Tips For More Cost-Effective Injection Moulding
1 Feb, 2023
Injection Moulding is known to be the most versatile manufacturing technique for producing large volumes of products, especially plastic components. commonly opt for Injection Moulding as their first choice for mass production due to its cost-effectiveness, quick turnaround times, and ability to make products with high precision and repeatability. In its simplified essence, Injection Moulding involves injecting liquified material, such as plastic polymers, into moulds at high pressure. Then, it is cooled, hardened, and ejected from the moulds to get the desired product. This process is repeated over and over to produce volumes. While it is convenient, ironically, it can prove to be more cost incuring, if not planned carefully. There are many factors affecting the cost of production when using Injection Moulding. Making moulds can be an expensive affair, considering their specific design and purpose, time to make, and testing for precision. Fortunately, the manufacturers can pay attention to certain factors to contain their production costs.
- Efficient product designs: It's important to implement design optimization and analysis. The product design must be simple, easy, and faster to produce, and it must follow design best practises to save on time, material and minimise errors. Certain practices,like reducing unnecessary design elements, making sure that the product thickness is uniform overall, or adding appropriate draft to the parts for easier ejection, make the process faster, enabling higher production in a given time. Since the production is done in huge volumes, even a small change has an exponential effect and saves money.
- Lesser aesthetic: When designing moulds, refraining from certain aesthetic elements that are unnecessary for the function and purpose of the part, is highly advisable. For instance, textures, embossings, finishes like color, etc, can make the product stand out,but they add a lot of complexity to the mould and increase its cost as well as the time taken for production. So, it is wise to give it a second thought about whether it is worth it or not.
- Core Cavity Method: Adopting the core cavity whenever possible is a smart option to save on time and cost. It provides a smoother finish and faster ejection with less room for error, resulting in an efficient flow of production and a significant effect on overall savings.
- Structural Modifications: Structural changes in the product design can enhance its strength, functionality, and quality. Modifications like using ribs and gussets to reinforce the product provide the necessary strength, better structural integrity, and easy production.
- Built-in Functions: Incorporating specific mechanisms such as living hinges into the mould itself eliminates a further processing step, reducing the cost of separate setup and assembly.
- Selecting the right material: Choosing the type of material for the production of parts is an important factor that may save cost. The material must be chosen depending on its final purpose. Except for parts designed for harsh climatic conditions, food, or medical grade use, material grade is not required to be special. A lower-grade material for general-purpose parts that meets quality requirements and is economical to use, depending on the target market.
- Mould Endurance: It is wise to consider logetivity while designing moulds. Although it appears to be an additional cost at first, it saves on huge costs to replace the moulds mid-production.
- Family Moulds: Another simple way to save money is to use moulds that can produce parts of the same final product in one go. These are called Family Moulds. It saves considerable time and money to produce large volumes and reduce the cost per part.
- Consolidate production: Get as many pieces as possible from the mould at once. When a mould is designed efficiently to fit a greater number of slots, production increases exponentially, the mould experiences less wear and tear, and the cost per piece is lower, eventually enhancing the production efficiency.
- Minimizing the secondary processes: Secondary processes for finishing the product are additional costs given the assembly and manpower required, in addition to time. Reducing the need for processes like painting or custom inserts by changing the designs or materials can save money on setup costs.
- Choose the right shop: It is important for a manufacturer to find the right plastic injection moulding shop that meets their specific requirements. They can save big with the moulding units that specialise in a specific product or process, as they tend to be more cost effective due to their expertise and experience in the field. Small savings in production at various stages can significantly cut down expenses and improve the returns on investment. The manufacturers can use these tips to reduce the cost of production while being mindful of not cutting corners and pricing their products competitively in the market.
