INJECTION MOULDING EXPLAINED

Injection Moulding is a primary process for producing plastic parts. Injection Moulding is fast and used to produce large volumes of identical items from high precision engineering components to disposable consumer goods.

There are numerous processes of moulding plastic into practical shapes, each method has its own benefits and requires specific knowledge and skill to execute. The injection moulding process is one of the most widely used and counts for a significant proportion of all plastic products.

INJECTION MOULDING PROCESS

The injection moulding process, is when granules of plastic material are placed into the injection moulding machine via a variety of conveying systems. The melted plastic material is then injected under pressure via a runner system into the cavity. The moulding tool that provides the cavity defines the shape of the moulded part. The material is then cooled and finally ejected from the mould as a finished part. The injection moulding process then repeats, each cycle producing an identical part.

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INJECTION MOULDING ADVANTAGES

The injection moulding process has numerous advantages, it is quick, producing large volumes of parts every hour, a typical cycle can be as short as 15 seconds. Injection moulding presents great flexibilty in terms of material choice and colour. The injection moulding process offers low labour costs, as parts can be made ready with little or no assembly needed. When it comes to designing for plastic injection moulding, there are guidelines (see our Design Guidelines Section) but ultimately you can be very flexible with the design of your parts. Another advantage to using injection moulding is it produces little waste, as often plastic waste can be recycled. 

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INJECTION MOULDING DISADVANTAGES

Although the injection moulding process presents many positive attributes there are a few disadvantages that must be mentioned. The first is the high initial tool cost when looking to get plastic injection moulded. It can also be difficult to produce accurate costing forecasts and sometimes unpredictable changes or additional costs creep into projects. Finally it is worth noting that there are design restrictions for plastic injection moulding, but by working with an experienced design team you should be able to overcome inital issues. 

To read our blog about the disadvatages of injection moulding, follow the link.