Even as the world becomes more and more technology based, manufacturing still plays an important role in the production of important items. In the United States alone, more than a million Americans work in plastics manufacturing.


Plastics manufacturing plays an important role in the manufacture of parts and there are many methods used to produce those parts. There’s plastic injection molding, reaction injection molding and structural foam molding. To get a better understanding of what each of those processes entails, let’s take a closer look at each of them.


Plastic injection molding works by injection molten (red-hot) materials into a mold through a sprue bushing and hot runner nozzle. This process can be done with many different materials. In a process such as die-casting, molten metal is put through the brushing and hot runner nozzle. The metal is then put in a heated barrel and injected into a cavity, which then hardens more and more as it cools.


With plastic injection molding, there a lot of parts involved in the process including machine nozzles, hot runner nozzles, sprue bushings, valve gate systems and dual stage filters.


Structural foam molding is done by adding inert gas into a polymer. Once that’s done, the polymer is put into an injection molding tool through a sprue bushing and hot runner nozzle. The process makes a skin form against the mold and as it cools, a honeycomb structure forms. This allows the parts created through this process to be lighter. There’s also less warpage and stress on the parts as well as a good strength-to-weight ratio and good impact resistance.


More than each of the individual parts, having the right machine for the job is important. The right molding machine makes manufacturing much easier and much faster.


Picking the right machine for your needs can be tricky, but you want to make sure that you pick the right series machine right away. Why? Different industries have had different molding machines created specifically for them and you’ll want to get one that’s going to be the best suited for your company’s type of manufacturing. You also want to be sure that the machine you choose allows finished parts to be easily ejected. There’s a lot of parts involved in molding and if you’re mass producing certain parts, you need to be sure they can be ejected to avoid any jams or malfunctions.


When you pick the right machine, you’ll have a machine that allows for full ejection as well as speedy ejection. In order to get the quality finish on the parts that you want, different materials need injected at the right speed to get the finish parts just right.


Another molding process that involves plastics is reaction injection molding. In this process, two liquids are mixed and then injected into a mold to allow them to chemically react. RIM allows manufacturing companies to shape intricate details into parts and to mold plastic into whatever shapes they need. How is this possible? Molds are subjected to high pressure in RIM and the plastic is pressed harder into the mold.


There are many benefits of RIM. For one, it allows for strength to be added into parts via added fillers in the injection molds. This makes the plastic denser and makes parts stronger and more durable. Using RIM, companies can use several different types of plastic in the molding process and companies can also be more efficient. This process is quick and allows many parts to be created from just one mold. In the long run, this saves companies money and time.


All types of plastic molding have their advantages and getting the right molding machine for the process your company uses will also allow it to work more efficiently, manufacture parts much easier and save time and money in the entire process.