Plastic injection molding is a piece of important process equipment for the production of various industrial products. With the rapid development of the plastic industry and the popularization and application of plastic products in aviation, aerospace, electronics, machinery, ships, and automotive industries, the requirements of injection molding are becoming higher and higher. What factors should we know and pay attention to when we choose injection mold?
Firstly, don’t just look at the price, but consider all aspects of quality, cycle, and service.
1. There are many kinds of injection molding, which can be roughly divided into ten categories. According to the different requirements of parts material, physical and chemical properties, mechanical strength, dimensional accuracy, surface finish, service life, cost, and so on, different types of molding forming are selected.
2. Dies with high precision need to be processed by high precision CNC machine tools, and the material and forming process of the dies have strict requirements. CAD/CAE/CAM die technology is also needed to design and analyze.
3. Because some parts have special requirements informing, the mold also needs advanced technology such as hot runner, gas-assisted forming, nitrogen cylinder, and so on.
4. Injection mold manufacturers should have CNC, EDM, WEDM machine tools and CNC copying milling equipment, high-precision grinder, high-precision three-coordinate measuring instrument, computer design, and related software.
5. General large stamping dies (such as automotive cover dies) should consider whether the machine tool has a blank holder mechanism, or even edge lubricant, multi-station progressive, etc. In addition to stamping tonnage, punching times, feeding devices, machine tools, and die protection devices should also be considered.
6. The manufacturing means and technology of the above-mentioned mold are not possessed and mastered by every enterprise. When choosing an injection molding manufacturer, we must understand its processing capability, not only depending on hardware equipment but also combining management level, processing experience, and technical strength.
7. For the same set of mold, the quotations of different injection molding manufacturers sometimes differ greatly. You shouldn’t pay too much more than the cost of the die, nor should you pay less than the cost of the die. Injection molding manufacturers, like you, want to make reasonable profits in business. Making a set of the mold with a much lower quotation would be the beginning of trouble. Users should comprehensive measures based on their own requirements.
Secondly, do not only focus on product design, ignore plastic mold manufacturing.
Some users only pay attention to product researching and developing at the initial stage when developing products or trial-production of new products, ignoring the communication with plastic mold manufacturers. After the preliminary determination of the product design plan, there are two advantages of contacting the mold manufacturer in advance:
1. It can ensure that the designed products have good forming technology and will not modify the stereotyping design because the parts are difficult to process.
2. Mold manufacturers can prepare for the design in advance, so as to prevent improper consideration in haste and affect the construction period.
3. Making high-quality plastic molds, only when the supply and demand sides cooperate closely, can we finally reduce costs and shorten the cycle.
Thirdly, avoid multiparty collaboration and try to make plastic molds and products in a one-stop process.
1. With qualified molds (qualified specimens), it is not necessarily possible to produce qualified products in batches. This is mainly related to machine tool selection, forming process (forming temperature, forming time, etc.), and the operator’s technical quality.
2. If you have a good plastic injection mold, you should also have a good forming process. It’s better to cooperate in a one-stop process and avoid multiparty collaboration as far as possible. If the conditions are not met, one party should be fully responsible, and the contract must be clearly written.