Skip to main content

Best Manufacturing Processes for Creating Plastic Parts

More than most other resources that are available to the public, plastic has a monopoly on how widely it has been adapted and used in society. When you have something with that level of impact, it tends to stick around, as is the case with plastics. Understanding the best manufacturing processes for creating plastic parts will help you see why they are so wildly popular even today.
Plastic Injection Molding
This is the more basic molding technique. A mold made of aluminum or steel is placed inside the plastic injection molding machine and filled with molten plastic, where the resin is heated and injected into the mold.
Rotational Molding
This mold is a two-part process that uses both a mold and a core. Plastic powder fills the cavity first, then the mold is put inside an oven. Gravity is used in the process to pull the plastics into certain crevices of the cavity to form inside the mold.
Extrusion Molding
Molten plastic in the form of a large teardrop is put inside a two-piece clamshell mold and formed with pressure. These two pieces are brought together and held in place until the molten plastic cools and hardens.
Injection Blow Molding
One of the coolest methods of plastic fabrication is injection blow molding. This method uses gas pressure to shoot molten plastic into a mold and sets plastic through the pressure by filling and condensing.
Reaction Injection Molding
This is a more technical process of molding plastic that requires thermosetting plastic. The plastic is hardened through a chemical process and permanently takes its form afterward.
Vacuum Casting
This method requires a 3D master pattern mold to be placed inside a sealed box. Then, that box is filled with urethane or silicone to create a cavity inside that will become a new mold for injection molding.
Thermoforming
This is only one type of vacuum casting wherein a plastic sheet is placed over a dye and heated. It is then stretched over a flat surface to form the plastic.
Compression Molding
Much like the more basic methods, this technique requires preheating the plastic and placing it directly in either the mold or the die. It is then left to cure. Again, this is a very basic way of molding and fabricating plastic.
Of the several different ways of plastic fabrication through finishing processes in production, these are the best manufacturing processes for creating plastic parts from an industrial perspective. Anything you come across that is plastic is likely to have gone through one of these processes during its creation.

--- Online Subscribers: Please click here to log in to read this story and access all content.

Not an Online Subscriber? Click here for a one-week subscription for only $1!.