Plastic Injection Molding
PLASTIC INJECTION MOLDING
Injection molding is a manufacturing technique for making
parts from both thermoplastic and thermosetting plastic
materials in production. Molten plastic is injected at high
pressure into a mold, which is the inverse of the product ’s
shape. After a product is designed, usually by an industrial
designer or an engineer, molds are made by a mold maker (or
toolmaker) from metal, usually either steel or aluminum , and
precision machined to form the features of the desired part.
Injection molding is widely used for manufacturing a variety
of parts, from the smallest component to entire body panels
of cars. Injection molding is the most common method of
production, with some commonly made items including bottle
caps and outdoor furniture.
Injection molding can also be used to manufacture parts
from aluminum or brass ( die casting). The melting points of
these metals are much higher than those of plastics; this
makes for su bstantially shorter mold l lifetimes despite the
use of specialized steels. Nonetheless, the costs compare
quite favorably to sand casting, particularly for smaller
parts.
MOLD
Mold ( Tool and/or Mold) is the common term used to
describe the production tooling used to produce plastic
parts in molding. Traditionally, molds have been expensive to
manufacture. They were usually only used in mass production
where thous ands of parts were being produced. Molds are
typically construc ted from hardened steel, pre-har dened
steel, aluminum, and/or beryllium -copper alloy. The choice
of material to build a mold is primarily one of economics.
Steel molds generally cost more to construct, but their
longer l i fespan will offset the higher initial cost over a
higher number of parts made before wearing out. Pre-
hardened steel molds are less wear resistant and are used
for lower volume r eq uir ements or larger components. The
steel hardness is typically 38-45 on the Rockwell -C scale.
Hardened steel molds are heat treated after machining.
These are by far the superior in terms of wear resistance
and l i fespan. Typical h ardness ranges between 50 and 60
Rockwell -C ( HRC). Aluminum molds can cost su bstantially
less, and when desig ned and m achined with modern
computerized equipment, can be economical for molding
tens or even hundreds of thousands of parts. Beryllium
copper is used in areas of the mold which require fast heat
removal or areas that see the most shear heat generated.
The molds can be manufactured by either CNC machining or
by using Electrical Discharge Machining processes
HISTORY
In 1868 John Wesley Hyatt became the first to inject hot
celluloid into a mold, producing billiard balls. He and his
brother Isaiah patented an injection molding machine that
used a plunger in 1872 , and the process remained more or
less the same until 1946, when James Hendry built the first
screw injection molding machine, revolutionizing the plastics
industry. Roughly 95 % of all molding machines now use
screws to efficiently heat, mix, and inject plastic into molds.
EQUIPMENT
Injection molding machines, also
known as presses, hold the molds
in which the components are
shaped. Presses are rated by
tonnage, which expresses the
amount of clamping force that the
machine can generate. This
pressure keeps the mold closed
during the injection process.
Tonnage can vary from less than 5
tons to 6000 tons, with the
higher figures used in
comparatively few manufacturing
operations.
DESIGN
Molds separat e into two sides at a parting line, the A side, and
the B-side, to permit the part to be extracted. Plastic resin
enters the mold through a spur in the A plate, branches out
between the two sides through channels called runners, and
enters each part cavity through one or more specialized gates.
Inside each cavity, the resin f lows around p rotru sion s (called
cores) and conforms to the cavity geometry to form the desired
part. The amount of resin required to fi l l the spur, runner and
cavities of a mold is a shot. When a core shuts off against an
opposing mold cavity or core, a whole results in the part. Air in
the cavities when the mold closes escapes through very slight
gaps between the plates and pins, into shallow plenums called
vents. To permit removal of the part, its features must not
overhang one another in the direction that the mold opens,
unless parts of the mold are designed to move from between
such overhangs when the mold opens. Sides of the part that
appear parallel with the direction of draw (the directio n in which
the core and cavity separate from each other) are typically
angled slightly with (draft) to ease release of the part from the
mold, and examination of most plastic household objects will
reveal this.
DESIGN
Parts with bucket- like features tend to shrink onto the cores
that form them while cooling, and cling to those cores when the
cavity is pulled away. The mold is usually designed so that the
molded part reliably remains on the ejector (B) side of the mold
when it opens, and draws the runner and the spur out of the (A)
side along with the parts. The part then falls freely when ejected
from the (B) side. Tunnel gates tunnel sharply below the parting
surface of the B side at the tip of each runner so that the gate
is sheared off of the part when both are ejected. Ejector pins are
the most popular method for removing the part from the B-side
core(s), but air ejection, and stripper plates can also be used
depending on the application. Most ejector plates are found on
the moving half of the tool, but they can be placed on the fixed half
i f spring loaded. For t her m opl asti c s, coolant, usually water with
corrosion inhibitors, circulates through passageways bored
through the main plates on both sides of the mold to enable
temperature control and rapid part solidification
To ease maintenance and venting, cavities and cores are
divided into pieces, called inserts, and subassemblies, also
called inserts, blocks, or chase blocks. By substituting
interchangeable inserts, one mold may make several variations of
the same part.
