva Systems is in charge of SEO for iFox Technologies, Inc.

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Customize USB Flash Drives

With the great preponderance that memory sticks have gained for data transfer, no wonder that users require customization for their USB drives. There are designers or producers that provide custom USB products on request, and they mainly service customers that are interested in promo give-aways first and foremost. There are hundreds of models available, the prices are those of the manufacturer, and the more sticks you order, the higher the discount. Custom USB flash drives are available in lots of colors and for different storage capacities. Although large companies are the main clients of customization services, individual users require personalized designs too.

Companies that specialize in custom USB products only need a small drawing, a digital rendering of a real photo or some clue about the purpose and the intended design, and they will come up with several options from which the client can choose. The eccentricity of the design has reached so far that besides the regular materials used for the protection of the storage device, moving parts have been incorporated too. The client can select custom USB drives made from plastic, metal, rubber and wood, with the possibility to match exact colors. You can require precisely detailed replicas and you'll get very satisfactory renderings.


When developing the idea for a custom USB device, it is very important to consider the packaging as well. Very complex products have laser engraved graphics but the production of such memory flashes is quite expensive given the equipment necessary for the manufacturing. Wood engravings are also available and many logos are very durably imprinted in such custom USB materials. When you need to design a flagship product, it is important to think very well about all the details involved. The practical nature of the USB drive is beyond any doubt, but what more do you hope to achieve?


Portable custom USB drives become functional gifts for business clients. Contact details together with the company's logo make the most common type of print or engraving available with personalized flash drives. The prices for customization make an important part of the transaction. The more complex the design of the custom USB memory card, the higher the price. And when you need to order not one but around a hundred or two of such items, you start thinking that a simpler design is a lot more advantageous and money-wise. If you did not make this kind of budget analysis you wouldn't be a smart investor! Think twice and then place an order for a large number of custom USB drives.

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USB Flash Drives Definition

Many people are confused by all the different terms associated with computer technology, especially since the vocabulary expands daily. If you are wondering what a USB flash drive is, it is easier to understand as a memory stick. The flash drive is also known as a thumb drive and this is only because of its size, which is about the size of your thumb. The USB drive has just replaced the old floppy disk, it is so much better than the floppy disk because a flash drive doesn't have any moving parts like the floppy disk did. Since it doesn't have any moving parts it is more reliable and durable.

You always needed to be careful with a floppy disk, but you can be sure your flash drive won't break unless you intentionally try to do so by hitting it with a hammer or such. Not only is this device so easy to carry around, you can plug it into most computers since the floppy disk drive no longer exists, most computers now have the USB port and these things never fail unlike the floppy disks. The USB port can be carried in your pocket or on a keychain.

The USB drive is simply a small circuit board encased by plastic or metal to keep it safe. You can store anything you need to on the USB flash drive and you don't need any other cords, you simply plug it into a computer with a USB port. With a flash drive, all you need to do is click and drag whatever information you want to put on it. You can store your presentations, videos, pictures, music, and so much more. Your information will be saved quickly and will be there until you choose to delete it.

Rewritable CDs take a long time to do the same thing, it takes a few minutes to download information on it and not all computers have a CD-RW drive. Not to mention after time, information saved on a CD gets corrupted, this will never happen with a USB flash drive. A flash drive holds much more information than a CD as well, you can now buy a 64 GB flash drive that should be more than you will ever need, the price ranges around $200, of course you can get one that stores 4 GB for anywhere between $10 and $20.

Many people choose to use the flash drives because they are so reliable, durable, and compact. If you are afraid of losing it and it has information on it that you don't want anyone else to see, you can purchase USB flash drives that will encrypt the data you save on it, others also have partitions that you need a password to get into. If you are looking for a memory device, the flash drive is the top choice because it is also an easy way to add storage space to your computer, just plug it in and save things to it.

Branded USB Sticks are the perfect marketing tool! The USB SuperStore offers custom USB flash drives at wholesale and discounted prices, with free logo and shipping.

