Why employ injection moulding services? The answer is that injection moulding is a sophisticated and highly precise process where a number of factors affect the product’s appearance, characteristics and also price.
Design
There are many aspects to design in injection moulding:
Product design: This aspect needs very careful consideration to get it right on all counts. The designer must consider appearance of the product, its structural strength, the material to be used for injection moulding and the mould type that will be used for its production to make it easy for mould designers and for the process itself. This is a skill only very experienced professionals in injection moulding services possess.
Mould design: A variety of factors go into the process of mould design. The mould designer will base his mould design on the product design. Another consideration is how many cavities the mould should have, dictated by the quantity required to be produced. Longevity of the mould will dictate the material used in making moulds. Materials used for moulds can range from hardened steel to prehardened steel, aluminium and copper. Each has different thermal and dimensional characteristics as well as longevity. The material used for moulding is another important consideration. Melting point, flow rate, structural integrity of product, shrinkage, speed of production, size of the product and also the machine on which the mould will be used are all factors that must be considered with great care. The designer needs to consider the draft or ejection angle and also the size of gates through which material is injected into the cavity. Matters can become quite complicated when one considers the use of hot runner moulds where the designer has a tough challenge to design all the intricate parts, heating arrangement and placement of nozzles, manifolds, hot valves and heaters for optimal performance, especially when the mould is large and has multiple cavities.
Cost optimization: A mould designer also needs to factor in cost optimization. Just focusing on the material to be used, machine on which mould will be mounted and the mould design is not sufficient. Cost optimization is equally important especially in bulk production. Experienced designers have full knowledge about various thermoplastic materials and know just how thick or thin the walls need to be, where to place ribbing and supports to impart structural strength with minimum use of material. Reduction of waste in the final moulded product is another thing to be considered.