Ribs are often used to add strength and stiffness to plastic parts in critical areas or geometric designs where thin walls exist. This makes the part stronger with added support but can also cause sink marks on the exterior side of the part, where the rib comes together to meet the main wall in the part design. When using ribs to add support, remember the general rule that the rib should not be more than 60% of the wall thickness. Adding ribs to an injection mold design will increase costs, and may require EDM processes. Working with an experienced injection mold manufacturer will give you the best value for your investment. Skilled journeyman mold makers and experienced injection mold design engineers will have the best knowledge of where to place ribs for added support and how this will affect the tool design, and the cost. Mold making companies today can provide you with a two-dimensional computer aided design to show you exactly how your injection mold will produce the required plastic part, and alert you to any problematic areas ahead of time. Bosses are a very common feature in many plastic parts, and comes from the word emboss, which means a raised stamp or design, standing out on the surface. Bosses that are designed with too thick dimensions can cause sink marks similar to the use of ribs. Utilizing the proper ratio of ribs to bosses a molder can reduce or eliminate unsightly sink marks caused by either feature. Ribs used to connect boss areas to a side wall can add strength while avoiding sink marks. Sharp corners are another area where excessive stress can concentrate and adding small radii feature in this area can strengthen the corner and reduce excessive stress. Michiana Global Mold is a full-service mold design and construction company, with vast experience in all types of molds. We offer an ISO registered Quality System, state-of-the-art domestic mold building facility with off-shore partner, and decades of experience with precision, complex tooling. Contact us today for a FREE design consultation and to speak with one of our highly skilled design engineers.
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When designing plastic injection molds, there are several factors to take into consideration including the molding environment in which the tool will run. Of the utmost importance in mold design is the injection molding press specified for the production operation. Some presses have either a vertical or horizontal clamping system. A vertical clamping system is typically used for shuttle molds, also referred to as insert molds, and is used for molding plastic around an insert usually made of plastic or steel. The clamping system will open, allowing an operator to place an insert in the bottom half of the mold, prior to closing allowing plastic to flow around the insert. This process is used to put a plastic or rubber like coating around an object such as knives for example, or electrical wiring harnesses requiring a housing to fit around a wire assembly. Shuttle molds for vertical clamping presses will have at least two bottom (B) halves so that the molding is occurring on one side of the press while an operator is loading inserts on the open side. This allows for maximum production even when an operator is required. The typical injection mold will have a horizontal clamping system, opening on a horizontal plane and allowing parts to fall below into a bin or straight onto a conveyor belt when ejected. Some horizontal molding operations are fully automatic and do not require an operator, once the mold is set in the press and proper parameters are set. This is a very efficient method of molding, and several molders utilize this type of operation in a lights out automatic environment. This, of course, requires a quality crafted precision tool to ensure a consistent molding process. The placement of water fitting and hoses is also of equal importance, as these lines cannot be in the way of the mold operating in the press. The tonnage and clamping pressure of the press is needed when designing the mold, and the barrel capacity is required to ensure production requirements can be met. Download a FREE copy of our book “Design Considerations for Different Molds” for more information. Michiana Global Mold has over 500 years of combined experience designing and building precision custom molds for various industries. Contact us today to speak with one of our knowledgeable engineers for a free quotation on your mold building requirements. We can custom design molds for your applications, regardless of your molding environment. There are many advantages for an ISO Certified Company, a company that has passed a rigorous audit of their quality systems and processes. Conformance to ISO9001, a globally accepted set of Quality Standards, provides a uniform set of measurement systems for various organizations, including injection mold makers. A Certificate of Conformance is issued upon successful completion of a detailed and systematic audit performed by an external highly trained auditor.
These International standards have recently been upgraded to the latest version of ISO9001:2015, upgraded since ISO9001:2008. For ease in managing systems and audits, the newer standards are very similar in structure to the previous version, although there is added focus on risk management and leadership engagement. Following ISO standards is beneficial to many companies in various industries including manufacturing, service and health care businesses. Companies that provide design responsibility such as manufacturers, molders and plastic injection mold makers realize many advantages internally and externally with conformance to ISO9001:2015. Conformance to ISO is a Valuable Tool With the sheer volume of global trade, an ISO Certified Company has a valuable tool to provide advantages for their customers. Conformance provides a level playing field for companies to recognize the level of quality practiced in an organization, in all It shows your customers that you passed a rigorous audit of all processes in your organization, with the ultimate goal of providing total customer satisfaction. ISO Certified companies basically provide confidence to their customers that they take their quality, and customer satisfaction seriously. Not only are OEMs large and small given confidence from their suppliers’ conformance to ISO standards, they are also able to skip some steps in their vendor qualification process. When a supplier provides an ISO Certificate of Conformance, OEMs do not have to audit as many systems in order to qualify them as a supplier. This saves Engineers and Management of OEMs time, and money. Including ISO Registered suppliers provides added assurances that you are working with a responsive, quality minded business. Conforming to ISO Standards will lead to improved efficiencies. These continual improvement methods lead to increased profits. What all of these advantages ultimately lead to is Total Customer Satisfaction. The reason that any business does what they do, whether they provide services or make widgets is to provide total customer satisfaction. An ISO Certified Company has the infrastructure in place to provide their customers with total satisfaction through product and process improvement. Michiana Global Mold is Registered to ISO 9001:2015, implementing our Quality Policy throughout the organization with top down management involvement. We have been supplying top-quality, custom precision injection molds for over 52 years. Contact us today to see how we can assist you with your injection mold building needs.