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Don’t Buy Cheap USB Flash Drives

Cheap USB Flash Drives - Not Worth Buying


If you've been asked to get some printed USB flash drives of some custom USB memory sticks for your company or school then be warned - you can't just go out and get a few quotes and decide based on the cheapest price! No, that'd be way too easy and would put you in real danager of damaging your company brand or school repuation.
Why not? Well the problem is that whilst USB flash drives might look the same on the outside it's whats inside that really matters when it comes to determining the price. The outside shell of a promotional USB flash drive (the bit that's printed and carries your logo) is pretty cheap and easy to produce. Even printing multiple colours is not that costly providing the printing is done in China when the flash drives are assembled. So the outside shell with the printing on is a smallhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif percentage of the overall price you'll pay.
The majority of the cost of your promotional USB flash drives will be for the components inside the flash drive. The important bits are the USB flash chip (this is the bit of the flash drive that all of the data is stored on), the controller chip (this is the bit that manages the inputs and outputs to the flash chip - think of it as the "brains" of the flash drive and then finally there is the capacitor that control the power to the flash chip. Taken together these are the things that make the flash drive work and determine how much storage the flash drive has and how quickly you can read/write (data) to the flash drive.
The problem is that there are lots of different grades of these components available. Frankly some are rubbish and if your flash drives are made using them then expect lots to fail straight away or pretty soon after you've taken delivery of them. Even if they work the might have been "doctored" so you think you are getting a 1GB USB stick but actually the flash inside is a rejected 1GB which can only store up to say 600MB - these Grade B or rejected chips are commonly used by some suppliers of promotional USB flash drives.

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Of course from the outside a cheap USB flash drive (made from cheap, Grade B or recycled components) will look just like a good quality flash drive thats been assembled from new Grade A parts - so, how do you tell what your supplier is quoting for and bear in mind that most will just trot our the line that they "only ever sell Grade A" products.
Our advice is to avoid really cheap quotes and to only buy from reputable suppliers that have been around for a good number of years and can point to a diverse range of happy clients. Get it in writing exactly what they are going to supply - not just the memory size but what grade of memory and what the minimum read/write speeds will be. Finally get a written warranty but be ware these are only useful if they are from a local supplier and the supplier looks as though they are going to be around for a while - lots of so called "suppliers" seem to operate out of spare bedrooms - check on Google Earth - always interesting to see where the so called offices of some of these companies are!!
As ever cheap is not always good value and when its your brand or name on the product its best avoided

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Custom Your USB Flash Drives Icon


Isn't it great to have your personalized USB Flash Drive Icon ?
First things you need to do is to prepare your own icon. If you still cannot get one, I recommend you to read my post: Create your .ICO Icon File.
Follow the steps below to change your USB Flash Drive icon.

  1. Copy your prepared icon to the most outer location of your flash drive. In this post, my icon name is"dora.ico"
  2. You will now have to create "autorun.inf" file at the same location as your icon. I recommend you to download my autorun.inf file from here (Right click on the link and click Save Target As ..) and put it on your flash drive.
  3. Change the content of autorun.inf file by double click on it. You will need to change my "dora.ico" to your icon name. Don't forget to save the updated file before closing Notepad.
    [autorun]
    icon=dora.ico
  4. Safety remove your flash drive and plug it in again. And your flash drive icon will be changed to the specified icon : )
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What is Custom USB Flash Drives

Question: What weighs less than an ounce can be used as a key chain and stores thousands of photos?

Answer: A USB Flash Drive!

With storage capacities ranging from 64 MB, all the way up to 256 GB and prices starting as low as a few dollars per unit, USB Flash Drives represent the latest technology available for storing and transporting data.

PSI is now offering customized USB drives. There is almost no limit to the variety of shapes, styles and colors that are available. The best part is that a USB drive can be custom printed with your artwork, company logo, etc.

