Rubik’s Cube – The Famous Puzzle

A cube-shaped device with six faces of different colours called Rubik's cube, is a toy puzzle designed by Erno Rubik during the mid-1970s. Manufacturing of this cube involves injection moulding of the various component pieces, then subsequent assembly, labelling, and packaging. It seems that the Rubik's cube is made up of 26 smaller cubes. At the first glance, it looks that all of the small faces can be moved but in real only the corners and edges can move. The centre cubes are fixed at a position and can only rotate in place. Rubik’s cube is made of thermoplastics produced through various chemical reactions called polymerization. To add colour to it, a colorant is added to the plastic.

Plastic pellets are first put into the hopper of an injection moulding machine and are melted through a hydraulically controlled screw. When molten plastic is about to arrive, the two halves of the mould are brought together to create a cavity having identical shape of the Rubik's cube. After sometime, the mould halves are opened and the cube pieces are ejected. The waste sprue material is set aside to be reused or scrapped. Each centre cube has plastic cover that is fixed on to hide the rivet. Rubik’s cube is labelled using polypropylene material printed with the colours. The labels are made with nine squares of each face exactly aligned. After labelling, the cubes are packed which protects the Rubik's cube from damage caused by shipping. It is then put into pallets and loaded on trucks to ship all over the world.

By: Anuja Arora

Content: http://www.madehow.com/Volume-7/Rubik-s-Cube.html