Injection Mold Design Injection molding is the fastest mass manufacturing process available for plastic parts. As such, you can get your parts to consumers faster and cheaper than any other method. However, designing your parts to be injection molded can be quite tricky if you don’t know the best practices for this specific process. [...]
Common Defects in Injection Molding Injection molding is a method of mass production manufacturing and is not without its faults. Defects can be minor surface marks or major areas of weakness or failure. They are often the result of errors in the molding process, poor design, material contamination, or a combination of the three. [...]
Dual-Shot Injection Molding Dual-shot plastic injection molding, sometimes simply referred to as overmolding, is an efficient manufacturing process that allows you to produce your multi-material and/or multi-color part in one mold cycle without extra assembly steps. While it is possible to mold more than two materials/colors this way, this article will focus on using [...]
Types of Molds in Injection Molding Injection molds may be classified by multiple different categories based on their features, such as runner system, plate amount, and part capacity. These classifications are not exclusive, but rather every mold will fit a label within each category. For example, you may have a mold that consists of [...]
Injection Mold Tooling Materials When choosing your tooling material, the expected volume of your production will have a great bearing on what material will best suit your needs. For example, a mold made of hardened tool steel will guarantee a minimum of 50,000 cycles before needing maintenance, while an aluminum mold may only produce [...]
Rubber Injection Molding What is Rubber Injection Molding? Rubber injection molding is similar to rigid plastic injection molding, except that the materials being used have flexibility and elasticity to make parts that require adaptability in their environments. These rubber-like materials are durable and can be produced in a variety of shore values, making them [...]
Thermoforming vs. Injection Molding Both thermoforming and injection molding are widely used plastic manufacturing methods. While both technologies require molds, they differ in many areas, including process, part design, cost, and volume. In general, thermoforming is best suited for large parts, including packaging and enclosures, while injection molding excels with small, end-use parts. In [...]
Injection Molding Cost The cost of injection molding depends on multiple factors, including part complexity, tooling, materials, labor, quantity, and production location. You can expect to spend $1,200 minimum on your mold. In addition to tooling costs, you will also pay for each unit produced. For very low volumes, you can expect to pay [...]
Injection Molding: Crush Ribs This post is part of our Injection Molding Design Guide series. Press-fit connections can be tricky to manufacture via injection molding if you’ve never heard of crush ribs. These structures can help your production process run smoothly while ensuring your parts fit and hold together correctly after the process is [...]
Injection Molding: Draft Angle This post is part of our Injection Molding Design Guide series. With plastic injection molding, it is important to design for manufacturability. To do this, you must take every step of the process into consideration, including ejection from the mold. Even though the part may form correctly in the mold, [...]