Guide to Cost-Saving Tips On Plastic Injection Molding

 

Plastic injection molding is a common additive manufacturing process. The whole process starts with pouring a pliable liquid material in a hollow block. Later, the liquid cools and hardens, taking on the shape of the cavity. Plastic injection molding is best for making prototypes, high volume parts in automotive and plastic products for the current market. At Creatingway, we recommend the use of high-pressure injection molding due to its unique benefits. However, this option may cost more when compared to other additive processes. Here are a few tips and tricks into saving costs with plastic injection molding.

Solutions On Cost-Save Plastic Injection Molding

• Reduce Undercuts

Undercuts help prevent the ejection of the mold from the part. However, the features may complicate the injection molding process or even avert part injection. It is important to eliminate them if possible. Some good instances of changes include sliding shutoffs, changing the parting line, or having passed through cores. Appropriate application of these options significantly reduces tooling costs.

• Reduce Cosmetic Finishing

Decorations are great in adding beauty to your product. processes such as mold polishing or bead blasting do increase the tooling cost. We recommend to rather focus on necessary areas rather than the entire mold. It will reduce the overall cost to a manageable budget.

• Use Family Molds

Family molds are great options for making parts in bulk. For instance, aluminum material can make up to eight cavity molds that are adequate. Therefore, you can easily minimize piece-per-part costs.

• Modify and Recycle Molds

Making the plastic injection mold part is a tedious process. It takes several steps before getting the right design. However, you could consider reusing an initial old mold rather than quoting an entirely new one. It can start from the smallest basic design up to multiple pieces with extra features. The method of recycling molds saves a lot in tooling development.

• Design Self-Mating Parts

In terms of design, we recommend self-mating parts for interlocking sections. This is for sections that need to be joined. It avoids the need of repeating the molding process for every snap, thus saving cost.

• Consider The Core Cavity Method

The core cavity approach has a smooth finish, improved ejection, and removes steep draft angles. It also simplifies the process of shaping ribs into a mold. they usually need thin tools to achieve the same effect. In turn, you get a cost-effective option.

Factors Affecting The Molding Production Cost

• Part Size

The size of the part quoted is directly proportional to the materials used. Hence, larger parts need more materials turning in more production costs and time. You should consider making smaller sized parts to lower your overall production cost.

• Mold Material

The mold material determines the durability of the molding cavity. Plastic injection molding uses various core metals as the mold material. For instance, steel molds are good for long run projects. On the other hand, rubber or aluminum molds work only for short-run projects. But, selecting aluminum molds requires a lot of maintenance costs to keep accuracy. You should thus select the right mold material depending on your plastic injection molding project timeline.

• Number of Cavities

Cavities are sometimes essential to the design of the mold. however, they eat into the tooling time and work during processing. Having fewer cavities lowers these additional tooling costs. We also recommend the making of a single mold per part. It is because using family molds lower the quality of the products. Also, more unarranged downtimes occur due to maintenance issues.

• Customization of Cavity

Cavity customization involves placing cooling, cores, and ejectors for polishing. We can use steel molds since they have a longer production life. Hardened steel is the right material though costly to customize.

• Design

Clients aim to design an eye-appealing product. however, you should factor in the design’s complexity and cost. Design features that determine cost value include surface finishing, number of cavities, and undercuts. Products with intricate parts in plastic injection molding tend to translate to higher tooling costs. Also, parts needing tight tolerances affect the overall cost. It will require extra tooling steps to achieve this desired tolerance. At Creatingway, our team of dedicated engineers can help in simplifying your design. This will significantly lower your budget. In some cases, a small part with many details costs more. Compare this to a large part with simple details.

• Type of Mold Base

The mold base holds together all inserts, cavities, and other components. Thus, it is important in the plastic injection molding process. Many mold bases have a standard size. However, make projects fit into these sizes, we polish them. This will later lead to additional costs. So, quoting standard sizes for your project is better.

Before beginning any molding project, it is important to be keen on the quotation. You are bound to save more with these tips and factors in mind. Contact Creatingway now for your plastic injection molding needs.

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