Every piece created in a high-precision plastic injection molding project must be identifiable because it will be joined similarly. As a result, the high-precision plastic injection molding process can be slow, steady, and precise. This is a method that is individual to each project. A precision-molded part’s success depends on everything from the tooling to the part design, material selection, and procedures.

Gas-assisted injection molding is a low-pressure plastic injection molding process that heats plastic, injects it into the mold, then injects pressurized nitrogen or carbon dioxide gas. In turn, the gas pushes the molten plastic into the mold’s extremities and produces thicker walls with hollow sections. When molding is complete, the gas is vented and the parts are removed. Typically, this process is used for plastic parts that have large surface areas, and require detailed textures and superior surface quality.

1 this description is ABS, which is a thermoplastic polymer. This particular type of plastic can keep its suppleness even after being subjected to extreme temperatures. Despite this, the material’s shrinkage of +/-0.06 millimeters does not make it suitable for precision molding. It is possible to get the desired shrinkage by adding glass and other types of resin. They contribute to the material’s capacity to absorb excess heat while maintaining the plastic’s consistency.

Since substances have a high potential for shrinkage, they are more likely to melt during injection molding, which is entirely accurate. In the end, it makes the product unusable. Hence, for this molding process to be successful, the materials that are employed need to have a limited capacity for shrinkage. The required amount of shrinkage is around +/-0.01″ or +/-0.02″. However, this range is out of reach for many different materials.

Because of this, the labor cost is decreased, while the automated process contributes to increased production efficiency.

The precise injection molding used in product production ensures the product has intricate geometric components. These things require specific shapes for medical, IT, pharmaceutical, and automotive goods.

Because thin wall injection molding can provide significant cost savings, it’s often used with high-volume production. Potential applications for thin wall injection molding include small enclosures for medical devices. And Fictiv offers cost-effective steel molds for medical device prototype development and low-volume manufacturing — an ideal solution for medical device designers looking for an alternative to 3D printing to ensure that the material used for functional samples can be used for high-volume production.

An automatic handling system and computers are used throughout the process, which has been completely automated. It allows the manufacturer to tailor the molding process to the specific product that needs to be shaped.

It must first go through the proper investigation, design, and testing processes to successfully build the mold. For the mold, there are a lot of different factors that need to be considered. The following are some of the components that require special attention:

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Polymer optics are utilized in the process of accurate injection molding. In this process stage, CNC machining is utilized to shape the plastics in a calculated and precise manner. The high pressure of the machines contributes to an improvement in both the quality and the precision of the plastic components. They are also capable of producing correct products consistently.

Overmolding isn’t just about layering one material on top of the other, however. Chemical bonds form at the molecular level and are a function of how well the overmold material wets the substrate. Mechanical bonds depend on the physical geometry at the interface of the substrate and the overmold. Two-shot molding, or double-shot molding, is a two-step continuous process that first molds a substrate, then over molds that substrate with a different material. Pick-and-place molding is used mainly for prototyping and for low-volume production.

Today, several molding processes are known for mass-producing everyday goods. However, still, some parts and pieces in numerous industries need to be more intricate to be manufactured using standard plastic injection molds. Such production needs are fulfilled using a technique known as high-precision plastic injection molding.

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Due to the complexities, you can handle the high-precision plastic injection molding process during production; this process introduces unique properties and solutions for plastic product manufacturers. Five such vital properties include:

Now that you understand what high-precision plastic injection molding is and how to practice this practical production approach, you can ensure that your company’s/brand’s plastic product’s production is more detailed, cost-effective, time-saving, and of a higher quality.

This efficient injection molding approach is a highly specialized technique involving precise molds. And what makes it more effective and accessible to fulfill various modern-day plastic goods production demands is that it is not utilized to create entire goods but rather to create more complicated plastic parts.

