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…
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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
Bumper covers: you see them every day but probably don’t give them much thought. Made of either plastic or fiberglass, they have two primary jobs: protect the bumper, and by extension, the entire automobile and its occupants. Their second job is simply to give a very utilitarian object (i.e. the bumper) a certain elan, thus…
Filed Under:Automotive Plastic Injection Molded Parts
Yep, it’s true: size matters. But in the case of particulate additives, (unlike, ahem, other instances) smaller is definitely more beautiful. In fact, nano-sized or even particles measured in micrometers are much less problematic for fabricated plastic products than adding pure organic polymers. The smaller particulate additives not only can lower the cost of plastic…
Filed Under:Plastic Injection Molding Methods
On this blog, we love plastics — all sorts of plastic, especially the plastic-injected molded kind. But there comes a time when plastic doesn’t have the metal, eh, mettle, to get the job done right. Plastic parts that have to be assembled and re-assembled multiple times, for example. Plastic threads just won’t cut it, in those…
Filed Under:Plastic Injection Molding Methods