The use of overmolding is popular across many manufacturing industries, from consumer products to medical devices, but possibly in no category more noticeable than portable devices. While in some applications, overmolding may seem to merely enhance the aesthetics of a device at first glance — a contrasting color or texture — the use of overmolding on portable devices intended for critical use is highly technical and sometimes highly regulated.

Overmolding is a value-added injection molding method for improving plastic and metal substrate performance and aesthetics. While seemingly simple, the process has a number of underlying complexities which must be carefully considered to ensure your overmolding project meets all goals and expectations.

As the worldwide population ages, healthcare is shifting from clinics and hospitals to in-home care and smaller, non-traditional facilities. As a result, the demand for portable medical devices that monitor diagnostic and therapeutic data and aid in treatment of certain conditions continues to increase. 

Get Control of Tight Tolerances in the Design Phase and Come out Ahead

Here are three things design engineers fully understand:

1. Design has almost everything to do with the success of product or part performance.
2. The importance of design is magnified considerably with tight tolerances.
3. If something goes wrong, check to see if the design is the root cause.

No pressure right? Wrong. There is a lot riding on the designer when developing complex plastic parts and products with tight tolerances, especially when they’re used in critical applications like medicine, auto manufacturing, and military among many others. Here’s why getting control of it in the design phase is a good thing, along with advice that should help take some of the pressure off.

The more companies learn about overmolding, the more they want to use this special injection-molding technology to add value to their product lines. Not only does it improve functionality and performance, it lowers total production costs—that’s pretty rare these days.

So, what is overmolding?