Custom injection molding has various benefits over conventional production techniques and other molding forms. There is a good reason why the value of the global plastics industry is predicted to increase over the next several years to $654.38 billion. A significant contributor is the range of uses and applications for plastic molding in many sectors.
Here are some advantages of custom injection molding:
1. Easily customizable
Most injection molding resins are well suited to having colorants added to them to provide surface coloring that differs from the unappealing natural color of the plastic. Custom plastic injection molding is particularly suitable for applications where aesthetics are crucial, such as consumer items, since most shops can reproduce any Pantone hue for an injection molding project.
2. Broad design flexibility
Highly complicated items may be created using customized injection molding to suit the client’s demands. The choices within these design best practices are rather vast, even though there are several best practices for injection molding colors that assist in guaranteeing effective manufacturing and adequate component quality and dependability. The designers and toolmakers of injection molding can satisfy even the most challenging needs, even while following norms like rounded corners, tapered walls and progressive variations in wall thickness.
3. Tight tolerances
Injection molding is a highly accurate technique with limited component dimensions and tolerances variation and relatively simple methods to account for the fluctuation. The heated plastic resin shrinks as it cools, which is a significant issue in injection molding and may sometimes result in faulty or rejected pieces. It is not necessary to rely on guesswork when accounting for shrink. Appropriate injection, packing, cooling periods, proactive component design, and familiarity with the physical characteristics of your material may all assist in guaranteeing that your parts match the necessary specifications.
4. Combinations of pieces and materials
Injection molding is a quick and easy approach to adding even more customization to your component or product, thanks to cutting-edge techniques like co-molding and overmolding. Using a procedure like overmolding implies that you are not restricted to only using materials appropriate for injection molding for your injection molded product. The resin may be over-molded around a metal core or component for extra strength, a more unusual or appealing look, or more sophisticated functioning.
5. Fast turnaround
You may find that injection molding is inefficient since the mold might take weeks or months to make, similar to worries about the price of tool steel molds. However, that mold fabrication time may be significantly reduced for shorter batches or other circumstances where tooling made of different materials is appropriate – in fact, only a few days for 3D printed tools. Turnaround times are quicker with injection molding than with almost every comparable process available when combined with how quickly cycle times are compared to other methods.
6. Automation
Although knowledgeable, experienced personnel will always be a crucial component of a successful injection molding process, the nature of injection molding makes it highly suitable for automated procedures like part ejection and removal or changing tooling. A production method is more effective when automation is increased.
7. Easy reclamation and recycling
Custom injection molding has advantages and benefits over other methods because any material that does become waste—for example, damaged or rejected parts—can be readily recovered and recycled and then utilized again for another manufacturing run. It is often as easy as heating the damaged component or extra material back into a molten liquid state, which may then be utilized to recover “waste” injection molding resin.
8. Little to no finishing needed
For many applications, colored injection plastic that is acceptable for the completed product is a plastic resin’s natural finish. It is often the factor influencing a customer’s decision to use injection molding (and its suitable resins as a material). If texturing or another form of surface finish is needed, it may often be included in the mold’s design rather than added via a separate procedure. The time savings from a short (or nonexistent) finishing step are increased by how easily coloring and other design elements may be applied as a piece is created.
Custom injection molding stands out among the many other kinds of plastic production and molding techniques accessible as one of the most affordable, adaptable, and successful technologies to date.
