Author: Julie Hillis

Local Plastic Injection Molding Factory

Local Plastic Injection Molding Factory

Getting your product made is important, but is where you get it made just as important? Of course! Getting your molds made and maintained is essential to the quality of your product. All over the TN area molds are brought to us here at Quality Mold Shop, a plastic injection molding factory located in McMinnville TN, to have their molds from China corrected. Just because a mold is priced up front cheaper doesn’t mean it will lower production costs.

Knowing where your mold is from as well as who worked on it are all big factors in the calculation of your bottom line. Why leave something so important to someone you’ve never met and lives across the globe and then it could get damaged in shipping! Quality Mold can provide your company with the high quality you deserve right here locally in McMinnville TN.

Not only does Quality Mold provide mold creation and maintenance, but we offer mold pickup and delivery! Another reason why having a local factory here in McMinnville is so vital to you as a company. Other services offered here are 3D scanning so you can reverse engineer a product if you so choose. If you need help with injection mold design we can help you there as well! From concept to production, we’re dedicated to our customers’ total satisfaction in each item delivered and each service provided. We have many trained and professional persons staffed on our floor just waiting to help you with your product.

When you work with Quality Mold Shop, you automatically get the benefits of our commitment to a clean work process, our high level material and production tolerance standards, and our dynamic systems approach to each process, from design to delivery. Bringing the best work we can to our local area and beyond is what we strive for. Get in contact with Quality Mold Shop today and find out how we can help you get moving on your product today!

Automotive Plastic Injection Molding

Automotive Plastic Injection Molding

The automotive industry has profited much from the injection molding process. Formed plastic parts from the littlest segment to entire body panels of vehicles can be massed delivered utilizing Injection molding methods. Learn more from this slide show.

Plastic Injection Molds and the Automotive Industry

Plastic Injection Molds and the Automotive Industry

Vehicles have come a long way since they started, while some of the first forms of human transportation was nothing more than simple horse-drawn carriages as chariots, the development of new technologies soon led to cars, boats, motorcycles and trucks powered by engines. Even so, the development of plastic injection molds allowed for much growth in the automotive industry, and engine-powered vehicles have come a long way since their humble beginnings.

The First Cars

Henry Ford is widely seen as the first inventor to make cars that were widely accessible to the general public. However, the first cars tended to consist mainly of metal parts, predominantly steel. The main drawback of this was that these cars were heavy, meaning they had more weight for the engines to drag along, because of this, most older cars tend to have high fuel consumption levels.

Another major drawback of heavy steel cars was that production techniques didn’t allow manufacturers to think much about aerodynamics in order to minimize air resistance on a moving vehicle.

All of the above-mentioned things were some of the initial challenges faced by the first car makers.

Plastic in the Automotive Industry

In modern times, plastics are crucial in the production of almost anything you can think of, including cars. In the automotive industry, the main benefit of plastic is that it helps to make vehicles lighter, which helps to make cars more fuel efficient.

However, modern vehicles often merge the automotive industry with technology, and new cars often come out with features like built-in screen displays, rear view cameras and more. Most of these luxury features need plastic molded parts too, and so the amount of plastics in cars tends to become more and more, not only because parts that were previously made from steel (like bumpers and inside door panels) can now be molded from plastic, but also because new technological features necessitate the use of additional plastic parts.

In a world of advancing technologies, plastic has been a crucial ingredient in our modern success. This is no different in the automotive industry where improved molding techniques and the availability of new materials has made it possible for the automotive industry to advance in ways we previously would never have been able to imagine.

Automotive Injection Molds

The use of plastic in advancing technology is indisputable. However, few people stop to think about the process of creating plastic pats. The advances visible in society today have only been made possible through the use of precision-engineered plastic molds.

But plastic injection molds aren’t simply forms to pour molten plastic into. The production of a plastic injection mold that can produce parts for modern vehicles is a meticulous process. A mold that’s been made with care is one of the main things that will ensure that molded parts are free of defects. A faulty mold could result in problems such as a mold cavity that doesn’t fill, or dark lines on the molded part (among other possible problems that could occur). This is especially true with parts that that have curves, lines and other complex shapes that are commonly required in the automotive industry.

