Posted on 08-28-2017
It’s widely known that plastic injection molding can consistently produce thousands or even millions of plastic components or products for OEMs, aftermarket suppliers, packaging companies, and consumer goods manufacturers. Plastic injection molding has the ability to produce a wide variety of products varying in size, complexity, and composition. Applications for this highly repeatable and reliable process reach from automotive, HVAC and commercial filtration to markets such as appliance, lawn and garden, and medical.
How It Works
Once a part has been designed by an engineer, a toolmaker will craft a metal mold, usually out of steel or aluminum. The mold can have a single cavity or multiple cavities, precision-machined to form the desired part. Part and mold design can be very precise, even achieving (or exceeding) very tight tolerance of +/- 0.001 inches
A variety of polymers, including thermoplastics, thermosets, and elastomers, can be used for plastic injection molding. Pellets or granules of the selected material are heated in the barrel of an injection molding machine until the mixture is pliant enough to be injected into the mold. A ram- or screw-type plunger forces the correct volume or “shot” of material to fill the cavities under pressure while the two halves of the mold are clamped tightly together. The material cools and hardens into the shape of the part and is then removed from the opened mold so the process can begin again.
8 Benefits of Plastic Injection Molding
Plastic injection molding reliably creates a high volume of consistent, high-quality units, and there are several other compelling reasons to consider the process:
Plastic injection molding reliably produces parts and components economically and efficiently. It also gives you a range of material and design options and produces parts that can reduce the overall cost to produce your product and, by decreasing weight of equipment or a vehicle, reduce costs associated with its use. It’s time to reevaluate your processes and see how plastic injection molding can benefit your company.
Viking Plastics has more than 45 years of experience with plastic injection molding, and our team of experts offers knowledge from a variety of molding and manufacturing backgrounds. Request a quote or contact us to learn more.