More complex parts are formed using more complex molds.
These may have sections called slides, that move into a cavity
perpendicular to the draw direction, to form overhanging part
features. Slides are then withdrawn to allow the part to be
released when the mold opens. Slides are typically guided and
retained between rails called gibes, and are moved when the
mold opens and closes by angled rods called horn pins and
locked in place by locking blocks, both of which move cross the
mold from the opposite side.
DESIGN
shot or multi shot molds are designed to " over mold " within a
single molding cycle and must be processed on specialized
injection molding machines with two or more injection units.
This can be achieved by having pairs of identical cores and
pairs of different cavities within the mold. After injection of the
first material, the component is rotated on the core from the
one cavity to another. The second cavity differs from the first
in that the detail for the second material is included. The
second material is then injected into the additional cavity detail
before the completed part is ejected from the mold. Common
applications include " soft- grip" toothbrushes and Freelander
grab handles.
The core and cavity, along with injection and cooling hoses
form the mold tool. While large tools are very heavy weighing
hundreds and sometimes thousands of pounds, they usually
require the use of a forklift or overhead crane, they can be
hoisted into molding machines for production and removed
when molding is complete or the tool needs repairing. A mold
can produce several copies of the same parts in a single " shot".
The number of " im pre ssi ons" in the mold of that part is often
incorrectly referred to as cavitation. A tool with one impression
will often be called a single cavity (impression) tool. A mold
with 2 or more cavities of the same parts will likely be referred
to as multiple cavity tooling. Some extremely high production
volume molds (like those for bottle caps) can have over 128
cavities. In some cases multiple cavity tooling will mold a series
of different parts in the same tool. Some toolmakers call these
molds family molds as all the parts are not the same but often
part of a family of parts (to be used in the same product for
example).
MACHINING
Molds are built through two main
methods: standard machining and
EDM machining. Standard
Machining, in its conventional
form, has historically been the
method of building injection
molds. With technological
development, CNC machining
became the predominant means
of making more complex molds
with more accurate mold details
in less time than traditional
methods.
The electrical discharge machining (EDM) or spark erosion
process has become widely used in mold making. As well as
allowing the formation of shapes which are difficult to machine,
the process allows pre- hardened molds to be shaped so that no
heat treatment is required. Changes to a hardened mold by
conventional drilling and milling normally require annealing to
soften the steel, followed by heat treatment to harden it again.
EDM is a simple process in which a shaped electrode, usually
made of copper or graphite, is very slowly lowered onto the
mold surface (over a period of many hours),
applied between tool and mold causes erosion of the mold
surface in the inverse shape of the electrode.
COST
The cost of manufacturing
molds depends on a very large
set of factors ranging from
number of cavities, size of the
parts (and therefore the mold),
complexity of the pieces,
expected tool longevity,
surface finishes and many
others.
THE BASIC INJECTION CYCLE
Mold close – injection carriage forward – inject plastic –
metering – carriage retract – mold open – eject part(s) Some
machines are run by electric motors instead of hydraulics or a
combination of both. The water- cooling channels that assist in
cooling the mold and the heated plastic solidifies into the part.
Improper cooling can result in distorted molding. The cycle is
completed when the mold opens and the part is ejected with the
assistance of ejector pins within the mold.
The channels through which the plastic flows toward the
chamber will also solidify, forming an attached frame. This frame
is composed of the spur, which is the main channel from the
reservoir of molten resin, parallel with the direction of draw,
and runners, which are perpendicular to the direction of draw,
and are used to convey molten resin to the gate(s), or point(s)
of injection. The spur and runner system can be cut or twisted off
and recycled, sometimes being granulated next to the mold
machine. Some molds are designed so that the part is
automatically stripped through action of the mold.
INJECTION MOLDING
MACHINE
Injection molding machines consist of two basic parts, an
injection unit and a clamping unit. Injection molding machines
differ in both injection unit and clamping unit. The name of the
injection molding machine is generally based on the type of
injection unit used.
TYPES OF INJECTION
MOLDING MACHINES
Hydraulic
Electric
Hybrid