The drives are available without any content or we can preload them with almost any type of file. However we usually suggest file types that are easily opened by any type of computer and operating system (PDF, MP3, Mpeg, etc.)

What is a USB Flash Drive?
A USB Flash Drive (aka jump drive, thumb drive, keychain drive) is an easy to use, lightweight, plug and play storage device that is about the size of your thumb. It uses flash memory to store your data. The flash memory is integrated with a USB (Universal Serial Bus) interface enclosed in a compact plastic, metal or rubberized case. When a user plugs a USB flash drive into their computer, their operating system will recognize it as a storage device and automatically assign a drive letter to it.

Potential Uses

  • Ad specialty item/giveaway: While many ad specialty items (pens, memo pads, stress balls) may be quickly discarded, the recipient of a USB drive will see it as a valuable gift. Most likely they will keep it and use it continuously. And every time they use it they will be reminded of your company.
  • Tradeshows: When you are competing for marketshare at a tradeshow, your giveaway needs to stand out. Instead of printing your brochure, put it on a USB drive.
  • Documentation and media distribution: Many companies and organizations distribute USB drives that are preloaded with documentation, training materials, mp3 files and video.

Advantages of USB Flash Drives

  • Compact size: While the size can vary, most USB Flash drives weigh less than one ounce and are less than 70mm in height and 20 mm in width.
  • Reliability: Data stored on flash drives are impervious to scratches and dust.
  • Durability: Compared to hard drives, flash drives use little power and have no fragile moving parts.
  • No software required: Flash drives implement the USB mass storage device class that so most operating systems can read and write to them without installing device drivers.
  • Storage capacity: Flash drives have the ability to hold more data than 365 CDs or 54 DVDs.
  • Speed: Flash drives can copy and write files up to 10 times faster than other traditional portable storage mediums.

Disadvantage of USB Flash Drives

  • Compact size: Although the size may be an advantage, flash drives have become so compact that they can be easily misplaced or lost.
  • Price: As the storage capacity of a Flash Drive approaches 50GB, they begin to exceed the price of an external hard drive of similar capacity. However, these prices will start to go down as the demand increases and the cost of manufacturing goes down.
  • Lifespan: Flash drives have a limit to the number of write/erase cycles before they begin to fail. However, with most flash drives allowing for almost 500,000 write/erase cycles, you will most likely lose your device before it wears out.
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Unique and creative custom USB Flash Drives

Universal Bus Controller (USB)connects more than computers and peripherals. It has the power to connect you with a whole new world of PC experiences.
USB is your instant connection to the fun of digital photography or the limitless creative possibilities of digital imaging. You can use USB to connect with other people through the power of PC-telephony and video conferencing. Once you've tried USB, we think you'll grow quite attached to it!
Following is the collection of unusual and creative USB flash drives that will help you transfer your files in style...
Mechanical USB Flash Drive
When in use, this handmade 16GB USB flash drive glows green from underneath the gears giving the key a good sense of movement

Canon 5D Mark II USB Flash Drive
4GB USB flash drive in the shape of EOS 5D Mark II digital camera

Cereal Spoon USB Flash Drive
Unusual flash drive created from Bran Flakes cereal, a silver spoon, and lots of glue

Wooden Clamp USB Flash Drive
USB flash drive designed to look like an ordinary wooden clamp


Taco Bell Border Sauce USB Flash Drive
USB flash drive inspired by Taco Bell Border Sauce packets

Transforming USB Flash Drive
This flash drive will make a great gift for any Transformers (TV Series or Movie) fan

Ninja Star USB Flash Drive
Awaken the inner Ninja in yourself with this Shuriken shaped USB Thumb Drive

Bacon USB Flash Drive
Creative flash drive design inspired by Bacons and Beef. Mmmmm, meat....

Gold Brick USB Flash Drive
This gold brick USB flash drive will surely impress your coworkers or may be girlfriend too if she is a technology fan...

