Kaysun Blog

An estimated 80% of a project’s costs are determined within the design phase.¹ For injection molded parts, tooling often consumes a good share of the budget and decision-making, but it’s not the only consideration.

Value-added services (also known as secondary operations) are essential and sometimes overlooked during design because of their injection molding post-processing status. However, identifying the proper value-added services early in the project timeline can help eliminate injection molding defects that could ultimately lead to costly fixes.

On the whole, the global plastics market value topped out just shy of $580 billion in 2020. Of that revenue, the injection molding application segment held the largest share at just over 43%¹ — a strong indicator of how plastics are fast becoming manufacturers' primary solutions to weight, sustainability,  and compliance challenges.

But, injection-molded components are only reliable solutions if they perform to the expectations of industries that increasingly depend on plastics such as the automotive, electronics/electrical, and construction sectors. Performance is largely dictated by the resin chosen for a specific injection-molded part, but which material is the right one?

For an accurate answer, manufacturers turn to Finite Element Analysis (FEA) of plastic components and custom injection molders experienced in all aspects of testing. 

There’s no denying that pandemic-related, weather-influenced, and manmade disruptions have caused chaos within the plastics industry. For OEMs, finding injection molding solutions during these turbulent times is problematic. Finding knowledgeable molders to take on complicated design, engineering, injection molding, and other challenges that less skilled molders can’t handle is equally as difficult.

From excessive energy consumption and scrap to general resin use, the injection molding process has historically raised some ecological concerns. The alarm is neither surprising nor unique to injection molders or the industries they serve.

However, as some experts project that the earth may be mere decades away from environmental collapse¹, there are important choices to be made.

Manufacturers across industries continue to rely heavily upon custom injection molders to help design, engineer, and produce solutions for complex applications. Not every molder is capable of delivering on these expectations, but those that are will undoubtedly insist upon exceptional injection molding quality control.

 As a trusted partner to OEMs in medical, automotive, industrial, and consumer markets Kaysun is deeply committed to quality and the processes necessary to maintain it. Through strategic implementation of quality assurance initiatives and continuous improvement cycles, our customers are confident in attaining desired results.

The gaps between raw materials, demand, and delivery continue to define a very uncertain future for the plastics industry. Manufacturers, injection molders, and all others dependent on plastics are understandably at a loss.

Finding solutions generally requires finding replacements for nylon, acetal resins, polysulfone (PSU), polyphthalamide (PPA), polyphenylene sulfide (PPS), polyphenylene oxide (PPO), and syndiotactic polystyrene (SPS) — a task not easily completed in light of the catastrophic resin shortage.

When it comes to designing and launching a new injection-molded part, design engineers can always count on:

• The design drives part performance
• If something goes wrong with the part, the design is the first place to look for answers
• The importance of part design increases considerably with tight tolerance injection molding

No pressure, right?

Up until World War II, achieving necessary product functionality at the lowest cost was usually done by any means necessary. However, the war-related scarcity of materials and parts compelled General Electric engineers to find material substitutes.

Many of the substitutes reduced project costs and improved overall product performance — and the standard practice of finding cost-effective manufacturing solutions without compromising product functionality or quality was born.  Today, we know it as "value analysis" for existing parts or “value engineering" for new parts.

Custom injection molding is, by nature, highly precise. Part performance and reliability hinge on production processes that ensure accurate, consistent outcomes. Being able to deliver on these nuances is often what sets custom injection molders apart — and generally typifies molders with engineers trained in scientific molding.