Custom Plastic Injection Mold Making for Household Products

Injection Mold Making

An injection mold is a specialized tool used in the injection molding process and is an important foundation of household product manufacturing, used to produce large quantities of the same type of thermoplastic parts. An injection mold is a highly efficient manufacturing process that allows for the rapid production of complex-shaped plastic parts. Below is the process of making an injection mold:

1. Injection mold design: 

First, the mold needs to be designed according to the specific design requirements of the part. Injection mold design will take into account factors such as plastic flow, cooling and curing, and part release. Complexly designed molds may contain multiple slides, ejector pins, cooling channels, and other mechanical components.

2. Injection mold manufacturing: 

Once the design is complete, the mold base is manufactured using metal, usually steel or aluminum. This process may include a variety of manufacturing methods such as roughing, finishing, EDM, grinding, and polishing.

3. Plastic Injection Mold: 

After the injection mold has been manufactured and tested, it is mounted on an injection molding machine. The injection molding machine first heats and melts the plastic pellets, and then injects the molten plastic into the cavity of the mold through high pressure.

4. Cooling and curing:

Inside the injection mold, the molten plastic will cool and cure into its final shape. The cooling system of the mold will help speed up this process.

5. Demolding:

Once the plastic is fully cured, the injection mold opens and the plastic mold part is pushed out of the mold, usually using a thimble or other mechanical device.

6. Post-processing: 

Depending on the customer's needs, the plastic mold part may require some additional processing, such as cutting, sanding, painting, or printing.

Injection mold is usually divided into two parts: the moving mold (the moving part) and the fixed mold (the fixed part). When the mold closes, the two parts come together to form the shape of the part. Injection molds are designed so that the release process is smooth to avoid damaging the product, and so that it is easy to accurately produce large quantities of the same part over and over again.

Injection molds are expensive to design and manufacture, but due to the short production time and high capacity of injection molds, they are suitable for high volume production, which results in economical mold costs.

Injection molds are widely used in consumer electronics, automotive, household, packaging, medical devices, and many other industries.