Lipstick USB Flash Drive
Custom USB flash drive created from a real lipstick

Surfboard USB Flash Drive
USB flash drive with creative surfboard design and colorful graphics

Wooden Cross USB Flash Drive
Custom made USB flash drive shaped like a wooden cross

"Nailed” USB Flash Drive
The USB Nail is a 2GB flash drive shaped like a giant nail. It costs about $46 and is sure to get a rise out of the IT department

Sushi USB Flash Drives
Do you like Sushi? Then you will love these Sushi USB flash drives.

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Custom USB Flash Drives

Custom USB flash drives that are designed and manufactured in a shape that matches a company product or logo are without doubt one of the most compelling and popular USB flash drive options available. Compared to standard "factory designs" fully customised flash drives grab peoples attention and get them "chatting" about the flash drive they've been given and the product it represents.
But, custom USB flash drives are not without their problems:

  1. They are more expensive than standard USB flash drives. This is because a custom mould has to be created to allow the fabriaction of the USB sticks and each mould can only be used for the customer that commissions the custom USB sticks
  2. The lead time is longer - the typcial lead times for a standard flash drive printed with a logo is around 7-10 days but the lead times for custom USB sticks can be as much as 4-6 weeks. Part of this is to allow for a phyiscal sample to be produced and sent to the client for approval before mass production begins.
erCutting right across this is a new product launched by USB2U and its a hybrid custom USB flash drive manufactured from PVC - this is an exciting new product that is exclusive to USB2U and it looks stunning, it colourful, light, easy to use and the USB connector retracts into the body of the finished USB flash drive.
Pretty much any shape can be produced but more importantly these new hybrid products can be produced in a much shorter timeframe and without the premiums normally associated with custom USB flash drives (old school custom USB that is).
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Custom bootable USB flash drives

One of the great aspects of modern USB flash drives is their flexibility. In the past, you needed an optical disc in order to either install and/or run a live operating system. Now that is no longer the case with tools such as Universal Boot Loader and Unetbootin. These tools automatically write the contents of a downloaded ISO to the USB flash drive and also allow write an MBR to them which will allow them to become bootable on modern machines.
as

http://www.pendrivelinux.com/install-knoppix-6-to-a-usb-flash-drive-in-windows/
http://unetbootin.sourceforge.net/
The following allows multiple operating systems to be booted from the same USB flash drive.
http://www.pendrivelinux.com/yumi-multiboot-usb-creator/
As you can see manual setup of a USB disk can be rather tedious. Hence, it is advisable to use the above when required and only use the resort to manual configuration when there is a very specific need to do so.
http://www.linuxjournal.com/content/dual-boot-opensuse-usb-stick-installer
The following demonstrates that you can boot both Windows (BartPE Recovery Environment) as well as a Linux from the same USB flash drive provided you have used the correct software.
http://www.irongeek.com/i.php?page=security/dual-boot-slax-linux-bartpe-windows-usb

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Promotional Custom USB flash drives are a unique marketing tool

Let's face it, marketing in today's economy can be a challenge. With so many businesses competing for what has recently become a smaller pool of customers, a business has to have an aggressive marketing strategy. This should involve a product that is widely used, easily accessible, trendy and relevant. So, looking to stand out? Then promotional usb flash drives are a unique marketing tool to do so. In order to catch and keep a customer's attention a business may have to do something unique in order to stand out from a crowd. Try an unconventional approach with a promo tool that will impress clients and be heavily used.

Promo usb flash drives are ideal because they are small and light weight they can be easily carried and handed to customers quickly. In addition to this they can be mailed with other correspondence, such as special offers or even a thank you for considering doing business with the company. They are light weight enough to be sent with an informational packet requested by a high end customer. They are also perfect for handing out at industry events and if purchased in bulk can be much less expensive.

Perhaps most importantly they are also widely used for business and personal activities. Many people use usb flash drives in their daily lives and now each time they use their flash drive the business that used the drive as a promo is fresh in the customers mind. Though there may be some concern about security these flash drives can be secured the same way all portable flash drives are and anyone who uses a flash drive, either one they purchased or a promo would take the same risk.

