Injection molding is one of the most widely used techniques, you can see its products and parts everywhere ranging from kids' toys, to electronics to even cars, they are virtually all around us. It's now clearer than ever that plastic injection molding plays a very crucial role.

It's no secret that injection molding applications and processes are now more popular compared to other manufacturing methods. For this post, we are going to dissect everything that you need to know about injection molding processes. For beginners, it will give you a rough idea of how everything is done.

Injection Molding definition

Injection molding is one of the most widely used manufacturing processes used in the production of large quantities of products made from glass, metal, plastic, or rubber. It’s a quite simple and straightforward process. It’s so simple that it's similar to the production of the Jello. The whole process pertains to the injection of the molten materials into the mold and letting it cool till it firmly solidifies.

Plastic injection molding primarily utilizes molten plastic raw-materials to create plastic products and parts. It's regarded as one of the oldest and ancient manufacturing processes. The technique first originated in 1872 by an inventor known as John Wesley Hyatt gained the patent for the first plastic injection molding machine. The intention was the technique to be a replacement of ivory balls in billiards with plastic balls. The machine ended up being a success but not the ivory balls

Since its introduction, injection molding has been one of the most progressive and modern techniques. It has evolved from producing small parts to the most complex and intricate parts such as medical devices and equipment.

Applications of Injection Molding

Injection molding comes with a wide variety of applications. Manufacturers mainly use it for high-volume production. It's used to make a wide variety of parts and products such from garbage cans to small products and objects like phone cases.

The most common use of injection molding technique in the manufacture of non-consumer parts where there is less demand for high-quality, precision, and aesthetics like the mechanical parts of a bigger object. It is because the injection molding parts and products usually have impurities and imperfections of the plastic material.

Benefits of Using Injection Molding

Plastic injection molding one of the widely used and fastest production techniques. Here are some of the reasons why it's mostly used by producers.

• Mass Production – This technique is one of the fastest manufacturing processes; hence it's perfect for large-scale production.
• Low Wastage – Unlike its counterparts which use a subtractive method such as CNC machining, where large parts are cut to create an item, injection molding there is less material wastage. It is more efficient and uses an exact amount of material to create the product.
• Consistent Quality – The injection molding process is highly repeatable. It can produce thousands of parts of the same quality. It also has a lower rate of rejection.