Successful molding is defined as when the molded part meets all the quality requirements and satisfies the needs of the end user.
To successfully mold parts with consistency and repeatability, five critical factors that need to be carefully selected as mentioned below.
2. Material Selection: Based on the part design and the part performance requirements, the plastic material must be selected. Material selection must be also selected based on the tolerance requirement of the part. Tight tolerance parts must be molded with low shrink materials unless they are micromolded products or parts that are dimensionally small (around half inch in their maximum dimension). If a thick section must be present, a filled material may need to be selected or if there is a sliding surface then a additive to reduce the coefficient of friction needs to be added to the plastic. Material selection should be done when the basic part design is done and the requirements are detailed. The material manufacturers are the best source of information. 3. Mold Design and Construction: The mold must be designed and constructed such that the mold is robust enough to withstand the molding process and the plastic material. For example, during the molding process, the mold can be subjected to high mechanical stresses especially during the plastic injection and the packing. All these material specific factors such as shrinkages must be considered. The required amount of parts from the mold is another factor that will dictate the actual material of construction since the wear on the components must be considered. 4. Machine Selection: Selecting the right machine for the mold should be done once the mold design is complete or should be done concurrently during the mold construction stage. The machine plays a very important role in the stability of the molding process. For example, machines with large shot sizes must not be used to mold small shots since the part quality consistency suffers. Vice versa, using a large percentage of the shot size can give rise to problems with melt homogeneity and therefore issues with fill and dimensions. 5. Molding Process: Process optimization is the last step and is often not done correctly or is even completely ignored. Injecting plastic into a mold without any scientific basis leads to scrap, inconsistent quality in the parts and inefficiencies in the production process. If the above four factors and activities are not properly selected or performed, process optimization can be a challenge. Components and labor are cheaper This is absolutely true. Components can be a fraction of the price, tooling for injection molds is significantly less expensive, and labor for manning the assembly line is easily replaced, making it very affordable.
China has been the place where everything has been made for decades. They’ve gotten really good at it. Their supply lines for plastics,transportation logistics, those are all pretty well nailed down. They’re better at making injection molds than other countries. Tying all your resources up in product can be guaranteed if your product is manufactured right. Managing experience is the most important part and the hidden costs of manufacturing can be completely big savings. Manufacturers can help reduce a lot of the risk for a startup, and offer experience and expertise,thus saving money and producing a higher quality product in a short period of time. Because they’ve nailed down their supply lines, and everybody works 10 hour days 6 days a week, and everybody knows somebody, things can happen very fast. Prototyping can take place quickly, so as your quality requirement and satisfaction. Internet speeds are fast, phone calls are easy to understand. Yet, some overseas clients look only price and insufficient communication/presentation with suppliers will cause problems. Therefore, it is important with good quality (technical and communication) suppliers rather than target only on the lowest and then bargain for even lower price. We also experienced some molds sent from Australian clients who did in US for maintenance. Workmanship was sometimes found to be poor with flashes, unbalance filling, no cad data documents and un-reliable tool design of weak steel, inconsistence dims for multi-impressions tools,etc. Of course, some are good. Therefore, selection of correct supplier is the most important and is not always say good in one country or bad in the other countries. Advisable to see its testimonials for firstly consideration. www.injectionmoldingsupplier.com Short shot is one of molding defects in plastic injection molding. It can be avoided by mold flow analysis in tool design stage with venting inserts at location precisely.
It can totally reduce cost as high production molding output due to no scrape and less cycle time. www. injectionmoldingsupplier.com |
AuthorWorking in plastic industry of customs mold making and molding over 20 years with overseas contact and exports globally. Archives
February 2024
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