Michiana Global Mold is an ISO 9001 Certified Company providing full service design engineering capabilities and custom injection molds since 1952. Implementing the Quality Policy throughout the organization, with Top-Down Management Involvement, MG Mold believes in empowering all employees by providing equipment with technological advances to complement the vast experience of our skilled staff. This combination of experience and technology enhances the skills of our expert engineers, mold designers and journeyman mold makers, resulting in dedicated functional team. We maintain a capital investment program providing modern equipment with improvements in efficiency. Continual improvement projects are performed at regular intervals to provide our customers with quick turn-around on quality precision molds, no matter the size or complexity. This investment in equipment and efficiency allows us to share in cost saving efforts and offer rebates to high-volume customers. Michiana Global Mold is an ISO 9001 Certified Company in two locations, domestically located in the Midwest United States, and overseas at our off-shore mold building facility in China, our partner company Modular Mold Solutions. This allows us to provide both semi-finished and fully finished molds at an economical price, saving up to 40% on your tool package. This savings can be realized on all tool types: Prototypes, Production and Insert Molds, Hot Runner and Cold Runner Molds, Shuttle and Over Molds, Unscrewing Molds, Collapsible Core Molds, and 3-Plate Molds. Michiana Global Mold is an ISO 9001 Certified Company, implementing our Quality Policy throughout the organization with top down management involvement. We have been supplying top-quality, custom injection molds for over 52 years. Contact us today to see how we can assist you with your injection mold building needs. Molding With Plastic Resin
Resin injection molding is the manufacturing process of molding raw plastic pellet into usable parts. Thermoplastic resin is the most common type of plastic used in the polymer molding process. The resin, or plastic pellets, is used by injection molders to make parts for a wide variety of industries. Custom injection molding is the process used by custom molders to make parts that are designed by others, typically engineers in the Automotive, Aerospace, Consumer Electronics, or Medical field. Injection molding is also used for the Furniture, Construction, and Toy industries, although precision molding is required for the former mentioned industries requiring a high level of quality with tight tolerances. Each resin has a melt temperature when it becomes pliable, which allows it to flow through an injection molding press, into a barrel and screw, where it is injected with pressure into a steel mold forming the desired parts. After forming, the mold ejects the parts and closes again to prepare for another cycle. Characteristics of Thermoplastic Resins Thermoplastic resins have a unique ability to be strong and durable, yet also lightweight which makes is a desirable material for several functional parts. They can be reinforced with glass filled polymers, or they can have a rubber like appearance, and several variations in between. They can be made into virtually any color, size or shape. This flexibility is the main reason that plastic resins are the material of choice for supplying various industries with necessary functional parts. Some examples:
The experienced molder has all procedures in place to provide full traceability throughout the resin injection molding process up to and including shipment of quality parts that meet or exceed customer specifications, along with proper documentation. Contact Michiana Global Mold today to see how we can help you with your injection molding needs. Finding the right China injection molding supplier can be a very time consuming endeavor. You have three different channels to consider:
Direct Chinese Mold Maker Initially, this will seem like the most cost effective method of getting a reliable China injection molding supplier. You won’t have to pay for a middleman, substantially reducing the initial cost. However, it can end up being the most costly. The biggest issues are the language barrier and additional QA efforts. It will be much more difficult to negotiate if you do not have a native speaker who can work with the supplier. While they will surely have an English speaker, you will need someone who speaks their language as well. This can be very costly. You will also need to manage more of the QA to ensure the product meets your needs. China Injection Molding Broker The issues you could encounter with a direct provider can be largely avoided by using a broker. It will also look a bit more expensive up front. This is because they have established connections to help you find the right provider, as well as managing the monetary conversions. Do keep in mind that they are only brokers. You will not be able to discuss specifics with them, only the people at the companies they recommend. This can also create lag time in getting your questions answered. Domestic Providers Domestic providers will appear to be the least cost effective China injection molding provider, but ultimately, they can save you a lot of time. Not only will you avoid having to research companies, they have the necessary experts to answer your questions. This substantially speeds up the design and development process, reducing the amount of time required to complete the project. They also manage the QA aspects, so that you can focus on other projects. Initially, they are the most expensive option. However, cost is the only major drawback, and it usually ends up being far less costly than it appears at first. Because you save time and have the necessary experts to answer your questions, the final cost for domestic providers is a lot more competitive than you may initially believe. Shuttle molds are made through the shuttle injection molding process. It is one of the more complicated types of molds and requires injection mold makers who understand more than just the basics of that process. Where injection molds usually produce a single product at the end, shuttle molds typically produces two bottom halves with a single top half.
The shuttle mold process creates a single unit – the top half and the first bottom half are made simultaneously. At the same time a second bottom half is being processed to include all of the additional aspects, such as inserts. Once the process is complete, the completed mold is moved further down the assembly line. The lower half with the added inserts is then worked with the top half to ensure it fits like the first one did. Custom mold makers then begin the process again, closing the mold so that the bottom can be adjusted to align with the top as the second lower half is assembled. The primary purpose of shuttle molds is to reduce the amount of time required to process each mold. Because the more complex portion of the mold is done at the same time as the top and bottom half are aligned, the custom mold makers do not have to wait for the inserts and other additions to be completed before completing another one. Since the top half does not require additions, it only needs to be included in the first round of the process. |
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