To prevent injection molding defects while producing plastic parts, automotive manufacturers simply need two things: a reliable molds that have been designed right, and the correct use of polymers in the mold. This is because using the wrong plastics, or even using the right plastics at the wrong temperatures could result in defects in the molded parts. And while it’s easy to change issues with polymers simply by using different plastics, or by changing the temperatures at which equipment operates, having a faulty mold changed would be a more costly.

Mold gates placed in the wrong areas, for instance, would be a difficult, costly problem to fix. Remember, molds have to be designed with their end purpose in mind. And in the case of plastic injection molding, the flow of the molten materials through a mold is an important thing to keep in mind while designing and making the mold.

In order to get a quality molded part that will live up to expectations, automotive manufacturers must begin with molds that can do the job right.

Injection Molds, TN

At Quality Mold Shop, we can help you make molds for the automotive industry. With our modern equipment, powerful computers and software, as well as our team of highly skilled staff, we can produce both simple and complex molds for various industries.

But our mold making capabilities isn’t where our list of services ends. We enjoy building long-term relationships with our customers and can help you with mold maintenance, repair and alterations. Our goal is to provide customers with high quality molds that will perform according to expectations so production can run smoothly, while also giving you someone to call for mold maintenance and repair.

Don’t Skip the New Mold Design Review

Don’t Skip the New Mold Design Review

Many organizations put in weeks, months, even years creating imaginative items. Various plan changes, testing, and fast prototyping are utilized to guarantee the item configuration is strong. With a product configuration close by the improvement group and investors are anxious to see their diligent work turn into an unmistakable part. Part files are sent out, purchase orders are placed, and the clock starts ticking on the ever important mold completion date.

The issue: the mold outlines are left to the mold producer to decide with next to zero oversight or evaluation. With packed courses of events and tight deadlines, the mold plans are optimized and sent to production for the molds to be assembled.

We see it constantly; these molds arrive and are set up for sampling. Some of the time there are evident issues, for example, insignificant water lines or little leader pins. At different periods the issues are more subtle, for example, the tool steel wasn’t firm and wear issues start to show up after time. These issues dependably cost time and cash. They can influence quality and consumer loyalty.

Tooling is an investment. In the event that the mold plan and construction quality are given the indistinguishable love and consideration that was given to the part outlines, you will get a decent profit for this venture. A composed and assembled mold will dependably spare cash over the long haul. The cost of the mold is rarely affected by the mold design review.

Quality Mold Shop knows the necessity of a composed and well-built mold. Get in touch with us today to perceive how Quality Mold Shop can help make your new project on-time, on budget, and successful.

Plastic Injection Molding: An Overview

Plastic Injection Molding: An Overview

Taking in the plastic injection molding procedure can be a bit mind boggling at first. Your organization has experienced weeks, months or perhaps years of innovative work to plan the freshest, most imaginative and effective item. You begin burrowing further and arranging how your item will be manufactured. You contact a nearby plastic injection molder and get pounded with questions that you are almost certain they are asking in an foreign language, or if nothing else it feels that way.

Abandon all that anxiety! Here at Quality Mold Shop we will enable you to build up the best items in a convenient way, productively, and be cost effective. This article will go over basics of plastic injection molding and enable you to get a more complete understanding of the process.

Basics:

Knowing the procedure of injection molding is key to boosting the quality and manufacturability of a plastic product. At the point when this procedure is comprehended, outline and creation choices can be made all the more effectively for your product.

Overview:

Resin pellets are poured through the container, venturing out to the barrel of the injection machine. With a blend of warmth and weight, the resin pellets are dissolved into liquid resin/plastic. The screw inside the barrel turns, delivering pressure, while pushing the liquid resin through the spout and into the mold depression. Once the mold is filled, the resin is cooled and ejector pins drive the formed plastic out and the procedure proceeds to the next round.

Clamping Process:

The mold clamp chamber controls the opening and shutting of Mold A (mold center), supplying the proper brace power to Mold B. The clamping power keeps the mold shut against weight amid the injection procedure. A 300 ton injection machine has a clamping power proportional to over 300 tons.

The measure of clamp pressure required is specifically correlated with every resin property and injection pressure needed to fill the mold void. Thicker resins have a low stream (slower flow) and require higher pressure to fill the mold. Thin resins require less pressure because of their high flow rates.

