You must have at some point wondered at least once: how do production companies produce the exact design of a model thousands and millions of times? The process by which manufacturing companies achieve this is called molding.
Molding is the process by which manufacturing machines shape a liquid raw material using a pre-designed rigid frame called mold. The process, simply put, is about inserting the raw liquid inside the mold or frigid frame of the design (using different methods depending on the purpose), letting it settle for a while and then cooling it off so that it hardens and takes the shape of the mold. After it hardens, it is further refined until it ready for later stages of production.
Some of the various ways for mold manufacturing includes:
- Compression molding
- Blow molding
- Injection molding
- Spin casting
- Matrix molding
- Transfermolding
- Extrusion molding
Injection Molding- A popular choice
Using mold manufacturing is a popular choice in the plastic industry. There are vast numbers of options possible with using plastic in mold manufacturing. It can range from molding furniture to parts of other machines. In this light, one of the very popular methods is Injection molding. Injection molding generally uses thermosetting and thermoplastic plastic material. The mold itself is made of either aluminium of steel materials. With the rapid improvements in technology, these molded parts can be perfected with greater precision. Now, most companies prefer electric presses rather than the hydraulic ones. Although the electric presses are 30% pricier than the hydraulic ones, they offer 100% repeatability in processes and consume 80% less energy during production. Hence, making it a popular choice.
If we have to explain the process of mold manufacturing, it can be explained in five stages which are as follows:
- Clamping– The raw molten material can easily flow loose if not properly clamped down, that is the mold has to be held together with great force to give the raw material the shape it is intended to be. The clamping usually ranges from five tonnage to six hundred tonnage.
- Injection– Now, comes the stage where the raw material which is in fluid state, is injected inside the clamped down mold. The injection takes a lot of precision and expertise to prevent any possible leakages or mishaps.
- Dwelling– When the material is inside, now it is important that every nook and cranny of the mould are actually filled with it. If in any case the material doesn’t flow into a particular part of the mould, the final product would be missing of that particular part of the design.
- Cooling– All spaces being filled; the material is left to cool down and set
- Ejection– Now the material is holding itself together, it is separated from the moulds using various techniques.
Having the basic knowledge of the mold manufacturing can really be helpful while making decisions on what suits your interest the best and should be preferred.
