Injection Molding – Success
There are four items needed to have success in injection molding a finished part. The initial part design must be done within some common guidelines. The first of these is to have even wall thickness throughout the part. Sometimes, this is not an option and cannot be achieved. If this is the case, then the wall thickness must be as close as possible to even thickness. Also, the goal of the part design is to achieve the strongest part possible using ribs and fillets. So, the first item to have success in injection molding a part is a good part design.
Once that task is complete, the second item and probably the most important, is to have an injection mold built. A competent mold shop with experience must be chosen. The best way to find a shop like this is through word of mouth or through references that you could talk to. If you do not have a mold that runs good, then it is impossible to make acceptable parts. Therefore, this step, in my eyes, is the most important. There is a lot of injection molding info online that you can obtain. You can learn as much as possible on how an injection mold works and about the different grade molds that are available. Do as much research as you can and ask potential shops that are in the running to build your mold if you can see some of their molds running parts and also opened up on a bench.
The third item you need is a good injection molder. Some of these shops build and also run production. This is a big advantage since it reduces downtime for any type of repair or mold changes that are needed because the tool room and molding department are in the same shop. The injection molder must have knowledge of injection molding and have experience in troubleshooting molding parts. An advantage of having the injection mold built and also the injection molding production ran at the same shop, is if something is wrong with the part or the mold breaks down, it prevents the hassle of which shop is held responsible.
Toth Mold/Die Inc. has been building and running molds, injection molding for almost 32 years.
The fourth item needed is to have a good running injection molding machine with all valves, timers and switches in proper working order. It does not need to be a brand new machine, just a good running machine. If these four items that I have talked about are in place, then injection molding an acceptable part will be straightforward to accomplish.