The bottom line is that that any business looking to stand out from the competition and stay in the mind of a customer should seriously consider using promo usb flash drives as a means of advertising. In addition to this if they are used by a highly visible individual then the company will receive further advertisement.

For more details on a wide range of promotional merchandise and products, such as Promo USB flash drives then please visit our site promo-usb.net, which offers tips on how to market your business. We also sell promotional flash drives at the best price when ordered in bulk quantities. Visit us for all of your advertising and marketing needs.

Now let we see the custom usb flash drive as a promotional marketingPromotional USB flash drives are a unique marketing tool

Loncin Technology Co.LtdPromotional USB flash drives are a unique marketing toolShenzhen Marvel Industry Co.,Ltd.

USB Flash Drive in Unique Design with 256MB to 16GB Capacity and Over 10yrs Data Retention

Promotional USB flash drives are a unique marketing tool

USB Design Technology Co.,Ltd

Unique-shaped USB Flash Drive with Magnetic-resistant and Up to 16GB Memory Capacity

Promotional USB flash drives are a unique marketing toolShenzhen Zhanzhuo Electronic Technology Co. Ltd

Multifunction USB Flash Drive, Made of Metal Material, Love Heart Appearance, Unique Design

Promotional USB flash drives are a unique marketing tool

Aurora Boutique Co. Ltd

unique design SWAROVSKI USB flash drive disk

And there is many more out there.

http://ahlidesain.blogspot.com/2011/02/promotional-usb-flash-drives-are-unique.html

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Building a Custom USB Flash Drive -- Part 2: Resin Casting in a Silicone Mold

So, you've got a silicone mold all ready to go?...now you just need to make something in it. This post shows some of the steps to pouring urethane casting resin into a silicone mold. Other types of resin (like epoxy) could be cast into a silicone mold, but some resins cannot. For example, polyester casting resin won't set up well in a silicone mold because the silicone actually inhibits the chemical crosslinking (and hence, curing) of the polyester resin. If you want to cast polyester, you're better off making a urethane rubber mold rather than a silicone one (but you'll also have to use mold release as a surface treatment before pouring the material into the mold since urethane isn't self-releasing like silicone is). Part of my reasoning for using a paper cup as my mold form (aside from the simplicity and low cost of them) was that I could re-insert the mold into a cup of the same size to seal it off before pouring resin into it (as shown below). Without any seal formed around the mold's parting line, liquid resin poured into the mold will just run right out of it. For custom or irregular-shaped molds, it's good to either place the mold back into the original mold forms, or to otherwise seal off the mold with packing tape. If you're using the latter, wrap the whole mold so the tape can stick to itself since it won't stick to the silicone mold or otherwise make an effective seal.

Before going hog-wild with encapsulating my fancy-shmancy USB drive in the resin, I figured it was wise to do a test pour with the resin first--just to make sure there were no issues with the mold. I always prefer to do a test part before assuming that things will work our perfectly because there's always so much that could go wrong, and so little working capital to burn on faulty projects. So, to make my test piece, I measured out equal parts of casting resin (since the Alumilite requires a 1:1 mix ratio by volume), and poured them into a cup...

...and then I mixed them thoroughly. As with the silicone resin, I made sure to completely mix this thermosetting resin to avoid soft spots or areas of uncured resin in the final cast part.

Next, I poured the resin in a thin stream through the sprue into the mold. If the sprue isn't wide enough, the surface tension of the resin can actually bridge across the sprue and stop it up so resin won't pour in smoothly. For safety sake, it's good to make sure there's at least 3/8" diameter or more space down the length of the sprue.

Once the cavity of the mold was filled, I let the resin sit for about ten minutes (the recommended cure time for the resin) and double-checked that the residue spilled around the sprue was completely hardened. Thin sections of excess resin like these are usually a good indicator of the state of resin cure within the mold. I then peeled off the cup...

