What are the advantages of plastic injection molding?
Advantages of plastic injection molding include uniformity, reduced costs, and rapid mass production. In addition, injection molded parts have excellent stability, and their scrap can be recycled, helping to eliminate waste.
Provide uniformity: Forming all parts with the same mold ensures that the parts remain the same size.
Make nearly identical parts: Since all parts produced come from the same mold, even parts with detailed features or complex geometries remain consistent.
Reduce costs: Due to the nature of injection molding, the more parts you produce, the less you pay per piece. Once the initial equipment and materials are established, there is almost no labor or time expense required to manufacture in this way. Injection molding is the cheapest process for plastics on a large scale because it can produce hundreds or thousands of parts per day.
Increase production speed: Other manufacturing methods, including CNC machining and 3D printing, require more work around each part, while injection molding only requires injection of material and cooling time to make the part (some part types do require secondary processing, however, depending on their application). Production can also be increased by including mold cavitation (the number of hollow forms within each mold). However, it is important to note that this only applies if the tooling has already been made. The creation of the tooling increases the lead time for newly molded parts.
Beneficial compatibility: Some forms of injection molding (such as overmolding and insert molding) can use multiple materials to create a single part. It is estimated that injection molding itself can use more than 18,000 thermoplastics, thermosets, and elastomers. This means that it is easy to create a part that is compatible with the components it will interact with.
Ability to create complex parts with less expense: Since it involves filling a mold with plastic, complex parts can be made in large quantities with this method without requiring a lot of labor or time.
Material flexibility: Since injection molding can utilize thousands of plastics and additives, it is easier to find a plastic with the properties you need.
Stability: Injection molded parts are isotropic, which means they form a solid component. This makes them stronger and more reliable than some 3D printed parts, so they will last longer before they need to be replaced.
Material Recyclability: Injection molding can reuse discarded materials, reducing waste and the need to purchase more materials.