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Like thin wall injection molding, gas-assisted injection molding reduces the amount of plastic required, decreases cycle times, and creates significant material cost savings. Gas-assist plastic injection molding also improves part appearance by reducing sink marks, blemishes, warpage, and distortion — the gas packs out the resin removing blemishes as the plastic solidifies. Also, because molding pressures are lower, there’s less residual stress on parts and less wear on molds.

The mold used in this molding technique allows for a high level of precision produced. It must fulfill the requirements of design engineering.

Do you need medical injection molding for prototyping, low-volume, or high-volume production? A good plan and skilled production partner are critical to avoid the added injection molding costs and risks that come with inadequate drying or improper processing methods.

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HCR’s higher viscosity makes this material more challenging to process, and HCR injection molding is generally more complex than LSR injection molding. Still, HCR can achieve better overall properties than LSR rubber. Depending on a part’s geometry, however, high shear conditions in the mold can cause shrink rates to vary — which underscores the importance of proper tool design and an experienced manufacturing partner. Applications for HCR silicone injection molding include gaskets and O-rings for medical devices.

Last but not least, high-precision plastic injection molding manufacturing is high-speed. This results in the faster and more effective production of individual components, shortening the time necessary to create a finished good. Because of this, it is an excellent option for running large-scale production runs, as it enables the rapid and effective manufacture of individual parts.

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A model with high accuracy is required to manufacture plastic components with precise tolerances. Every single member molded using a specific injection model must be identical. This method can only be utilized for plastic parts positioned and joined with other plastic components in a predetermined configuration.

In addition to conventional plastic injection molding, there are six main types of injection molding used in medical devices:

In simple terms, high-precision plastic injection molding is a type of injection molding that needs extreme precision. It is often employed when a project demands a precise form of plastic injection molding rather than making a whole product. Precision plastic parts are frequently utilized to replace high-precision metal parts in instruments, electronics, optics, medical equipment, and other applications.

The high-precision plastic injection molding machine must be able to manage the product’s accuracy and repeatability. This machine should be subjected to high pressure to increase the overall precision and quality of the parts. The machine should have a rigid clamping system with a control range of 0.05 to 0.08mm, dimensional accuracy of parts, die speed, plasticizing parts such as the screw, screw head, material barrel, check ring, and more.

Depending on the model, tolerance for precision injection models ranges from +/-0.02 inches to +/-0.01 inches or less. Each of the factors above is considered when determining the dimension’s tolerance.

LSR injection molding is used with liquid silicone rubber (LSR), a two-component elastomer that requires curing — a chemical process that crosslinks polymer chains — to achieve the material’s end-use properties. Typically, the components for LSR injection molding come in a 5-gallon pail or a 55-gallon drum. They are poured into a static mixer and fed into the injection unit, where additional mixing occurs. The injection screw then pushes forward the shot, or the amount of material, that’s needed to fill the mold.

When compared to the process of plastic injection molding, this technique yields more exact plastic components than the former does. It does not engage in the bulk production of whole parts. These finished items, made as a byproduct of the process, are intended to replace high-precision metal components found in various industrial appliances.

Below are some common benefits when opting for high-precision plastic injection molding as your go-to manufacturing solution.

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Tolerances need to be extremely precise for precision injection molding to produce accurate plastic components. It denotes that the techniques outlined in the requirements for the product are concrete and precise. When the instructions are not followed, it can cause the mold to break.

The two halves of the mold remain clamped during curing, a process that averages 30 seconds with LSRs. By contrast, cure times for HCR, or high-consistency silicone rubber (see the next section) last five minutes or longer, especially if the rubber uses a peroxide curing agent. Injection-molded LSR can also be platinum-cured for greater optical clarity, tensile strength, and tear strength. Importantly, platinum-cured silicones have fewer extractables, aka compounds that can leach out of the material. With higher purity and faster cycle times, platinum-cured LSRs are used in high-volume medical applications like spacers for asthma inhalers.

