thin wall thickness injection molding

What Are The Key-Points To Mold Plastic Products With Different Wall Thickness By Injection Molding?

The wall thickness of products is one of the most importance things to keep mind when it comes to plastic injection molding. Typically, thicker walls provide a higher level of strength. At the same time, they may create the problem of warping while the plastic cools down in the mold. Let’s take a look at some key-points to remember when molding plastic of different wall thickness during an injection molding process.

thin wall thickness injection molding
thin wall thickness injection molding

Designers and engineers tend to take shortcuts and opt for the lowest wall thickness, which is not a good idea. However, during mass production, you can enjoy a few advantages by keeping the walls light and thin. Moreover, if the production process keeps going on for a long-term, the benefits become more significant. Give below is a description of some of the benefits:

  • Since thinner parts don’t require a lot of material, their material cost is low. And this is what most producers want to do. Keeping costs low is the goal of every production manager.
  • Thinner parts tend to cool down faster, which shortens the molding cycle and brings down the cost of each unit.
  • Thinner parts don’t have a lot of weight, which reduces the shipping costs.

Considerations

Typically, plastic products have varied wall thickness. Minimum wall thickness depends upon the structural and strength requirements of the part or product. Aside from this, you also need to take into account the material behavior as there is a strong link between the injection pressure and the highest flow length that can be achieved. Irrespective of the case, modern flow and structure analysis programs can help you opt for the best wall thickness. So, keeping this point in mind is important.

Aside from this, you can also go for different kinds of plastic as each type has its own degree of cooling properties and strength. As a general rule, experts suggest that the minimum wall thickness for the traditional molding should be around 0.3mm. Moreover, it also depends upon the features of the part. If the thickness is lower than 0.3mm, it will be harder to get good results.

Design Advice

As far as molding plastic parts through injection molding in china is concerned, the wall thickness uniformity is important. The reason is that thinner walls tend to cool down faster than the thicker ones. If this happens, you may have to face the problem of warping, which can cause internal stresses in a product. This is something that you don’t want to see when you are trying to take shortcuts.

If you can’t have a uniform wall thickness, you can change the thickness. However, make sure you make changes to the thickness bit by bit. This will help you avoid the complication that we mentioned above.

Long story short, these are a few things that you may want to keep in mind when molding plastic products that feature different wall thickens. For quality assurance, as said earlier, the wall thickness uniformity is really important.

You can import great quality injections molds from a good injection mold maker in China. This will save you plenty of money.

Resource box: This article is originally posted in http://www.automoldchina.com

car lamp mold

How to choose suitable tool steels for different plastic applications

Choosing the right tool steel is not an easy task. If you picked up the wrong material, it will ruin all your work and will cost you a good monetary loss. Buy the tool steel from a trusted source where you have no doubt about the quality and performance of the product. Choosing the correct mold ensures efficiency and high quality. Choosing the right size before can save the trouble of giving it a finishing.

car lamp mold
car lamp mold

Final production depends upon the type of plastic injection mold material you choose. The selection should be done carefully and the product must be comprised of these qualities. The molded steel must have the strength and bearable because during the injection molding process the mold plates go through a lot of clamping pressure, which if mold is not strong enough then it cannot bear. It must have the strength to perform well. The steel should not have any defects like holes, impurities in order to get the smooth final product. During the molding process, addictive & plastics will release corrosive gases, which the steel should be strong enough to resist.

Tool steels are available in many grades like air-hardening tool steel, water-hardening tool steels, and oil-hardening tool steels; hot-working tool steels, shock-resisting tool steels, high-speed tool steels, etc. There is a variety to choose from. Lots of options may confuse you and trouble you about your selection. Then these tips and hints can help you in selecting the proper object. First of all, keep these things in mind while choosing:

Budget – The choice of steel depends on your budget. If your budget is low, then you can use Water-hardening tool steels, it is a good substitute for cost and mechanical properties. It does not need any other element.