...pried open the mold, and extracted the cast test piece. Aside from the a little bit of "flash" (excess material that formed within the parting line) and a big plug o' material at the sprue that needed to be trimmed off, the piece came out rockin' sweet.

Next, I needed to prepare the USB drive for encapsulation in resin. This required a couple extra steps to keep the casting resin from seeping into the connector end of the drive and filling it up. Resin that gets into the connector end can actually make it impossible to plug the USB drive into a computer in the future--a very bad thing, indeed. If you inspect the back side (or circuit board side) of the connector, you'll notice that there are some very small openings around the wires that attach the connector to the circuit board. These holes can allow resin to leak into the connector, so I used a quick bead of super glue to seal them off quickly and effectively.

Just to make sure there weren't any other areas open for resin leakage, I used some packing tape to seal off the rest of the connector end of the drive. Urethane resin won't stick to the packing tape, so this tape helps promote good clean up of the final part as well.

After sealing up the connector end of the drive, I inserted it into the silicone mold, right where the dummy connector had formed a cavity in the bottom of the mold. This cavity created a good registry for the USB drive so it would fit properly in the mold.

I closed up the mold by putting it into yet another paper cup, mixed up some resin, and poured it into the mold through the sprue.

After waiting long enough for complete cure of the resin, I pulled the newly formed part out of the mold with the USB drive encapsulated in it.

A little bit of trimming with a utility knife was all that was needed to clean up the part. I cut off the sprue plug, cut out the knock-out center (for the finger hole), and removed the tape from around the connector. To get the part prepped for final painting, I sanded the surface of the urethane with 400-grit sand paper, just to ensure that there weren't any chemical residues on the part that could foul-up the paint job.

After a quick paint job, here's what the final part looks like (below)...super-groovy and ready to store up all that important data that I've got kickin' around.

While this drive-forming demonstration shows a somewhat simplistic part, the flexibility of a silicone mold and the robustness of the urethane casting resin can help you build a wide variety of nifty shapes and parts. And since these molds will work for over a hundred castings (if you play nice with them), you could even make bucket-loads of these little gems for whatever purposes you deem necessary. Aren't plastics fun?  I'm a big fan. Have fun, ya'll.

http://johnsblogworld.blogspot.com/2010/11/building-custom-usb-flash-drive-part-2.html

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Building a Custom USB Flash Drive -- Part 1: RTV Silicone Moldmaking

Just about everybody’s got a USB drive these days, but so few of those drives has any kind of “cool” factor to it. Why? Because they’re made to appeal to the wide middle-ground of consumers rather than to the quirky, one-of-a-kind demands of unique users—the design equivalent of campaign managers aiming their candidate’s political ads at those numerous, undecided moderate voters rather than the smaller, polarized pockets of right or left wingers. So, what’s a person to do if they don’t want a USB flash storage device that looks uber-boring--like everyone else’s? Well, you could spend inordinate amounts of time scouring the internet for some obscure manufacturer out there making something that fits your particular style, or…you could just make your own (if you know how). And that is the exact point of the next couple of blogs: to show how to 1) make a mold using a model and silicone resin, and 2) to cast urethane (or other) resin around a USB flash drive to make a truly unique data storage device.


One of the classes I teach here at Metro State (IND 1130 – Plastics: Materials and Fabrication) focuses on different methods for using plastics in industry. We discuss several plastics forming methods used in mass-manufacturing and the design constraints involved with each of them. But since we don’t have the time or money to let students design their own real-world parts using injection molding, blow molding, or extrusion processes (not to mention a boatload of others), we show them how to use smaller-scaled forming and fabrication methods found in a typical industrial design prototyping shop. In a hands-on way, these methods still help students understand the overarching considerations needed to design for thermoplastics and thermosets, mold a wide range of shapes, and develop a sensitive eye for quality design through ideation, development, and craftsmanship within a shop setting. One of the projects I use to help my students understand thermoset resin forming methods is to have them create a cast product with an embedded component. In the case of this semester, I'm having them design and construct a functional USB flash drive, using the innards from an existing drive with a new design cast in resin around it.
As an example for my students (and for this blog posting), I've designed a simple, unique drive that has a big hole in it for my finger. This allows the drive to be easily grabbed (or yanked) out of the computer with my big digits. The painted, ready-to-rock drive is shown here: 

To get started in building this custom USB flash drive, I took an existing drive and pried it open with an X-Acto blade (see below). Most of these units are just snap-fit together, so they're easy to take apart once you get into the seam with a blade edge.

