Aluminum evenly dissipates heat, which provides dimensional stability in tooling. This significantly reduces deformation and produces less waste during the production process. It is important to note that aluminum is not as strong as steel, so it has a shorter life cycle and is less useful in high-volume processes.

Traditional tooling is often prohibitively expensive for small projects. Our custom rapid tooling service is a cost-effective, low-volume alternative in situations where large volumes of the part won’t be needed in the future. The rapid production tooling process is commonly used in industrial settings for prototyping solutions or for diagnosing design issues, providing an easy introduction to mold making.

For this tail light project, we needed to fabricate a housing, reflector, light guide, bezel, an outer lens, and other components in a short period of time. The overall assembly size was about 600 x 400 x 150 mm, which is relatively large and the customer wanted to test real materials. In this case, 3D printing, CNC machining, and vacuum casting were not suitable, so prototype molding was the only option. Click to view this case

An ideal choice for prototyping, aluminum mold tooling provides a cost-effective way to produce molded parts. Since they are easy to cut, aluminum molds can reduce tooling costs by 15–25% compared to other mold materials and reduce cycle times by up to 40%. This translates to a faster turnaround for our customers.

Crosslink testing Oxidative induction time testing Hot and cold burst testing Hot and cold impact testing 100% in-line ultrasonic dimensional inspection CMM Laser mics

Equipped with over 60 years of injection molding experience, we have the knowledge and skills to create structural foam components for virtually any customer need. This expertise also allows us to help customers optimize existing structural foam molding processes to achieve better product and production quality.

Every quarter, we order approximately 20 sets of plastic enclosures for our device from 3ERP. The enclosures were initially made by urethane casting, but Ronan came back to me with the idea of using an aluminum mold, which allowed me to get a few hundred moldings. We decided to move to this process. The T1 samples weren’t good enough, as we got some shrink marks, but this was quickly sorted out when we received the T2 samples.

Two months ago, I was super stressed by an urgent plastic molding project. Our customer desperately wanted 100 sets at very short notice in order to run testing with real materials, even though normal production would have taken more than six months. None of our preferred moldmaking suppliers could help us, given the deadline. Luckily, one of my friends recommended 3ERP to us by chance.

Can you imagine attempting to make prototype tools for over 30 components in just two months? Our customer desperately needed 200-300 sets of tail lights for testing, but mass production tools wouldn’t have been ready for eight months. They needed a solution to get good quality moldings by their deadline and at a much lower cost than production tools.

In one instance, a customer in the construction industry came to us to redesign their existing structural foam molding process. They were using a straight injection molding process to manufacture a line of linear trench drains for use in industrial, commercial, and residential applications. However, the single-cavity molds utilized in the existing process resulted in long cycle times and produced parts with warping and low dimensional tolerances.

Compared to other manufacturing methods, the structural foam injection molding process offers a number of advantages, such as:

The rapid tooling process involves the creation of a mold using aluminum or soft steel, a stocked mold base, and hand-load inserts. Rapid tooling is one of the best methods for fulfilling small batch orders meant for use in marketing samples, product evaluations, and process design.

Structural foam molding is an injection molding process that involves injecting liquid resin with an inert gas or a chemical blowing agent. The mixture is then injected into the mold cavity, where the gas or blowing agent expands and forces the resin to fill all areas of the cavity. As the material comes into contact with the walls of the mold, the surface cells collapse, resulting in a smooth and solid surface on the outside of the molded component.

At 3ERP, we typically create rapid molds by CNC machining and EDM, though we also sometimes use additive methods such as 3D printing technologies.

Although we had to invest more for the mold, we now save 70% compared with urethane casting, and we can use UV-resistant ABS to keep the color stable. Overall, I am very happy with the solution.

3ERP has a fantastic mold design team. They managed to finish the mold design within 10 days and started to fabricate the molds right after that. I was surprised that more than 60 items, including some big parts, were completed to a decent standard within two months. Our customers eventually received the moldings to run their testing. 3ERP saved our business!

Our structural foam injection molding equipment allows us to produce parts up to 7.5 feet in length with a typical wall thickness range of .200 to .500 inches. Our low-pressure structural foam machines have platen sizes of 98 inches x 89 inches and tie bar spacing of 58.5 inches x 67.5 inches. The shot size is up to 150 lbs. The structural foam process allows for running more than one mold at the same time in a single machine. We are happy to quote any new or existing structural foam projects.

Though it features multiple benefits, steel is a more expensive tooling material than aluminum and requires more turnaround time to produce molds and prototypes.

Founded in 1953 in Erie, PA, Port Erie Plastics began operations with a single injection molding machine in a small building. Since then, our company has grown significantly to accommodate increasing customer demand.  Today, Port Erie Plastics is a leading provider of injection molding services, but, occasionally, another means of processing plastic is a better way to make a part. In recent years, our engineering talent has enabled us to add structural foam molding and extrusion to meet our customers’ needs.

Steel is a sturdy, solid, high-quality tooling material, though it is not suitable for all applications. Steel molds have a longer life cycle than aluminum and are therefore ideal for high-volume production. Steel can also be used to produce molds from engineering-grade plastics that are resistant to abrasion and corrosion.

If you need a partner for your structural foam molding and extrusion project, turn to the experts at Port Erie Plastics. To learn more about our capabilities, check out our case studies or contact us today. To discuss your project requirements with one of our team members, request a quote.

Our team redesigned the manufacturing process to use the low-pressure structural foam molding method, which resulted in a 20% part weight reduction and a 40% cycle time reduction over the original process. The new process allowed for the creation of trenches in 17 different sizes. We built the aluminum molds and designed tools with interchangeable molds to allow the customer to run any two of the 17 sizes in a single machine at the same time.