Once the product design has been thoroughly evaluated, the next step (and a critical one) is selecting the best raw material—not necessarily an easy decision.
Plastic product design is a rapidly evolving field—material suppliers are continuously developing new polymer blends to create very specific sets of characteristics. Experienced molding companies like Kaysun maintain vast amounts of proprietary scientific and process data on plastics and nonplastics alike, and how they react to even the slightest changes in physical parameters, based on thousands of previous projects. For example, an important feature for any plastic is melt strength, or its ability to maintain its viscosity as it is drawn out—variations in melt strength in response to a certain range pressure and temperature changes may only reside in the proprietary database.
Amorphous plastics are known for good impact strength and toughness. Crystalline plastics have lower elongation and flexibility than amorphous plastics, but better chemical resistance. Plastic design engineers can change the characteristics of plastics by mixing or combining different types of polymers or adding non-plastic materials. Particulate fillers such as mineral, silica, ceramic, carbon, glass microspheres/fibers, and powdered metal can increase modulus and electrical conductivity, improve resistance to heat or ultraviolet light, and reduce cost. Other materials, including stainless steel or Kevlar, can be added to improve mechanical properties.
Plastic product design shouldn’t be a process of trial and error—selecting the right material in the plastics engineering stage saves time on initial design iterations, enhances manufacturability and performance, increases speed to market, and reduces costs.
Contact Kaysun early. It will pay off.
Read more about design successes including Smiths Medical & ATK