Type P tool – For plastic molding, a special type of tool steel is required. It comes in the Type P of tool steel family. This tool steel is especially for the manufacture of plastic molds or molds for metals with low melting temperatures.

Temperature – Using tool steel at a high temperature is not suggested because it is already heat treated and doing it again may lead to losing its usefulness. For high temperatures, hot work tool steel should be used. They will not use their hardness and are wear resistant even at high temperatures.

Others – For unusual applications also there are special types of tool steels available which are mostly proprietary.

The final product requires high cosmetic requirements. Temperature and climate also play an important role. At high-temperature, mold steel in under the danger of getting oxidized. Through the Electro-Slag-Remelted (ESR) process, you can get the best conditions for cosmetic finishes. It ought to be done carefully. Your final product and its performance depend upon the product you choose and its application. The tool steel should meet above-mentioned requirements and the process of molding should be smoothly delivered. Then only you can get a proper final product with no defects.

If you too are looking for tool steels for your plastic applications, then visit China mold factory. Here you will get all kinds of molding products injection mold, plastic mold, etc. It is the best molding company in China.

The original of this article is from http://www.automoldchina.com.

Required Equipment To Make Automotive Molds

Plastic Injection molding is one of the most widely used techniques for making plastic automotive molds. This has been in use for many decades as it is a very versatile process and high quality results are obtained.

Automotive Molds
Automotive Molds

Fiberglass automotive molds are made differently where the resin is coated on the surface of the mold along with chopped strand matting of five layers, allowed to cure, dry and then polishing and waxing.

Plastic injection molding basically consists of injecting plastic material into a mold, first into a heated barrel and then into a mold, where it is mixed and heated and then forced into a mold cavity where it begins to cool and harden to take on the shape of the mold. Essentially, if the part is plastic, then it can be manufactured by plastic injection molding. The list of parts in the automotive industry made by plastic injection molding is almost endless.

  • General Instrumentation including the molding that holds it in place
  • Housings for electronic module controls
  • Radio controls
  • Plastic interior surfaces
  • Faceplates and lenses
  • Splash guards and other exterior automotive parts like panels, railings, doors, locking systems.
  • Fuel tank systems, electrical covers

The ideal injection molding system consists of injection molding and test facilities. The test facilities include physical and mechanical testing under a wide range of test conditions. Pilot plants are also tested before setting up automotive components injection molding installations.

A lot of sophisticated machining goes into making a mold which is made of highly durable chromium steel for plastic injection. Milling machines, CNC machines and EDM electrode machines are essential for creating a precision mold. This is in general. Aluminium and rubber molding machines are also made using different metals. Engraving of date – year and month stamp, logo etc. are also provided.

 

China Mould manufacturers

There are many mechanical components of a typical molding machine, like machine frames, toggle parts, clamping plates, etc., which may be manufactured separately by individual manufacturers and assembled together. In China, this is possible. But in Europe, they have to source such individual components from China, which is a time consuming and expensive proposition. The Chinese have the option of sourcing these parts from other manufacturers in their own country or manufacturing them within the company. Either way, they stand to benefit. They have a large market for their own molding machines.  Injection molding machines come with all the required features and at very competitive prices. It is said that only 5% of the 600 injection molding machine manufacturers are considered at par with European manufacturers.

Some of the auxiliary machinery required to make plastic automotive molds are:

Auto Loader- Hopper dryer – Crusher and mixer – Water chiller and cooling tower –Mold Temperature controller –Air compressor –Air filter

These are all highly precise, microprocessor enabled, robot assisted operating machinery which complements the working of an excellent injection molding machine.

Injection molding China has come a long way. In addition to improving their machinery and increasing the life of their plastic molding machinery, the companies have provided services centers in many countries of the world, close to their customer site, to provide on site assistance. China injection molding is the most widely used in the world, and serves many of the leading car manufacturers like Audi.