Innovation and Technology Improve Plastic Injection Molding


 

Injection molded components

Custom plastic injection molding machines were created in the 1930s to meet the industrial need and the complexity of the plastic molding process. With three main parts, a custom plastic injection molding machine can vary from model and make. The mold is the component that gives shape to the plastic, while the clamping unit holds the mold parts together throughout the process. The injection unit processes the plastic material and feeds it into the mold for the final product. Custom plastic injection molding has revolutionized the manufacturing industry, with more developments increasing the efficiency in production of complex products.

The process allows for the greatest complexity in detail to be achieved. Products with smart design that would not otherwise respond to a high temperature furnaces or single molding process are achieved with custom plastic molding, for instance, the creation of optical lenses is a very intricate process that responds to micromillimeters of tolerance. With plastic injection molding processes, this is easily brought to feasibility. Precision and high tolerance allows for small parts to be produced with striking accuracy, meeting the design constraints and demand usage of high temperature furnaces with very little to no error. Other methods for plastic molding would have to employ additional processes to meet the design constraints, but with custom plastic injection molding, this is accomplished in one complete process.

Efficient processes demand for low input and high output. In manufacturing, the processes and accessories that reduce waste and the time it takes to complete one phase are employed with little hesitation. Custom plastic injection molding is so efficient that it allows for multiple parts of the design to be produced at the same time; it also provides the manufacturing process the ability to multiply the output by introducing various designs into the same session.

Reducing complexity is another advantage of custom plastic injection molding and the ceramic injection molding process. The beginning stages of planning and design capture all the required complexities and constraints for the manufacturing process, with all that exhausted, the process is painless and simple, allowing for automation, reducing time consuming interaction with operators.

Since the creation of custom plastic injection molding more than 80 years ago, innovation and technology continues to improve the process, allowing for various types of plastic material to be used for the molding process, reducing waste by reusing mold and product materials. Using materials that can withstand the usage of high temperature furnaces has also revolutionized this industry.

From the design experts to the consumer market, aim for quality and lowered costs of production. Both these attributes of the product tend to have an inverse relationship, where the increase in quality of the product often leads to increased cost. Two features that often resolve the two is sharing the cost of the process across a larger volume of production and using materials that can withstand high temperature furnaces, thereby working at the quality of the product at the planning and design stages. Read more about this topic at this link.

Leave a Reply