What Are The Benefits Of Plastic Injection Molding?
If you are considering injection molding for the production of plastic parts of any kind, then you have made the right choice because of the many benefits. Some of the benefits include affordability, durability, consistency, efficiency, and most importantly, low cost production scalability. So what exactly are the benefits of injection plastic molding in making plastic parts? They include :
1. Efficiency
Now, the one of the few things to consider when it comes to producing plastic parts is efficiency. So the careful selection and partnering up with a professional injection molder is paramount to the success of the program. They should be intimately knowledgeable about manufacturing and optimization of the part designs and how to mold the parts most efficiently. Also, the must have to experience to be able to foresee and prevent any production bottlenecks as well as problems you might meet down the road. There are numerous processes available efficiency optimization of the injection molding process, depending on the type of parts and plastic materials utilized.
2. Strength And Durability
There is a bewildering array of polymers in the market for a wide range of applications. One of the most popular plastics material selection criteria is strength and durability. Strength is a measure of the ability to resist impact and durability is the ability to hold up to wear and tear as well as weather resistance. With the advance of plastic material research, new additives and manufacturing processes are resulting in plastic materials that are stronger and more durable but lighter as well. And since plastics are used very commonly outdoors and newly improved plastic materials are able to hold up to harsh environments. The use of injection molding gives your plastic parts the strength and durability to withstand most challenges thrown at them.
3. Precise And Complex Geometry.
With the advance of plastic material research and precision machining as well as plastic injection mold development it is now possible to injection mold very complex part geometry with tight tolerances. If the part geometry is adequately developed and the injection molding tooling and process thoroughly thought-out. It would be possible to produce extremely complex and highly precise molded parts that are a lot more economically and easily when compared to other forms of mass production.
4. Saves Cost.
With advancement of plastic material development as well as the injection molding technology, the costs of plastic injection molding process has dropped dramatically. On top of that, with the development of automation and development of advanced tooling techniques, the labor input in producing a plastic part is greatly reduced. Innovative tooling technology has allowed us to produce multiple parts from a single injection molding process. The accumulated improvements in plastic materials research and injection molding technology has made injection molding application a lot more ubiquitous and consequently, less expensive.
RELATED SERVICES: Multi-Shot Or Double-Shot Injection Moulding
5. Wide Selection Of Plastic Material
There is a plastic material available for every requirement in a plastic part; e.g. strength, durability, scratch resistance, flame retardant, warp resistance, lubricity, optical diffusion, etc. Do get with your material supplier and plastic injection molder to discuss the appropriate material selection for the development of your plastic parts. The proper selection would yield great costs and performance benefits of the parts that would contribute tremendously to the project bottom line.
6. Precision
Modern high-speed injection mold equipment that are properly maintained, lets us mass produce precision molded plastic parts. If you need to produce plastic parts such as connectors and gears that requires high precision production then injection molding would be the best choice with tolerances as tight as +/-0.0002”.
7. Versatile Finishing
One of the key advantages of plastic injection molding compared to other low costs mass production processes is the versatility of final part finishing. There are numerous finishing available for injection molded parts such as mirror polish, special texture, sand blasting, graphics, engraving, etc.
Just take note to specify the required finishing details in the initial product development phase and have the finishing designed and incorporated into the plastic injection mold. When the plastic injection mold is fabricated with the right finishing, the parts produced would be very close to their final intended look without the need for any secondary operations.
8. Versatile Color Control
One prominent benefit of plastic injection molding for mass production is the ability to mold-in-color. That means having the parts molded in the final color that it is intended without any post molding secondary operation to add pigments of any kind. There is an extensive and ever growing color palette available for molded parts. Since the color palettes are coded with their respective basic color constituents, once decided, colors are easily replicable from one production batch to another. Incidentally, there is also an option of having more than one color on one plastic product.
9. Production Flexibility
If you're looking for flexibility in the production of your plastic parts, then you're spot on with the use of injection molding. It is all about flexibility, after all. It doesn't matter if you are talking about specific plastic properties or the different color choices you can make. The bottom line is that injection molding process gives you a platform to tailor the production parameters according to your unique and varied needs.
10. High Volume Production
Plastic injection molding can be used for low volume and high mix as well and low mix high volume production. Once the production process and tooling gets maturated scaling becomes incredibly easy and economical; especially if the production quantity is very large. To be sure, plastic injection molding is by far hands down the best production option for plastics. You get all you can ask for such as precision, consistency, and accuracy, and repeatability of all your parts injected from the same mold.
11. Reduces Waste And Is Environmental Friendly
If you care about the environment like we do at Kore Industries, then this is a good reason why you should understand the environmental benefits of injection molding. Since some or most of the scrap plastics are recycled and used again, plastic injection molding is a very waste-efficient production process as it minimizes waste and preserves the environment.
12. Consistency.
If you need consistency and flexibility in all your product parts, then the use of injection molding should be the process of choice for you. When it comes to the production of plastic components, the incorporation of consistency should never be overlooked. Injection molding tend to give you the right consistency quality through the use of the same mold for each part and for advanced users there are pressure and temperature transducers available which are great in monitoring molding processes.
To be able to benefit properly from all the above-mentioned advantages of injection molding, you need to find yourself a professional and experienced complex injection molder who knows his job and knows how to do it properly. One who knows all about efficiency and optimizing reasonable designs given to him and also tackling any issue that may arise.
Finally, look for a professional molder with an established process and certifications such as the ISO 9001.
With a great technology partner equipped with appropriate experience and certified processes, injection molding would be economically superior go-to-market mass production unmatched in consistency.
Conclusion
Plastic injection molding provides superior unit economics, scalability, versatility and consistency in production of plastic parts with minimal environmental footprint since most of not all scrap from the production process are recycled. So when we opt to use plastic injection mold to produce our plastic parts, we not only add to our bottom line we protect the environment for our children.
RELATED SERVICES: Plastic Injection Mold and Molding
