Plastic injection moulding is an effective and versatile way of manufacturing accurate plastic parts and components. It is one of the most widely used manufacturing processes in the world today. This type of manufacturing helps you save valuable production time. It is accurate, meaning that you waste fewer materials. Furthermore, it is consistent. Therefore, it gives you the peace of mind knowing that what you ask for is what you will get. Planning your project can be stressful. So, it may help to have a basic understanding of the advantages and disadvantages of injection moulding.
What is plastic injection moulding?
Injection moulding is a popular form of manufacturing; it is used to create plastic parts. This is done by heating plastic material in the forms of granules and then injecting it straight into a specifically designed mould. This process allows for large numbers of parts to be produced both quickly and to a high quality.
What are the advantages of injection moulding?
This manufacturing process is typically the preferred option for manufacturing individual plastic parts. It allows for fast production, flexibility on material and colour, low labour costs, low waste and design flexibility and these are just some of the many advantages.
The moulding process itself is very quick compared to other processes. It has a high production output rate which means that this process is more cost effective and efficient.
The moulds themselves are subjected to extremely high pressure. As a result, the plastic within the moulds is pressed harder.
Thanks to this excessively high pressure, it allows for a large amount of detail to be imprinted onto the part and for complex or intricate shapes to be manufactured. As well as this, during the injection moulding process, fillers can be used. These fillers help to reduce the density of the plastic whilst being moulded which allows for extra strength.
With products that need added strength and to be more durable, plastic injection moulding offers options that other moulding processes do not.
Using injection moulding ensures that the parts being manufactured hardly require any work after production. This is due to the fact that once these parts have left their moulds; they have a more or less finished appearance.
What are the disadvantages of injection moulding?
Even though there are many advantages to injection moulding, there are still some minor disadvantages.
To start, you will need a mould which can be expensive depending on the size and geometrics of it. The cost of a mould ranges depending upon the size and complexity of the products.
Also, these moulds are often made of metal meaning that if any modifications need to be made to final parts, the moulds themselves have to be modified.
Contact Moldwel Product Ltd for More Information
Moldwel Product Ltd are leading plastic injection moulders based in the West Midlands. Whilst we offer a range of plastic moulding skills, experience and expertise associated with multinational companies, we still retain our family based ethos and approach. For more information on plastic injection moulding and what we can offer you, contact us today.
If you enjoyed this article you might like to read our previous article: 4 Types Of Plastic Moulding