When it comes to the angles used in the plastic part design of injection molded parts, you’d be surprised to learn what a big difference as little as half a degree can make. In particular, the draft of a part can play a major role in everything from how easy it is to eject the part from the mold to how smooth the surface of the finished part is.
The process of plastic injection molding can produce the perfect parts for your needs quickly and cost effectively. However, as with any manufacturing process, there are certain “gotchas” that can cause less than optimal results. Below are five design guidelines you should follow to help ensure that your production runs deliver an outstanding finished product.
The concept of the one-stop shop as it applies to plastic injection molding goes back many decades. Historically, injection molders sought to deliver more value to their customers by handling every aspect of a project in-house, beginning with designing and developing molds.
In plastic injection molding, one of the most important aspects of the mold design is how and where it is gated. The “gate” is the opening in a mold through which the molten plastic is injected into the final part. It is the boundary between part and scrap. The location, size, and shape of the gate can have a significant effect on everything from the structural integrity to the visual appearance of a finished piece.
It would make sense that the thicker the walls of a part are, the stronger it is. However, that’s not always the case. That statement is based on the assumption that the walls have a uniform density. Unfortunately, thicker walls have the potential for voids or hollow spaces within them. This means you may not be getting the consistent depth, or the strength, you were counting on.
Insert molding, or more accurately “plastic injection insert molding,” is a process in which viscous plastic is injected into a mold around one or more items. When the plastic cools and hardens, the result is an integrated assembly that incorporates these “inserts.” The items can be metal, ceramic, or any other type of material that can withstand the heat of the melted plastic and the pressure with which it is injected into the mold.
Plastic injection molding is a very cost-effective way to produce high-quality parts. Even so, there are a number of things you can do to save even more money on a project without sacrificing anything in the finished product.
The color of your plastic part can be an important aspect of its perceived quality. In this industry, many of the materials (or resins) that are used are off-white, translucent, or yellow and those bland colors can have a negative impact on the appearance of your end product and your customers' opinion of the piece. Consequently, you should give serious consideration to the color of your parts.
If you’ve spent a significant amount of time in the plastics industry like us, you may have noticed a recent trend that’s picked up speed over the last few years. The utilization of lasers in plastic etching and engraving isn’t something completely new; the technology has actually been around for quite some time. It’s the recent improvements to the technology that has caught the eye of customers and plastics professionals alike.
Like most technical specializations, plastic injection molding has a vocabulary all its own. In some cases the terms are unique, in others they may be common terms but used in a unique way in our industry. All in all, there are probably hundreds of words in the plastic injection molding lexicon.
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