In part, this long lead time can be attributed to the complexity of the molds themselves. It often takes 5-7 weeks to manufacture tooling and 2-4 weeks to produce and ship parts. However, injection molding has a longer lead time. Initial lead times are long.Ī CNC machined part can be delivered within 5-10 days, and industrially 3D printed parts often have lead times of 3-5 days. An injection molding manufacturing partner can help you maximize your budget and refine your mold design so you can produce the best possible part for the best price. Although you can reuse these molds again and again and save on tooling costs down the line, it’s worth considering how much molds cost upfront. Tooling for a simple design and a small production run can cost between $2,000 and $5,000, but tooling for large, complex molds ready for full-scale production can cost several times that. Since custom tooling must be created for each injection molded part, initial start-up costs are high and this isn’t economical for low-volume production runs. There are plenty of advantages of plastic injection molding, but it’s not without its drawbacks. However, you can easily regrind, melt, and reuse any sprues, runners, or other leftover plastic parts to save on material and reduce material waste. Though injection molding generates less post-production material waste than many other manufacturing processes, it still creates excess scraps. Plus, since injection molding uses the same mold for each part, you’ll have identical products. An aluminum mold will generally last between 5,000 and 10,000 cycles, and a full-scale steel production mold can last for over 100,000 cycles. Once you’ve created your mold, you can produce thousands of parts before needing to maintain your tooling. One of the main benefits of plastic injection molding is its high repeatability. It offers high repeatability and reliability. This helps maximize efficiency and gets the most out of each mold, allowing you to create hundreds of identical parts an hour at a low cost. Even if you have a complex geometry that takes around 120 seconds to mold, you can include several smaller parts in one larger mold. While it can take several minutes - or even hours - to 3D print or CNC machine a single part, most injection molding cycles only last 10 to 60 seconds. Consider using masterbatches, pre-colored resins, liquid colorants, or salt and pepper blends to achieve your desired color. You also have a variety of options when it comes to colors. For example, you might add glass fibers to your thermoplastic to create a strength-enhancing composite. You can also use a mixture of materials to produce a part with the strength, impact resistance, or stiffness you need. Commonly used materials include acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS), polyethylene (PE), polystyrene (PS), and polypropylene (PP). With all of these options, you’ll be able to find one that offers the right balance of physical, mechanical, and chemical properties. Today, there are over 25,000 engineered materials that are compatible with injection molding, including thermoplastics, thermosets, resins, and silicones. It’s compatible with a wide range of materials and colors. In some cases, you can even produce parts with tolerances of ± 0.125 mm (0.005’’), giving you parts that are accurate enough for most applications and comparable to 3D-printed or CNC machined parts. With injection molding, you can easily achieve repeatable part tolerances of ± 0.500 mm (0.020’’). However, you must pay attention to vent and gate placements, weld lines, corner transitions, wall thickness, rib and boss design, and more to ease ejection and achieve precise parts. Injection molding allows for large volumes of uniform, complex parts. It allows for complex geometries with tight tolerances. Many manufacturers turn to injection molding because: 1. Before you decide whether or not to injection mold your part, carefully consider the injection molding pros and cons. Injection molding has numerous applications in a wide variety of industries - from the automotive industry to the medical industry - but it isn’t the best choice for every project. It’s a highly repeatable process that enables companies to create high volumes of identical plastic parts with good tolerances at a low cost per part. Injection molding involves injecting molten plastic into carefully designed molds before cooling and ejecting the final part.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |