Large tonnage injection molding machines (>500 tons) were not much beloved by plastic injection molders for many years. They were just so, well, unwieldy for lack of a better term. Then there were the shipping costs. In a word, they were understandably high because of the sheer weight of the plastic parts which were being…
Filed Under:Automotive Plastic Injection Molded Parts , Plastic Injection Molding Equipment
Almonds taste great in cakes, breads, cereal, candy bars, even liquors. Now there’s research going on that call for a plastics recipe which includes the tasty nut as filler. Well, not the almond itself; more specifically, its shell. Almond shells enhance the strength of plastic more than most conventional materials and are being tested as…
Filed Under:Plastic food packaging & beverage packaging , Plastic Injection Molding News , Uncategorized
It’s no optical illusion: increasingly, plastic lenses for optical applications are seen as a superior choice to traditional glass. There are many reasons but it comes down to this: polymers enable optical surfaces to join with other features of the product, chiefly mounting features, are lighter in weight, can be molded into an infinite variety…
Filed Under:Plastic Injection Molding Methods
We take it for granted in our industry: molten plastic cools and crystallizes into some preordained shape in a mold under a predetermined pressure in a process called plastic injection molding. If only it were that easy. The story begins with melted or “molten” plastics. All these polymer molecules look relatively the same at the…
Filed Under:Plastic Injection Molding News , Uncategorized
Temperature is arguably the most critical measurement parameter in the plastic injection molding process. In fact, consistently high-quality production can only be attained through precise temperature control. But traditional measurement techniques involved actual contact between the sensor and the part whose temperature was to be taken. There were a number of drawbacks to this method,…
Filed Under:Plastic Injection Molding Methods
Plastic injection molding, as a process, has many parameters but none so important as the right design. Design is particularly important for rapid plastic injection molding, (RIM) where speed is of the essence, as is quality. This post is a top-level examination of many of the vital design considerations that must be taken into account…
Filed Under:Uncategorized
Ah, the marriage of plastic and metal — it’s always a challenge, not the least because of the need to pre-treat the metal part in order for it to bond with the plastic part. But marrying these two materials is almost always necessary at some point in the manufacture of plastic automotive parts and plastic…
Filed Under:Automotive Plastic Injection Molded Parts
The general public might be forgiven if they thought the plastic injection molding process is all about heat. After all, you need a lot of heat to melt plastic resign, so it can be molded into any size or shape part you need, right? What the GP doesn’t often think about is cooling, which is…
Filed Under:Plastic Injection Molding Methods
Smart Factory… Artificial Intelligence… Machine Learning… whatever you call it, it’s coming to a plastic injection molding plant near you, and soon. (Maybe it’s your plastic injection molding plant!) At NPE 2018 in Orlando (May 7 – 11), exhibitors will say they’re not there to sell you something which will simply incrementally improve the status quo. Instead,…
Filed Under:Plastic Injection Molding Methods
It’s a familiar scenario: You’ve just received a shipment of a mystery resin about which you know very little. Have you ever worked with it before? Not sure. What are the processing parameters? Without any accompanying information, you don’t have a clue. So you start a production run after “guestimating” the processing parameters. Not a…
Filed Under:Plastic Injection Molding News