The next step was to extract the circuit board. This isn't too difficult since these drives typically have the board sandwiched between the two snap-fit plastic case halves without any glue. Once the halves are apart, the board comes right out. Note: It's a good practice to "ground" yourself before handling any circuit board directly--which can be done by touching a metal water pipe, door knob, or other static-draining object (such as your friend's nose) to rid your person of those damaging stray electrons.

Next, to make sure I designed the custom drive to the right size, I took some good measurements with the ol' calipers. This helped me to be sure that I had enough space on each side of my design to keep the board from popping through the casting resin around the sides of the completed part.

I also traced the outline of the board just to give me an actual-size sketch that I could use as an underlay for developing sketches. Underlays are great since they help keep you honest with your proportions and size--something I'm sure I've mentioned in a previous posting.

After creating a few sketches, I chose my favorite design and then traced it onto some Renshape (a high-density urethane foam for sculpting and prototyping) to create the "pattern" (or original shape around which the mold is formed). Patterns for RTV silicone moldmaking can be fabricated from a wide variety of non-porous materials. Such materials include wood (as long as it's the closed-cell variety), clay (firm plasticene works best), plastic, metal...even cheese, if you're so inclined. RTV silicone doesn't stick to very many materials, especially if they have smooth surfaces and lack any significant porosity.

Silicone will precisely copy the surface quality of whatever it's molded around (down to a microscopic level), so I make sure to use good craftsmanship in finishing the surfaces of any pattern I make for a silicone mold. With the Renshape material, 220-grit sandpaper gets the surface close enough to the quality I need, especially considering that I'll have to fine-sand the surfaces of any cast parts made in the mold prior to final painting.

Next, I put a small plug of plastic (cut from the end of a rod of 3/4" diameter acrylic rod) in the center of the finger-hole in the pattern. This helped to keep the RTV silicone from flowing between the two sides of the pattern and locking it into the mold. Open shapes like this take some special attention to keep them from becoming one with the mold.

For the connector end of the pattern, I cut a piece of plastic that closely matched the USB's connector to act as a dummy piece to mold around. I cut this piece at least long enough to adequately form space in the mold for the actual USB circuit board that will be encapsulated in resin.  

Next, I used a little dab of hot-glue to attach the USB connector dummy piece on one end of the pattern, and then added a small wooden dowel to create a pattern for the "sprue". (The sprue is the hole through which the resin was poured into mold cavity.)  

I then took the entire pattern assembly and hot-glued it to the bottom of a paper cup. This cup acted as a mold form into which the silicone could be poured without worry of spillage. Paper cups make a great, quick mold form...as long as you can find ones that are the right size. For long, narrow objects, cardboard paper towel rolls (or toilet paper rolls) make a great mold form. Otherwise, small Tupperware containers can do the trick, too. If you can't find something that is the right size for your RTV mold form, you can fabricate one using cardboard, foam core, or other stiff material, as long as you seal it completely so the silicone won't ooze out of any cracks or holes. It's never good when silicone oozes out of a hole your form.

Next, I marked a line along the edge of the cup right along the edge of the pattern. This marked the place where I would cut the mold so I could remove the pattern and any other pieces I cast in the mold in the future.    

Since everything was now set with the pattern and the mold form, I could move forward with the pouring of the mold. The RTV silicone resin I used for the mold, along with the urethane resin ("Alumalite" brand casting resin), was purchased from a local vendor, Plasticare, here in Denver. They're good guys who've always been helpful with product and application info and give us good deals on materials.