Infusion Process:

The mix of warmth and pressure liquefies the resin in the infusion barrel. Heating bands encompassing the barrel are intended to raise the temperature to the right melting point for every particular resin. Exact control amid this procedure is important when separating thermoplastic properties. On the off chance that the temperature is too high, the fill speed and shear stress can be influenced; affecting item quality, appearance and execution. Be that as it may, if the temperature is too low, the resin won’t liquefy.

Once the resin is dissolved, the screw inside the infusion barrel turns and pushes the liquid material through the spout, filling the form cavity. The following are different variables that should be resolved to guarantee creation achievement.

Fill Speed :

Fill speed should be set by the complexity, size and thickness of a product part. On the off chance that the fill speed is not figured exactly for the mold hole and properties of the resin being utilized, attributes below will be affected with uncontrolled results.

Shear Stress

Shear is the layers of polymer flow with respect to each layer. Shear stress is measured by the strain between the polymer’s atoms. In the event that the shear rate ascends past suggested areas, the item’s mechanical properties can be influenced. Utilizing a mold flow analysis is an extraordinary approach to reproduce the injection procedure and decide whether the fill speed is creating appropriate shear stress and shear rate.

Pressing and Sink Mark Displacement

Off base temperatures, fill speed and shrinkage can cause sink imprints and flaws. On the off chance that the liquid resin is not sufficiently pressed at the correct speed and temperature, sink imprints might be an outcome.

Cooling Process:

Streamlining production likewise implies diminishing process time. Timing is imperative for each procedure, including the cooling stage. A snappier cooling stage helps better time-to-market. On the opposite side, too speedy of a cooling stage can cause plastic flaws. Having satisfactory plans, gate sizes and fill speed to pack the mold evenly will help optimize the cooling phase.

Inventor to Entrepreneur: Plastic Injection Molding

Inventor to Entrepreneur: Plastic Injection Molding

Plastic is a wonderful, versatile material that can be used for producing nearly anything! The great thing about plastic and injection molding is that it makes mass-production for products more accessible. It’s no longer necessary for every item you buy in the store to be meticulously handcrafted.

What makes plastic injection molding even better, is that entrepreneurs can come up with an endless amount of new ideas for products that will improve our daily lives. Everything from technology to basic toys have some plastic-molded parts. And while we don’t think of the injection molding process often, it’s part of our daily lives. Even the device you’re using to browse the Internet, has some plastic molded parts!

But if you, like the average person on the street, have no idea where to begin in making your product idea a reality through injection molding, there are some simple steps to take.

Is Your Idea Worth It?

The first, most important question to ask yourself before having a product mass-produced, is whether or not the product will truly be profitable. Unfortunately there’s no way to know for sure, and as with any new business venture, there will always be some risk involved.

But that shouldn’t stop you from doing your research.

When thinking about whether or not the product you want to make will sell, you can ask yourself some basic questions like:

  • Does my idea solve a problem?
  • Does my idea improve upon an existing product?
  • Will there be a large enough market interested in buying my product?
  • Can I explain the benefits of my product simple and succinctly?
  • Can my product be manufactured at a realistic cost?

You’ll have to answer the first few questions for yourself by doing some market research. But the last one will require you to get quotes from product designers and plastic injection mold manufacturers.

Where to Start?

If you have a good idea that you believe will sell, your first challenge will be to get it on paper. Draw your design using some pen and paper. Don’t worry if you aren’t good at drawing, the important part is for your drawing to clearly show what you expect the finished product to be like.

You can also make some basic prototypes illustrating your idea using things like clay. Although it’s unlikely that a clay prototype would be functional, this will help designers understand what your product should look like in 3D. Apart from your clay prototype, you can also build a functional prototype using anything you can find around the house. This prototype will help you explain your idea more effectively.

Once you have proper designs and product examples, it’ can be a good time to venture into having it made in plastic. When you start out, getting your idea 3D printed can be an excellent way to make a realistic prototype of the end product.

3D printing is a wonderful technology for producing small amounts of plastic parts without the upfront investment of having a plastic injection mold made. For this reason, some products never go further than the 3D printing stage. An example of an innovative for 3D printing is in the manufacturing of prosthetics for amputees. Because every amputee has very specialized individual needs, 3D printing is now used to manufacture low-cost, custom-made prosthetics.

However, most products have to be mass-produced in order to be profitable, so for the purpose of your product design, you’re likely to use 3D printing only during the prototyping phase of design.

