The Different Types of Injection Molding Technology
What started as a simple design to create production convenience rapidly evolved into various methods and technologies. Nowadays, there are several different injection molding methods available for a business, and each serves a fundamental purpose of achieving quality parts manufacturing. Let’s look at some of the most common technology used and see which injection molding form is right for your respective industry.
Thin Wall Molding
The technology involved in thin wall molding helps create plastic parts containing thin walls. This method of injection molding is suitable in applications for tubes, vessels, or apparatuses.
The engineers who work with this intricate form of plastic injection molding must consider all contributing factors from mold design, product design, and overall process details. The products must contain a certain level of geometrical perfection to pass quality control and meet consumer demands.
Metal Injection Molding
Plastic injection molding technology isn’t the only method of injecting molding available. Metal is another prominent material in producing goods and parts and serves many industrial applications.
It is worth noting this technology is significantly more expensive than plastic, but it’s essential, nonetheless. Metal injection molding plays a crucial role in crafting shields in the mobile device industry to protect the device from microwaves or radio waves that can impair its functionality.
3D Printing
3D printing is a relatively common and significant molding technique today. This technology contributes to prototyping various parts across industries and improves the level of design. A common use for 3D printing is reverse engineering parts.
Through 3D printing, manufacturers and engineers can review models before total production begins, perform testing, and use a CAD system to examine renderings in detail. This technology can produce plastic or metal molded parts, making it applicable across the board.
Liquid Silicone Injection Molding
The vast majority of injection molding with plastics falls under the thermoset category. This process is the injection of a cold material into an exceedingly hot mold, resulting in the desired part.
Industries such as auto parts and medical device manufacturers use a thermoplastic injection molding process because this method can withstand high-temperature values. For a thermoplastic method to occur, the engineers must use liquid silicone in the molds. Medical devices and instruments use an over-molding method to further ensure sanitization.
There are many unique methods in parts manufacturing, and each serves specific purposes tied to the consumer. Regardless of the technology your business needs, the injection molding process has come a long way from the beginning days of molding buttons and combs. To ensure your industry maintains cost-effectiveness and quality production, consider one of these technologies for parts manufacturing.