When parts are to be produced in large volumes, they can be done using injection molding. This is a mass production process in which molten materials like plastic will be injected into the mold. The materials that can be injected include metals, glasses, elastomers, etc.
Plastic injection molding is when plastic parts are produced by injecting molten plastic into some metal molds by the plastic injection molding companies.
The process of Injection Molding
There are four simple steps that are involved in injection molding. They include
- Melt the material that is required to be made for example plastic.
- The molten material has to be injected into the mold.
- The mold along with the molten material inside should be left for some time in order for that to cool and turn into a solid-state.
- Once the material gets hardened it should be removed from the mold.
Main Parts that are present inside a Plastic Injection Molding Machine
In plastic injection molding companies, plastic injection will be done using injection molding machines. The main parts of such a machine include
- The injection Unit
- The clamping Unit
- Control
- Base
Advantages of Injection Molding
There are reasons why manufacturers are interested in plastic and plastic injection molding. Some of them are given below
- The plastic injection molding that is done by plastic injection molding companies is one of the largest and fastest production processes. This involves mass production. The entire injection cycle takes less than a minute. Each cycle can produce many plastic parts hence the output will be very significant.
- In CNC machining, the plastic will be cut from a large block of sheet and creates a huge waste. Whereas in the case of injection molding, plastic can be produced with very little waste material.
- In the case of CNC, the entire raw material will be used and nothing will be left that can be used after the entire process. But in the case of plastic injection molding, only 20gms of the raw material will be considered to be waste.
- Products that can be made using plastic injection molding will be complex.
- As discussed before, the wastage in the case of plastic manufacturing using plastic injection molding will be very less. Hence this can be considered a less expensive process.
- This is a repeatable process. With one machine, there is a possibility to produce thousands of plastic in one day. And all of them will be of the same quality.
Disadvantages that are there with an injection molding process
Along with the advantages, there are many disadvantages that have to be considered during the process of injection molding.
As plastic injection molds are complex, only engineers who are experienced can make them. The labor costs for them will be more. There will be many steps involved when the mold is to be prepared.
A lot of testing and planning will be required in order to make the final product last for a long time.
Conclusion
Even though the injection process is an expensive process, there are ways in which that cost can be reduced. This can be done by eliminating undercuts, removing not required features, Reducing cosmetic finishes, Modifying and using again the existing molds.
Injection Molding is used for the preparation of a wide variety of products and mainly for creating thousands of identical parts from a mold.