Once you’ve got a basic, 3D printed prototype of your final product, you’re ready to take the idea further. If there’s anywhere you were hoping to pitch your product idea, the prototype is sure to come in very handy!

Let’s Talk CAD Designs

This is where you hand your ideas over to the professionals. Computer-aided design – or CAD, for short – is a process where professional designers take your idea to the next level.

CAD designers know more about the injection molding process and the manufacturing of plastics products in general, so their designs will usually be made considering different aspect of the manufacturing process. This is essential for successful product design, seeing as a plastic injection mold will have to be designed and made specifically to produce parts for your product. The professional product designers will draw the final product design, not only thinking about the functionality of your product, but also how the molds producing parts for your product will function.

Some of the things a professional CAD designer will keep in mind while designing the final product include:

  • What material will be used to make each part of the final product?
  • How easily can each part of the final product be molded?
  • Where should the gates be placed on the mold to ensure the part has no molding defects?

Chances are, your designer will take an example of their design to a plastic injection mold manufacturer in order to decide how the molds should function. Plastic injection mold design and quality in the manufacturing of the mold itself will play a huge role in the quality of your final product.

If the gates feeding molten plastic into the mold aren’t placed correctly, for instance, the plastic might not fill the whole mold cavity and your parts could all end up being defective.

For this reason, your mold designer and manufacturer will be just as important in getting your product idea on the shelf as your designer.

At Quality Mold Shop, we pride ourselves in producing precision molds for any industry. We’ve successfully designed and maintained injection molds for the technology, medicine and the automotive industries. Talk to us about mold design, maintenance and manufacturing.

Significant Advantages to Using Plastic Injection Molding for the Manufacturing of Parts

Significant Advantages to Using Plastic Injection Molding for the Manufacturing of Parts

Plastic injection molding is a great flexible technique for delivering parts and items. It is one of the favored techniques for assembling parts since it has various preferences over different strategies for plastic molding. Not exclusively is plastic injection molding less complex and more solid, it is additionally to a great degree more proficient. You ought to have no questions about utilizing this strategy to produce parts.

How to Mold Living Hinges

How to Mold Living Hinges

Designing products is a major task. Don’t take the chance of making a mistake in the early stages! These design tips should help you on your way to the top.

1. Include Generous Radii

Liberal radii enhance course through the pivot amid trim and lessen stretch fixation amid utilize.

2. Incorporate “Shoulders”

“Shoulders” on the part make a level break. This will ensure the pivot will twist in the middle and that the part can twist enough for the pivot to have space to close.

3. Thin and Flexible is Best

A thicker pivot may seem more vigorous, however the more prominent extension at first glance can make the material surpass its yield point, shortening the life expectancy of the pivot. A more slender pivot is more adaptable.

4. Gap Long Hinges

Pivots longer than 6 inches ought to be outlined in at least two sections to enhance pivot life.

5. Explore different avenues regarding Thickness

The thickness of the pivot will change how firm or messy the pivot feels to work. You may need to explore different avenues regarding more than one thickness to discover what best fits your outline.

6. Introduction Affects Strength

Introduction of the plastic particles exceedingly influences the quality of the joint and importantly the pivot quality; the long plastic atoms ought to be opposite to the pivot at whatever point conceivable. It is conceivable to make reasonable pivots with parallel introduction (on account of expulsion, for example) if your outline requires it, yet you won’t be amplifying the quality of your material.

While it’s useful to utilize the run of the mill polypropylene plan as a beginning stage, make a point to tailor this foundational configuration to your item’s particular needs. Living Hinge Design for Injection Molding

Injection Molding is the most grounded approach to fabricate living pivots and awesome for generation parts.

Best Material Option

Because of its strength and flexibility, polypropylene is the best material decision, infusion molding PP pivot can have a practically limitless administration life achieving a few million flexes.

Polyethylene is the second most regular living pivot material with comparable properties to polypropylene.

Configuration Tips

A standout amongst the most critical plan controls in infusion forming is to keep up uniform divider thickness. In uneven dividers, the distinctive rates of constriction amid cooling can cause remaining burdens, twisting and notwithstanding softening up your outline.

Be that as it may, when outlining a living pivot you really need to do the inverse by making non-uniform dividers, on the grounds that for the pivot to be adaptable it should be significantly more slender than the associating unbending part.

