When it comes to remaining competitive in the global marketplace, speed matters. Manufacturers want injection molded parts that deliver the most product functionality at the lowest cost — and they want the parts quickly to get to market first and fastest.

Injection molders understand the pressure manufacturers are under. They're also attuned to how injection molding design, engineering, and production expertise can greatly speed up development time. 

Custom injection molding is a go-to for OEMs across a range of industries because of design and engineering precision, production repeatability, and cost-effective solutions. 

Injection molders understand that consistently delivering defect-free parts and products to these standards is a top priority and a true value-add to their OEM partnerships.

Quality assurance begins in the design phase. Engineers are faced with many decisions, but among the most important are those that impact the end of the injection molding process — what has to happen to ensure the plastic part ejects cleanly?

Geometric dimensioning and tolerancing (GD&T) is a symbolic language that is used on engineering drawings and computer-generated models. It communicates geometric dimensions and allowable tolerances for various parts. Not only is this a useful exercise for product design, it’s also helpful on the manufacturing floor because engineers and operators can quickly see the degree of tolerance that is required for each part.

Polymer science has made tremendous strides over the years, rapidly advancing the ability to compound a variety of resins with fillers and reinforcements that provide a vast amount of structural and chemical integrity.

Shrink rates for injection molded plastic parts vary depending on the materials used andwall thickness. Designing uniform wall thickness offers substantial shrink rate control; on the other hand, non-uniform walls can lead to large pressure drops during filling, significant differences in shrink rates, and internal stresses within the injection molded part that could cause warpage or similar defects.

Surface finish on plastic composites can vary a great deal, depending on the physical and chemical properties of the polymer blend as well as the parameters of the injection molding process.

The first objective for a custom injection molder is working with the customer to determine how important the surface finish is for the appearance and/or performance of the final product. For example, does the product need to be eye-catching or simply functional? Depending on the answer, the material selected and the desired finish will determine the settings for the injection molding process, and any required secondary finishing operations.

It’s generally accepted that roughly 80% of a part’s total cost is determined during the design/development phase, and cannot be reduced – or is extremely difficult and expensive to change – once the design is finalized. However, by utilizing a Design for Manufacturability (DfM) approach and the specialized expertise of a plastics engineer, deliberate design decisions can be made to help manage/reduce total part and production costs.

Total delivered cost (TDC) is the amount of money it takes for a company to manufacture and deliver a product. The definition sounds simple enough, yet all that TDC entails — sourcing raw materials, manufacturing bulk and intermediate products, finished goods packaging, inventory holding, transportation, distribution, and final delivery — reveals its complexity and considerable impact on the bottom line.

The Kaysun Blog is a valuable year-round resource for advice and information about complex injection molding. We have our subscribers to thank for its continued popularity, and look forward to providing you with even more helpful insights throughout 2019.

For now, let’s take a look back at the four most popular blog posts of 2018: