With the increasing rate of greenhouse effect all over the world, hang on, don’t just get away hearing plastic. Having said that, we mean, you can’t even think of life today without plastic. Interestingly, plastic molding began its journey in the year 1800 to manufacture plastic billiard balls. However, the good news is that decomposable plastic has evolved. Thus, using plastic, you are no longer adding any harmful waste to your living environment. The best part is that all the products today are made of eco-friendly plastic and give you the value of your hard-earned money. Here is a simple guide to plastic molding that will further enlighten you on the subject.
However, you should know that the viscosity (the attraction between molecules) of plastic (polymer) even in liquid or semi liquid state is very high. Therefore, plastic molding techniques have evolved with time to make finer products bespoke to the needs. For instance, plastic molding today is done using more than one techniques such as injection molding, rotational molding, blow molding, and compression molding. Let’s understand what these molding techniques are all about.
Injection molding: Since the melted polymer is injected here, the process itself owes its name from there. Melted polymer is injected into a hollow mold at a high pressure. But, melting of the polymer requires a detailed preparation such as feeding polymer pellets into a large open bottom auger and then, a hydraulic or electric motor heats up the inside walls of the auger. This causes polymer pellets to melt down. Now, the melted polymer has to pass through the groove of the auger. However, the gate just ahead of the mold cavity restricts the flow of the melted polymer into the same. Moving forward, auger injects the polymer at a very high pressure (10,000-30,000 pounds per square inch, in short PSI). It then cooled and unloaded.
Rotational molding: The rotational molding passes through four distinct stages such as the mold preparation, heating and fusion, cooling, and unloading similar to that of injection molding. But, the USP (Unique Selling Proposition) of rotational molding is manifold. It offers the flexibility of designs, size, color picking, and quality finish to name a few.
Blow molding: Three types of blow moldings namely stretch blow molding, injection blow molding, and extrusion blow molding are there in the market. Among those, extrusion molding is popular due to its versatility in the use of polymers. However, using blow molding techniques, many industrial and domestic products are developed for everyday use. Though blow molding as a whole is a low-pressure molding technique, it is widely acknowledged and used in the making of products like jars and others.
Compression molding: It is used to manufacture metal substitutes. Therefore, compression molding is very popular today for producing world-class products.
However, this is just a simple guide to plastic molding. To know more about the latest developments here, you must have an eye for the industry updates. After all, innovations keep coming up in this sector like any other sector having vivid and multiple applications befitting the humanity.