What should you keep in mind when choosing to get plastic injection molding services?
- Financial considerations
- Design considerations
- Production considerations
The processes involved in plastic injection molding are complicated. Although most of the visible processes are easy, most of it actually requires a solid understanding of a complex system of chemicals, processes, and machinery.
Those who want to enter the industry of plastic products need to meet good plastic manufacturers that can ease them into the complicated parts of injection molding. It’s very important to remember that using the services of injection molding companies is not as simple as giving them designs of what you want to make.
With that being said, companies that want to make use of plastic injection molding needs to have a number of important facets in mind. Not only will this dictate the manufacturing of your product, but it will also set the foundation of a long-lasting business relationship with the plastic manufacturer of your choice. Take a look at some of the most important considerations that you must keep in mind for injection molding.
Financial Considerations
First of all, you have to make sure that you are financially capable of providing the funds needed to produce your product. Keep in mind that most injection molding companies have entry costs—and these initial investments aren’t cheap. You have to make sure that you’re ready with the design and materials that will be used to make the plastic product. Without proper preparation, you might as well have wasted the investment that you’ve put on this venture.
After the initial costs, you must keep in mind the number of products that you want to be made. This is a crucial part for the side of the manufacturers because by knowing how many products are the end goal, they can calculate and devices the most cost-effective method of manufacturing. This is also crucial in setting deadlines for all the manufacturing as well as the pace at which you want the manufacturing to go through.
Design Considerations
It’s vital that the design you have was created with the goal of being manufactured through plastic injection molding. This will lessen the efforts of the manufacturers to appropriate the design to their software. Simplifying geometry and minimizing the number of parts early on will result in a lot of money saved, and a good optimization of design structure. You have to be very particular with the product you want to create. You also have to make sure that you can abide by a certain number of requirements that they have in order for you to safely create a feasible product.
You should also collaborate with your manufacturer about the design of the tool that will be used. Make sure that the design of the molding tool is precise and accurate so that it can prevent defects during production. There’s a lot of common injection molding defects that can come from faulty tool design. The worst that can happen is that you might need to reconstruct a whole design tool because of it being too inaccurate and prone to defects—which will mean more money and time wasted!
Production Considerations
When it comes to production concerns, you have to ensure that you can try to minimize cycle time as much as possible. This can be done by having the latest injection molding machines. As well as well-thought-out tooling the smallest of changes can make the biggest difference in the typical injection molding production sequence.
Optimization in the production process that results in even the slightest of time saved can lead to big savings when you’re producing parts in the millions. Another good way to optimize production and lessen expenses is to design your product with the least amount of parts as possible. When your product needs less assembly time—naturally, you’ll be spending less on the labor required for it!
As this is more of a business transaction than a one-way manufacturing process, it’s only natural that you have to identify the number of parts produced at which you expect to break even on your investment. And do remember that this means that you have to consider the costs of design, testing, production, assembly, marketing, and distribution—along with the expected price point for sales.
Key Takeaway
When it comes to injection molding, a lot of the work goes into initial planning and preparations. You have to select the right kind of plastic to be used to make sure that the structure will be durable and flexible at the same time. After the main blueprint, the main manufacturing process is in the hands of the plastic manufacturers.
When planning on getting the service of plastic manufacturers for injection molding, it’s very important to keep these considerations in mind. Not only will you be able to save a lot of money by optimizing production, assembly and tool designs, but you’ll make the end-product more precise and polished. Be sure to always keep these considerations in mind so that you won’t have to worry too much about getting problems during the main manufacturing process!
