In any given vehicle, about 50 percent is plastic. However, that volume only accounts for only ten percent of the car’s weight.
This is how plastic automobile parts help make vehicles more fuel-efficient. They have also helped increase safety.
Besides automobile components, plastic is used to make all kinds of products. This includes everything from bottle caps to appliances and all varieties of personal products. Plastic is an integral part of the plumbing, electrical, agricultural, aerospace, and other industries.
Plastic injection mold design is a complex enterprise. It involves various processes and specific machinery and tools to complete each job.
This article gives you an inside look into creating plastic injection molds. It also covers some of the basics of injection molding and the benefits it can afford. Keep reading to learn more.
What Does the Plastic Injection Molding Process Involve?
Molds for plastic injection are made from strong metal components. Common ones are some combination of hardened steel, aluminum, or copper alloy.
Molds usually come in two halves that get clamped together. There is a “cavity side” and a “core side.”
The core is the part of the mold that creates the interior or non-cosmetic side of the plastic part. The cavity side creates the exterior or cosmetic surface of the part, which is later polished and finished.
Technicians inject molten plastic into the mold through a sprue. It’s usually perpendicular to the axis of the mold cavity, although sometimes it’s directly piped into the cavity.
The liquid moves through runners and gates to fill all cavities in the mold. This allows you to create multiple plastic parts during a single cycle.
After it cools, technicians split the mold open and eject the solidified plastic part. They can repeat the process as many times as needed.
What Are the Benefits of Plastic Injection Molding?
There are many advantages to plastic injection molding, but the three main ones are precision, efficiency, and low costs. These are all related.
Plastic injections can afford unmatched precision. Once you have a mold, you can produce countless parts that are identical in shape and strength.
This can be useful for parts of any size but is particularly advantageous for extremely small ones. Therefore, often not produced using other processes.
It’s easy to see how this process is extremely efficient. The majority of the time and labor goes toward plastic injection mold design and construction. Once the mold’s created, production is easy and straightforward.
This all translates to low production costs. Plastic injection requires minimal overhead and labor since the process is easily repeatable. It’s the most cost-effective method for creating hundreds or thousands of identical parts.
Learn More About Plastic Injection Mold Design Services
Now that you understand the basics of creating a plastic injection mold design, you can have a better idea of the processes behind the parts you purchase. It’s the most economical and precise way to make plastic components for your products or business.
Nova is a world-class producer of plastic molded components for clients in automotive and non-automotive industries alike. We use low-cost operations and keep overhead expenses to a minimum so that we can offer the highest quality parts at competitive prices. Contact us today for a free quote.
