Tooling
The number of molds on the floor of a shop can vary, depending on the size of the processor. For example, a small shop with a few injection molding machines could have a few select molds for customers.
Mold makers today strive to develop innovative solutions to make injection molded parts that are environmentally safe and cost less.
For any plastics process, there are short and long runs. This has an impact on the wear placed on molds.
Injection molding is the biggest segment of the plastics industry, and is commonly used for both thermoplastic and thermosetting plastic materials. Material is fed into a barrel where a reciprocating screw or ram injector mixes and forces the material into a mold cavity. For thermoplastic injection molding, which is the most common process, the part cools and hardens in the mold.
Today, the successful mold manufacturers will tend to be the larger shops with significant resources to support the cost of sales, customer-dictated payment schedules and increased demand from customers for more services. Most companies have changeover teams whose responsibility is changing and maintaining molds.
Whether parts are made by injection molding, blow molding, rotational molding, compression molding or thermoforming, some type of mold is used to make the part or product.
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