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Because of the precise nature of the items, the maker must avoid relying on quick tools while utilizing this approach. The process of explicit injection modeling is slow and steady, resulting in an instrument with high precision.

Metal injection molding (MIM) mixes powdered metal with a thermoplastic binder and heats this material so that the metal grains bond to the thermoplastic. The material is then heated again and injected into a mold to create the part. After the part is ejected, the thermoplastic binder is removed. The next step is sintering, a heat treatment process that subjects the part to high temperature and pressure. Sintering compacts any loose material, and this fusion results in a net-shape or near-net-shape part. Depending on the injection molded product, post-sintering operations may be required.

High-precision plastic injection molding can cause the plastics being used in the manufacturing process to shrink. Hence this technique requires a material shrinkage capacity that is low. Because of this, the materials it uses are distinct from those used in other types of injection molding.

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Moreover, precision injection molding necessitates a precision mold and precise machinery due to these requirements. Precision molding is a complex procedure.

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Overmolding is a form of injection molding that molds a polymer over a substrate. It eliminates the need for assembly after molding. Overmolding is used to produce handles on surgical instruments, but it can also be used in medical products without any metal parts — like silicones or thermoplastic elastomers (TPE) overmolded onto thermoplastic substrates.

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Hence, high-precision plastic injection molding differs from convective modeling in various aspects, including the materials utilized, the mold made, and the machine used to create the product. This article will discuss everything about high-precision plastic injection molding – from its definition to method, what makes it different from other production methods, and its advantages.

Injection molding for medical devices can use plastics, thermoplastic elastomers (TPE), silicones, metals, or composite materials. There are many types of injection moldable plastics, but medical device designers often choose polypropylene, polyethylene, polystyrene, or polyetheretherketone (PEEK), depending on the application. Silicone elastomers also offer a choice of materials and combine chemical stability with support for sterilization. Metals provide strength and can resist microbial growth while also supporting medical injection molding.

This article describes each of these methods, and if you’re looking for information about the best way to design injection molded parts for medical devices, check out our design guide!

High-precision plastic injection molding offers several benefits over traditional manufacturing processes, including improved cost-effectiveness. The fact that it is an efficient use of resources is among the most significant benefits provided by this method. Because the procedure does not require additional tooling or machining, the associated expenses are minimized to a bare minimum. Furthermore, the system takes just a reasonable amount of time, which allows for the production of components in a timely and effective manner.

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HCR injection molding is used with high-consistency silicone rubber (HCR), or heat-cured silicone rubber. Typically, this injection molding process involves heating a gum-like raw material and injecting it into a mold under high pressure. The injection screw preheats the gum rubber to reduce its viscosity, or resistance to flow. The silicone then fills the mold cavity completely, and the preheating at the beginning of the molding cycle helps to fill the cavity more rapidly.

Thin wall injection molding produces thin, lightweight parts for reduced material costs and faster cycle times. As a medical molding process, it’s typically used for small, complex parts that require a high degree of precision. The thinness of the wall is important because the size of the part limits how thin the wall can be. Typically, injection molded parts with a wall thickness of less than 1mm are considered to be thin-walled.

Another advantage of high-precision plastic injection molding is that it can make components with a high level of detail and accuracy. These parts can be exact. This is a result of the nature of the procedure, which is exceptionally accurate and precise. Because of this, it is ideally suited for manufacturing components with delicate details and complex shapes. Also, the procedure can be used to manufacture pieces with a smooth surface, improving the product’s overall look and feel. This is one more way in which the product can be improved.

MIM supports the high-volume production of medical parts with complex shapes in various sizes, and with superior strength and an excellent surface finish. This form of medical injection molding also provides a cost-effective alternative to CNC machining for parts made of difficult-to-machine metals such as stainless steels, cobalt-chromium alloys, and titanium alloys. Importantly, the dimensions and end-use properties of metal injection molded parts are comparable to those of wrought and cast materials. Applications include surgical instruments and implants, both of which use stainless steel.