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
With more and more attention focused on the effects of climate change, interest in bioplastics — which are produced from renewable biomass materials such as plant starch and vegetable fat — has grown considerably. Bioplastics can also be produced from recycled traditional plastics, which although based on petroleum, don’t add to climate change. Why? Because…
Filed Under:Plastic Injection Molding News
Even if 3D printing eventually usurps plastic injection molding — and that’s a BIG if — prototypes will continue to play an indispensable role in the production of plastic parts. Why? Simply put, prototypes are crucial to several steps which precede the actual production of parts. These include communications, engineering studies, market studies (to evaluate…
Filed Under:Plastic Injection Molding Methods , Uncategorized
Just when you thought it was safe to use the term “3D printing”, along comes “additive manufacturing”, which seems to be the current buzzword of choice among academic researchers around the world, including the UK. But really, we’re talking about the same technology, which heretofore has mostly been applied to building prototypes and turning out…
Filed Under:Plastic Injection Molding for Small Parts
A new dimension is coming to medical device manufacturing — a third dimension, if you will. It’s the marriage of 3D printing and plastic injection-molded medical devices, and it’s revolutionizing the entire med-tech industry. The reason is simple: production time. Now engineers can design a medical part in an application like SolidWorks one day, 3D print…
Filed Under:Plastic Injection Molding Medical Parts
AdvanTech manufactures a wide range of medical devices but no two are quite alike. Probably the only common denominator is their need to pass through a gauntlet of FDA approvals and clinical trials, any one of which can either delay or even kill a new product. This cumbersome approval process necessitates a sequence of…
Filed Under:Plastic Injection Molding Medical Parts
Cooling time: is there any plastic injection molding company that wouldn’t like to reduce it, and thus reduce cycle time? After all, a typical production cycle for a plastic part is 30 seconds to a minute, but cooling takes more than half of that cycle time. Time is money, so lowering cooling time directly impacts the bottom…
Filed Under:Plastic Injection Molding Methods , Uncategorized
As plastic injection molding continues to increase in popularity, (and despite what you may have heard, 3-D printing will not replace it any time soon), there is a growing shortage of employees skilled enough to add value to companies. On-the-job training has always been the go-to method for training your employees but it is expensive…
Filed Under:Plastic Injection Molding News
You’ve probably seen them dozens, if not hundreds of times, in your refrigerator or elsewhere around the house: those stiff, usually dark-colored plastic trays and bulk packaging containers, holding food or beverages, toys or other consumer goods. These items are made of the aptly-named Rigid Plastic, usually high-density polyethylene, which has become one of the…
Filed Under:Plastic Injection Molding News
Today’s plastic injection molders are pushing the envelope — or the mold, if you will — to produce parts which are lighter and more complex than ever before. And while that effort is laudable, pushing the limits can a be a risky proposition from a design and production stand-point. Why? Because the complex plastic parts…
Filed Under:Plastic Injection Molding for Small Parts