Kaysun Blog

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.

The resin shortage has injection molders and the larger plastics industry struggling to find balance. The late-February storm that blew into Texas and shut down 80% of U.S. resin production was the catalyst, but only one contributing factor.¹

Industry authorities point to several reasons why resin supply and resin cost continue to fluctuate and how the ripple effect impacts suppliers and injection molders. A snapshot of current pricing illustrates the topsy-turvy landscape:

OEMs across many industries can attest to the benefits of plastic injection molding. It’s ideal for consistent, affordable production of a wide range of high-quality complex plastic parts that can withstand about any environment.

That’s reason enough to rank injection molding high on the list of go-to solutions, but there’s more. To better understand how and why manufacturers use the process, let’s take a look at the individual merits of the top 14 benefits of plastic injection molding (listed in no particular order):

Kaysun's commitment to excellence is well documented through certifications, including ISO 13485:2016, IATF 16949:2016, ITAR, and MedAccred Plastics accreditation.

Each certification denotes injection molding expertise within key industries. However, MedAccred places Kaysun in an elite group of custom injection molders that can capably and confidently serve the medical industry.

Receiving MedAccred Plastics accreditation once is an accomplishment. Being re-certified three years in a row as a MedAccred manufacturer — as Kaysun has — is remarkable. It unequivocally assures medical OEMs of a consistent focus on patient safety and an unparalleled benchmark of quality standards.

Plastic injection molding automation is a staple for custom injection molders, and with good reason. The speed and precision automation lends to producing extremely complex injection-molded parts is unparalleled. Automation also helps realize cost efficiencies by eliminating humans — and the related potential for error — from the process.

With so many benefits, it’s easy to understand why plastic injection molding automation is appealing to OEM and molder alike. What makes it even more valuable is when a custom injection molder has an in-house automation team available to develop creative turnkey solutions to even the toughest customer challenges.

Confusion about which plastics align with a particular application can cause uncertainty about if and when to use custom injection molding. As a result, OEMs may not take advantage of how plastics benefit product design. 

“Thermoplastic” and “thermoset” sound similar and both plastics categories offer choices appropriate for complex applications in a range of markets. However, it's the properties and processing behaviors of  the materials within the categories that ultimately reveals the best choice for your injection molding project.

A global supply chain is attractive to many manufacturers. Years of lower costs, lower wages, and profitable final product price points lured many American manufacturers into what consulting firm A.T. Kearney dubbed “offshoring inertia.”¹ Manufacturing and supply chain decisions were not necessarily prioritized, and offshore production continued.

Then, the turmoil of 2020 took hold. The escalation of the pandemic and global trade tensions exposed inherent risk by disrupting the once-comfortable global manufacturing and supply chain dynamic. Offshoring inertia quickly gave way to strategic reshoring initiatives for at least 69% of American manufacturing and industrial companies.² Nearly 60% of industrial leaders surveyed by Gartner indicated expedited plans to maximize their supply chain resiliency within three years.² About one-third of those same respondents noted new emphasis on moving business out of China and other countries.³

On September 28, 2020, the world reached the sad and sobering milestone of 1 million deaths caused by COVID-19. In the three ensuing months, approximately 625,000 more deaths were added to the tally, and the nearly 73 million active cases around the global are added to daily — and at astounding rates.¹

The pandemic has populations scared and experts stymied as to how to manage and eventually eradicate the virus. For obvious reasons the medical and healthcare industries are leading the charge in terms of innovation, with antimicrobial resins and antimicrobial polymers playing major roles in effective solutions.

A surprising number of projects are completed without using a prototype tool. The general idea is that prototype tooling is an extra, unnecessary step that increases cost and decreases development and production times.

Actually, the opposite is true. Custom injection molding done without a prototype tool typically leads to a series of required production tool adjustments that are both costly and disruptive. The perceived savings of skipping prototype tooling quickly evaporate, and the higher risk of part defect introduces the possibility of incurring legal expenses and other related costs.

Depending on the complexity of the application, prototype tooling generally accounts for about 20-40% of overall production tooling costs. It's not an insignificant investment, but one that's well worth it when you consider the advantages.