As a thermoset resin that requires precise chemical ratios for good setup, silicone is best measured with a scale. We just use a simple digital scale in our shop (as shown below). It's always good to make sure you've measured your resin exactly as prescribed by the manufacturer. Tweaks in a mix ratio should be reserved for adventurous cooks in a kitchen--not in a plastics lab. I've seen too many projects ruined by short-cutting students who figured they had a "good enough" eye to guesstimate the proper mixing proportions. I don't like to take chances with silicone because it's a spendy chemical. You should also notice that I've got gloves on (and an unseen coverall for my clothes)--these chemicals don't come out of clothes very easily, and can often cause skin irritation or allergic reactions in some users. Once they've set up, they're actually pretty inert, but as individual components, they can be messy and somewhat hazardous.

Next, I made sure to mix up the resin completely. If the resin is only partially mixed, it will have soft spots in it that can ruin the integrity or usability of the mold. For this reason, I always use clear plastic cups (preferably ones made of PETE plastic--for its chemical resistant properties) so I can tell if I've completely mixed up the material on the sides and bottom of the mixing cup.

I really like to make silicone molds that have as few pores as possible because such molds make better, imperfection-free parts. Unfortunately, stirring up all that silicone resin puts a lot of air into the mix. That air forms bubbles, which form lumps, bumps, and nuggets on the surface of any parts made in the mold. So, to get rid of the air in the resin, I like to use a vacuum-chamber, like this one from our shop (shown below). Please note that this piece of equipment isn't necessary, it's just helps produce superior results. I've seen plenty of usable molds made without a vacuum. But I've seen even nicer molds made with a vacuum. (In the prototyping world, a vacuum-chamber is typically used for molds that are going to be used by a client themselves, or where a client wants very good surface quality on the final cast parts made from that mold.)

The vacuum-chamber pulls a vacuum of about 26" Hg (which is pretty good considering our elevation in the Rocky Mountains) and allows any air in the resin to expand and rise out of the liquid. I put the mixed resin onto the platform in the vacuum-chamber...

...put the cover on...

...and then flipped the switch on the vacuum pump. In less than a minute, the chamber was completely evacuated, and the bubbles within the resin started to form and brew up like a good root beer float:

Once the bubbles maxxed-out, the resin began to sink (as shown below) and the residual bubbles kept rising in the liquid until all the air was gone.

After all the bubbles had expanded out and the surface of the resin was smooth, I shut off the vacuum pump, removed the cup of resin, and poured it into the mold form (my paper cup) around the new USB drive pattern. Any bubbles that are introduced into resin by pouring it into a mold form quickly rise out of the resin because they tend to be rather large compared with the bubbles created when mixing the resin.

After pouring the resin into the form, I let it completely cure overnight. Depending on the type of silicone, silicone may cure within a few minutes to a couple of days, so I just follow the manufacturer's recommendations for the cure time with whatever resin I'm using.

Once the resin was fully set up, I cut the cup along the parting line that I'd drawn earlier. I made sure to cut into the silicone at least deep enough to be able to find my parting line again after I'd peeled back the cup.

With the cup removed, I used the knife to carefully cut into the silicone until I reached the edge of the pattern. This part can be kind of tricky if you've got a pattern with all kinds of crazy shaping to it. Regardless, it's important to cut through the silicone as cleanly and thoroughly as possible to get the pattern out of the mold.

Once it was completely cut, I opened up the mold...

...and extracted the pattern. I checked the mold surfaces for any imperfections or tweaks, and then declared it "good". The next step was to seal the mold back up and make a test casting in it!

In my next post, I'll explain the process of pouring urethane resin into the mold to create new cast parts. I'll also show how to prepare the USB drive prior to putting it into the mold for encapsulation with resin.

 

http://johnsblogworld.blogspot.com/2010/11/building-custom-usb-flash-drive-part-1.html

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