Medical supplies. Food. Due to COVID-19, both are in extremely high demand and will be for the foreseeable future, making medical- and food-grade plastic injection molding extremely busy industries. How busy? Back in March, Forbes reported that the Director General of...
This year’s plastic injection molding trends look to continue several of the big initiatives from 2019 in some exciting ways. As companies consistently strive to improve in all aspects of their businesses, increased efficiency and reduced downtime remain two of the...
Coronavirus: Will the Molding Industry Be Impacted? Most likely, the answer is yes. Wuhan and other parts of China shut not only their manufacturing down, but entire cities. That effect has rippled, as COVID-19 has spread and continues to spread, growing to become the...
When color isn’t evenly distributed throughout a part, appearing as streaks, swirls or patches of discolored material, you’re probably looking at color swirls. Also known as streaking, color streaks and marbling, color swirls are occasionally misidentified as black...
Causes for Black Specks in Your Injection Molds When you see black or brown specks on your molded part, you’re probably dealing with material that has been severely degraded. Sometimes called carbon buildup, black specks are sometimes mistaken as material...
4 Causes of Burns in Injection Molding Sometimes known as dieseling or gas traps, burns in injection molding are literally that: burns. Often appearing as black, smutty deposits on the part and mold surface, these are spots at which the plastic has burned. Not to be...
What Is Cracking in Injection Molding? When a part is physically fractured or broken, you’re experiencing cracking. Cracks usually occur due to post-molding conditions, but when troubleshooting cracking, you want to know exactly...
What Is Contamination in Injection Molding? Contamination appears as discoloration, streaks, splay, delamination and other types of defects. Because it’s such a broad area with multiple possible culprits, is best to start with the usual suspect: the material brought...
In all phases of the molding process—first stage, second stage and cooling—the cavities must be treated the same. If not, you run the risk of several different injection molding defects. We can prevent these issues in advance by ensuring six key factors are as they...
When you see a non-uniform fanning out from the gate, which appears as a different color or gloss level to the surrounding plastic, you may be dealing with gate blush. What is Gate Blush? Also known simply as blush, or gate shear or halos, gate blush is a dull or...
What Is Cracking in Injection Molding? When a part is physically fractured or broken, you’re experiencing cracking. Cracks usually occur due to post-molding conditions, but when troubleshooting cracking, you want to know exactly...
There are three types of injection mold release coatings within our Nano Mold Coating family and two ways to apply them, depending on the type of coating you’re using. Our HC and HCF (the food-grade alternative to HC) coatings are applied in the tool room at...
One of the most important aspects of injection molding, or anything involving machining, is making sure machines are running at peak performance. Any downtime cuts into efficiency and, ultimately, the bottom line. Prolonged downtime can lead to serious problems with...
Welcome to our Plastic Injection Molding Defects series, where we will explain some common defects seen by injection molders and present ways to fix or prevent them. What is Buildup? Sometimes called gas buildup or plate out, buildup in injection molding is easy to...
Welcome to our Plastic Injection Molding Defects series, where we will explain some common defects seen by injection molders and present ways to fix or prevent them. What are Burns? Sometimes known as gas traps or the dieseling effect, burns appear as black or brown...
Welcome to our Plastic Injection Molding Defects series, where we will explain some common defects seen by injection molders and offer ways of fixing or preventing them. What is Splay? Splay is a cosmetic defect that occurs in plastic injection molding, when silver or...
The infographic below is from our friends at Economy Glass in Australia. It does a nice job of explaining nano coatings, and their impact on manufacturing. Check it out:
Quality. This one word sums up the need for having a defined mold maintenance program. Quality parts come from quality molds. But just like anything that is used as a tool, wear and degradation are part of the process. Having a maintenance program is an investment in...
View image | gettyimages.com One of the challenges for injection molders is efficiency. The cycle times for plastic parts can range from 30 seconds to more than a minute. One of the primary contributors to that time and one of the longstanding constraints is cooling...
In today’s ever-increasing competitive environment, the ability to produce parts profitably is harder and harder. One of the areas that many molders have looked towards to save time and costs is the concept of Rapid Injection Molding. One area that can make this idea...