Did you know? Regular preventative maintenance of injection molding tools like mold cavities is important to effectively fulfill plastic injection molding demands. Hence, manufacturing plastic products using the mold cavity isn’t the end of your tasks as a machine operator. Instead, once you complete production work, maintaining the mold cavity is just as crucial as the manufacturing process. Besides, poorly maintained molds may produce parts that do not meet standards, resulting in increased downtime, waste of raw materials, and a negative impact on the bottom line.   Mold Cavity Maintenance Checklist: Below are the eight key practices to consider when upkeep molding cavities that you use for plastic injection manufacturing tasks:   Frequently Analyze Mold Cavity Condition: It is imperative to comprehensively inspect the injection molds before beginning a fresh manufacturing cycle. It is important to thoroughly inspect the surfaces of the injection molding die to ensur...

In today’s ever-growing manufacturing industry, industrial molds are widely used in various manufacturing processes, including plastic injection molding, die casting, and sheet metal forming. These molds help shape raw materials into desired products. Now in the modern-day manufacturing world comprising various advanced machines and tools, industrial molds are some common options many manufacturers and companies opt for. Are you also considering the same? But which industrial mold is ideal for your manufacturing demands? With the different types of industrial molds available today, each with its unique structure, design, and manufacturing method – it’s important to understand their working and design process. In this article, we will help you explore the design process of various industrial molds. So without further ado, let’s dive into the details.   Different Types Of Industrial Molds And Their Design Process:   Injection Molds The first common indus...

Manufacturers’ task is to produce products that serve a wide range of functional and aesthetic purposes, often turning to multi-material injection molding solutions-more specifically, insert injection molding and overmolding. Because these two processes have some similarities, they are generally considered interchangeable, but there are also some key differences. Understanding the basic differences between insert molding and overmolding will allow you to choose the most appropriate type of multi-material molding for your application.     1. Insert Injection Molding Insert injection molding is a process that requires an insert, usually metal, to be pre-placed in the tool to inject the plastic flow.   Plastic packaging inserts can create a molded plastic sheet, which is generally stronger than a plastic sheet created using secondary assembly.   Insert injection molding can be done by manual insert loading-for very small batch applications or extremely complex pa...

As the connecting area between the runner and the cavity, the gate plays a vital role in the injection molding process. Gates-their style and where they are placed can affect the overall cycle time, the cost of the mold, and the appearance of a molded part. Therefore, it is important to know how to use the gate before starting an injection molding project.     This Blog looks at the six most common gate types used in plastic injection molding: side gates, tab gates, direct gates, hot gates, pin gates, and sub-gates. It looks at the properties of these unique gate styles and provides suggestions when to best use them. 1. What is a Gate? Molten plastic material is injected into a mold cavity, causing the material to solidify and form a product. This process involves passing molten plastic through gates and runners until it is able to reach the gate, which opens up an opening that allows the molten plastic to enter the mold cavity. Not all gates are the same. Gates can be locate...

Part craftsmen typically provide mold design job books based on molded part task books. To assure the logic and consistency of the mold manufacturing process, optimize the processing process, and improve mold manufacturing progress, each mold factory normally develops a process standard fit for its factory, including using unique injection mold parts.   This article will discuss common injection mold parts, their applications, and things to consider when employing them throughout a factory’s machining process.   Types Of Injection Mold Parts: Core & cavity insert: In injection molding, the mold core refers to a solid component that is used to create the internal features and cavities of a molded part. It is typically made of hardened steel and is separate from the mold cavity itself. Mold cores are used in conjunction with the mold cavity to form the complete shape of the molded part.   Lifter: The injection mold lifter is an essential component that makes the ...

  Jetting, also known as jet, worm track, or snake-like pattern, refers to the snake-like curves on a plastic injection molded part along the flow direction from the gate, as shown in Figure    1. Under normal circumstances, the molten plastic fills the mold cavity in a “fountain flow” manner, as shown in Figure  2, which depicts the “fountain flow” in detail. However, when the molten plastic flows at a high speed through narrow areas, such as the nozzle, the runner and the gate, and then suddenly enters an open and relatively wider area, the plastic melt will be injected from one end to the other of the cavity in the form of jet streams, creating folded strips. The melt that enters the cavity later fills the remaining space in the mold cavity with a normal fountain flow and is welded to the jetted streams. Since the melt is immediately cooled the moment it makes contact with the cavity wall (mold surface) which has a relatively low temperatu...