Potential issues can be diminished or settled totally on the off chance that you contemplate where the doors in the form will be put.

Note that quickly in the wake of trim, the pivot ought to be flexed a couple of times. This will cool draw the plastic, significantly expanding its administration life. A little-known technique that disentangles tooling adjustment is to begin with the level segment over the pivot having a profundity of no less than .015 inch and a pivot thickness of .006 inch”.

How to Mold Living Hinges

How to Mold Living Hinges

Living hinges are popular in low-cost containers, like the ones you see on Tic Tac or floss containers. But the use of living hinges can vary widely, and so the molding technique is also often used for producing medical instruments such as hemostats.

As you could expect, molding living hinges would be much more difficult without modern plastic injection molding technology. Especially seeing as the hinge itself relies on the plasticity of the material to last longer.

What Are Living Hinges?

Don’t know what a living hinge is? Well, actually it’s quite simple.

Like a normal hinge you’d expect to see somewhere like on a door, living hinges can be used to make things like swinging container lids. The only difference is that, unlike normal hinges, living hinges don’t have loops and pins to make up the hinge mechanism. A normal hinge typically merges two different parts together in this way. However, living hinges are more like a line where the plastic bends to allow movement. Basically, it’s a “seamless” hinge, because there aren’t two parts merged together by a hinge. Instead, the hinge in molded into a single-part product.

What this means is that living hinges have to be able to flex constantly without tearing. This is what makes plastic a good option for molding living hinges, seeing as metal would break as a result of metal fatigue if one were to make a living hinge from it. Materials such as wood, on the other hand, aren’t even bendable. By the time wood is thin enough to bend, it would simply splinter if it were to be flexed so much.

But just because plastic is a good material for molding living hinges, doesn’t mean that all living hinges molded out of plastic are perfect. On the contrary, products that have living hinges typically have a lifespan that lasts as long as the living hinge is functional. After a certain amount of time, even a plastic living hinge can grow weak and tear along the hinge line.

For the most part, living hinge failure isn’t such a big problem, seeing as living hinges aren’t usually molded into products that need to have a long lifespan. However, living hinge failure can become a problem if the hinge doesn’t last long enough to fulfill its purpose. This can be especially true in the case of something like a container that breaks before its contents is all used. So even though living hinges don’t have to last forever, they at least need to last long enough to fulfill their purpose.

To mold durable living hinges will take some careful consideration on your behalf.

How to Mold Durable Living Hinges

To mold a living hinge that lives up to your expectations, every step of part creation is important, from the actual design of the part to the material used to make it. Different plastics have different uses, and not all plastics are a good choice for molding plastic hinges into a part.

So, although molding a hinge into a part might seem like a challenging task, it’s much like molding anything else, as long as you plan everything properly and pay attention to detail during every step of part creation, you’ll get the results you were hoping for.

For the most part, experts tend to recommend homopolymer PP for molding living hinges. However, your molding will also have a big influence on the quality of your final part, so don’t neglect checking the ideal molding temperatures and processes, seeing as you’re likely to get better results molding hinges at lower temperatures.

Mold Design and Construction

When it comes to molding any plastic part, the design and construction of your mold is just as important as what polymers you use and the process itself. Unfortunately, plastic molding isn’t a simple process. There are many things that can go wrong along the way, and a bad mold could very well be one of them.

Things to consider in mold design and construction include where to place gates and understanding how your material will flow through the mold once it’s entered. This might seem like a small things, but the flow pattern of the molten plastic in your mold can have a potentially huge impact on the quality of the parts a mold can produce, and unfortunately some molds with faulty designs are simply incapable of producing parts that live up to their intended purpose.

Of all the steps in molding a part with living hinges, having your mold designed and made will usually be the most costly, and so it’s important that the mold delivers as you hoped it would from the start.

The first step in getting your mold made would be proper part design, of course, so don’t neglect proper part design and prototyping. There’s simply no sense in having a high quality mold made for a part that was poorly designed to start with.

However, once you have a good part, your mold’s ability to accurately produce the part becomes the next most vital step in molding a proper part. Because unlike with selecting your polymer, changing your mold and experimenting with it won’t be as simple.

To get a mold that you can rely on, be sure to contact us at Quality Mold Shop. We’ve produced a large number of molds for almost every industry, and our precision equipment allows us to manufacture high quality molds for creating even the most detailed parts.