Product identification plays an extremely important role in communicating a product’s position and brand in the marketplace. Plastic nameplates can convey messages, brand, classifications, description, schematics, warnings, instructions and many other types of product information.
Plastic injection molded nameplates help to identify your products and help them stand out in the crowd. Before we go further, let’s take a quick look at the plastic injection molding process.
The Plastic Injection Molding Process
The plastic injection molding process is not a complicated one for something which has many different types of moldings. Injection Molding processes of this sort involving metals go back many years, and basic principles have not changed, just the methods and materials.
Of course, you have seen what the finished product looks are. You’ve seen them more times than you may be aware of. You’ve seen them as car emblems, appliance, and industrial nameplates, custom plastic nameplates, recreational product nameplates, point-of-purchase, plaques, and signs. They fill the world around you, but do you know how are they made?
The process begins with a plastic pellet made of a composite of organic and inorganic polymers, plus additives to aid in the melting process. This small pellet is tossed into a hopper with thousands of other pellets. This begins the journey from pellet to product. The next step is preparing the plastic.
The pellets are released onto the threads of a giant rotating screw. As the pellets travel along, they are heated to melting temperatures, somewhere around 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Of course, the higher quality the plastic is the higher the temperature it takes to melt it. The pellets are rolled along the screw because the process also requires friction and force. The screw provides both as the pellets roll along its surface and crash into each other.
Now that all three requirements are met, friction, force, and heat, the pellets begin to liquefy, and the next step of filling begins. The screw continues to guide the liquid plastic along its threads to a valve. Under high pressure, the valve forces the plastic into a custom-designed mold – made of heat resistant metals – until every cavity is filled. Once this is achieved the mold goes into the holding phase. The filling and holding phases are crucial steps in the plastic injection molding process. Their execution will determine the quality of the finished product. The metals we use for the mold ensure that the last piece made carries the same qualities as the first.
The Next Step
The pressure on the mold is maintained while the molten plastic cools to a solid-state. This stage could take a few minutes as the mold absorbs the heat from the melted plastic, and in turn, is cooled by coolant that encircles it. While the part is cooling, the screw returns to its original position, collecting more pellets from the hopper. The product is then ejected from the mold and moves to its secondary processes such as decoration, sub-assembly, or shipment. The mold closes, and the process begins all over again.
Advantages of the Plastic Injection Molding
There are several important advantages of utilizing injection-molded plastic:
The plastic injection molding allows complex and intricate shapes to be manufactured in a large bulk. Shapes that would be too difficult or costly to manufacture with different processes. Plastic injection molding allows for a high volume of plastic nameplates and custom plastic signs to be manufactured at the same time with the same mold and quality. When you come back for a future order, the mold will be ready and your next order will be identical to your first. In addition, their initial cost is low too. The plastic nameplates can be decorated in a variety of ways such as textures in the mold, metallic foil, ink, UV protection, and more.
As stated before, it is the most adopted technique for manufacturing a large volume of parts. To give a precise shape and size to the desired object this process focuses on using a heated barrel and a special molding cavity. A bulk of the products available in the market has proven to be the beneficiary from plastic injection molding. The different industries listed below are the ones that have been benefited the most
1) Electronic Industries: Electronics are being manufactured through the process of plastic injection molding reason being that plastic does not ingest humidity and does not enlarge when exposed through heat.
2) Toys: All kinds of toys available in the market, whether they are feature action figures or detailed collector’s toys are produced through plastic injection molding.
3) Medical: Some of the equipment and tools that surgeons use such as cups, vials and, jars required for sample collection and throw away forceps are made of plastic injection molding.
4) Shoes: Plastic injection molding helps in developing the desired shaped soles that in turn provides support and comfort to the shoes.
5) Food and Beverages: Millions of restaurants and food outlets spread across the world are using plastic spoons, plates and, forks which are the ultimate products of plastic injection molding.
Other Advantages
Plastic Injection Molding allows manufacturers to produce custom plastic nameplates and components that would be too costly to make as intricately as required, by utilizing traditional machining methods. Injection-molded plastics also saves you time and money by allowing high numbers of pieces of the component to be made at the same time, with each copy identical to the one before it. This process also reduces labor costs by minimizing the need for manual labor from employees. Finally, there is virtually no wasted material. Any unused or left-over plastic can be re-cycled to be reused in the process.
So these were some advantages and benefits of using plastic injection molding and if you are currently in the market tired of the unreliable plastic injection molding companies, head on over to designtekplastic.com for great and exciting molds.