Saturday, May 18, 2013

Plastic Injection Moulding Machines Are Precision Machines

By Dudley Meredith


Since its discovery, plastic has proven to have an amazing versatility which has made it among the most commonly used materials on earth. There are a great many different products made from plastics and other polymers, including parts which must be produced to very precise measurements and other specifications. Since meeting specifications is mission critical to manufacturers, cutting tools have largely been replaced by injection moulding machines.

There are a lot of uses for moulding machines and they offer many advantages over older methods. For instance, these machines can produce thousands of pieces per day to exact specifications of size, shape and color with a minimum of operator intervention. There are products all around us which rely on injection molding technology.

Everything from childrens toys to automotive parts and computer components are made using this method; what they all share is that it would be extremely difficult, if not impossible to produce by hand.

The injection mould machine is made of two parts. One part is the piece that injects the hot polymer into the other part, which is the mould. Plastic polymer pellets are fed into a hopper. From the hopper the pellets are heated and then forced into the mould.

There is a screw or ram that does the injection process and pushes in all the material into the mould. The mould clamps down for a few seconds until the pieces cool and set up. Then the mould opens and piece is ejected.

The amount of pieces that can be produced in a day depends on the size of the machine as well as the size and complexity of the piece. This kind of moulding is good for making pieces that have a lot of nooks and crannies since they all get filled.

The moulds used in these processes are made from steel or aluminum using machine tools to achieve the necessary precision to meet the specifications demanded of the finished product. Moulds are made from strong, heat resistant materials in order to prevent them from warping under the heat and physical stress of the moulding process.

The work required of injection moulding machine operators is largely dependent on the specifics of the machine and the workflow procedures of the plants which employ them. However, the operator is generally responsible for ensuring that the hopper remains filled; depending on the type of machine they operate, they may also be tasked with emptying the moulds after injection as well as performing spot checks for quality.

They may not seem glamorous to most of us, but injection moulding machines are vital to the production of many of the items we use very day. They are made in many different sizes and configurations and may be designed to produce either simple or complex products, but regardless, they are an indispensible part of modern industry and modern life.




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