Insert Molding
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Reduce Assembly Time
Carefully inspect assembled plastic molded parts, and you’ll often find threaded inserts. These small metal pieces play a critical role in holding together the products we use daily, from your laptop to various hand-held devices.
Insert molding is the manufacturing process of installing inserts into a plastic part during the injection molding process. This process ensures a tight bond between the plastic part and inserts required for assembly. Adding inserts during the molding process is more cost-effective and efficient than manual assembly, which can be tedious and time-consuming.
Benefits of Insert Molding
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Reduced Part Cost
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Decreased Cycle Times
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Elimination of Manual Assembly
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Consistent Part Quality
Insight
5 Hints You're Working With The Right Plastic Injection Molding Manufacturer
When it comes to choosing the right plastic injection molding manufacturer, it can be hard to know what you don’t know. Who do you trust? How many questions should you ask? What questions, specifically, should you be asking? With so many variables at play, it’s a challenge to feel like you’re choosing the right manufacturer.
How it Works
In the injection molding process, an operator or robot places inserts in the mold, which is specially designed to hold the inserts in place, allowing plastic resins to flow and harden around the inserts. A completed part or inserted component is then ejected from the machine with the inserts installed. This process eliminates the need for post-production assembly and ensures a tight bond between the plastic part and its inserts.
Most plastic injection molding is done on horizontal presses, but vertical presses are ideal for insert molding. With vertical molding, molds open and close on the y-axis, allowing gravity to hold inserts in the mold. Insert molding can be done on a horizontal press, but the mold complexity and cost will most likely increase. This process reduces the shot size of molten plastic required in the injection process of the mold and, in turn, reduces waste and cost.
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