Smaller… Lighter…Faster: Such is the mantra for many plastic injection molders these days, especially in the area of “thin wall” parts-manufacturing. “Thin-wall” in relation to portable electronics parts are those with a wall thickness less than 1 millimeter. For larger automotive parts, “thin” may mean 2 mm. Whatever the specification, thinner walls call for modifications…
Filed Under:Plastic Injection Molding Methods
It’s simple, really: the primary purpose of feed rate control in regard to plastic injection molding is to achieve consistently accurate proportions of recipe components (resin and required additives) prior to pelletization (in compounding) or end-product manufacturing. Enter feeders: feeders produce a precise and controllable discharge rate for the material they are designed to work…
Filed Under:Plastic Injection Molding Equipment , Uncategorized
The internet has greatly sped up the pace of business, and the plastic injection molding industry is no exception. For example, it wasn’t that long ago when it took designers weeks or even months to obtain a quote for a custom plastic injection molding job. These days, the quotation processing time has been reduced to…
Filed Under:Plastic Injection Molding for Small Parts
Plastic packaging for food and beverage products comes in all shapes, sizes and colors. But which standard plastic parts-forming process — blow-molding or plastic injection molding — is the right one for your product? The answer is, of course, “it depends”. On what, you ask? On a multitude of variables that include (but are not…
Filed Under:Plastic Injection Molding Methods
Although you hear about Turkey a lot these days, the news is almost always bad: terrorism, civil wars in neighboring countries, migrant crises… the list goes on and on. Overlooked in all this is Turkey’s burgeoning plastic injection molding industry, which is doing quite well, thank you. Exhibit A: plastics processor and mold maker MTN…
Filed Under:Automotive Plastic Injection Molded Parts
It had to happen sooner or later. We’re talking about fiber optics vs. thermocouples: which sensor is better at monitoring melt-temperature during the injection molding process? For years, the all-important melt-temperature monitoring process was strictly a thermocouple thing. But leave it to a Chicagoland vendor (Okay, Futaba of Japan … but they’ve been in Schaumburg…
Filed Under:Plastic Injection Molding Methods , Uncategorized
Tin can. Aluminum can. Steel can. Plastic can. Say what? Plastic can? Why not? Plastic cans are compatible with standard metal canning manufacturing systems and offer several significant advantages. Namely: No need for overriding pressure Plastic cans are capable of being double-seamed and sterilized in traditional retort systems without any overriding pressure. No need to…
Filed Under:Plastic food packaging
Twenty years is a long time in the plastic injection molding industry. Even thought the internet age had already dawned in the ’90s, a shop floor manager working in that era would most likely have been still twisting knobs and staring at analog dials. Operators still consulted printed instructions to set up equipment by hand. Pneumatically driven…
Filed Under:Plastic Injection Molding Equipment , Uncategorized
Plastic as art? You’d get a lot of guffaws from the general public, which is more familiar with artistic materials such as oil paint and metal sculpture, even glass. But plastic? Puh-leeze! But the answer is “yes,” plastic can be the raw material for art, and we can prove it, as more and more designers…
Filed Under:Plastic Injection Molding News , Uncategorized
Okay, let’s start out with a few basic concepts… Thermoplastics are formed into products when they are molten: their ultimate shape and internal structure is determined by cooling. If a malformation occurs, they can be re-heated, then reshaped, if need be. The polymer chains of thermoplastics, whether branched or linear, will stay separated and distinct…
Filed Under:Plastic Injection Molding Methods