Two-shot injection molding is the ideal process for complex parts. As such, part design often requires a high level of refinement and sophistication. That’s why we’ve developed a Two Shot Design Guide. It provides the foundation you’ll need to start designing for the two-shot molding process.

With decades of experience in two-shot injection molding, we’ve optimized our processes to drive cost out and maximize value for our customers. Our rapid prototyping, advanced molding techniques, and material expertise streamlines the production process from conception to production.

This method provides a wide range of resins that can mimic 'production-grade' materials ranging from soft elastomers like silicone rubber to hard plastics like ABS, along with ‘production-grade’ quality.

The resulting parts can be used as 'appearance models', for marketing and promotional shots, presented to investors or potential customers. Here is a more in-depth guide to prototyping for hardware startups.

We’ve worked with hundreds of materials and additives, so we can accurately predict how processing will affect appearance. This expertise allows for precise color-matching and replication of design intent, enhancing visual appeal and brand identity.

Our two-shot injection molding company is ISO 14001:2004, ISO/TS 16949:2009, and WBENC certified. View our Certifications page.

3D Printing is suitable as a prototyping process and for very low volume production runs. It requires no upfront investment into creating molds and can provide lead-times as short as a few hours. This makes 3D Printing a preferred choice for quick iterations during the development of plastic products, and sometimes for metal and composite materials too.

Setup costs involved in CNC machining, especially for complex geometry, are higher than that of 3D Printing. It is therefore more suited for low to mid-volume production (upto a few hundred parts depending on part geometry) with fast turnaround times as opposed to one-off production.

Injection molding is a commonly used process for manufacturing plastic parts, but the high upfront costs of the molds makes it viable only at high volumes. So if you are looking to develop only a few prototypes of your product, injection molding is not the right way to go, instead, here are the types of companies that can help you build physical product prototypes.

3D Printed molds can prove to be a low cost way for testing production-grade materials and processes at low quantities but it is currently limited to small parts and yet to be adopted by the industry at large.

Our expertise lies in two-shot overmolding and insert molding. In addition, we utilize in-house secondary processes and high levels of automation to lower labor costs and improve accuracy and lead times. Our team can determine the optimal processes for your part.

CNC machining is a highly reliable process and it is as relevant today as it was when first conceived in the 1950s. It is one of the most versatile manufacturing process in terms of the number of materials that can be processed in a CNC machine - plastics, wood, metals, ceramics and many more.

A startup developing a new product from scratch faces high uncertainty of whether their product will be successful in the market or not. Therefore, it is hard for them to invest several thousand dollars for injection molding of an unproven product idea.

There are hundreds of materials suitable for two-shot injection molding and thousands of ways to adjust, blend, and fine-tune them. Our material experts can help you choose compatible materials that will form a molecular bond while simultaneously meeting the requirements of your part.

Make informed decisions before full-scale production with our rapid prototyping capabilities. We evaluate the design and identify potential issues quickly and cost-effectively to speed up the product development process.

This process is great for cost-effective production runs of 20-200 parts to test the market, gather feedback from early adopters and test the engineering and design requirements.

It should be noted that the cost-effectiveness of manufacturing process at a certain volume is highly dependent on the part geometry. For quantities approaching 300-500 parts, injection molding with lower quality steel or aluminum molds can be considered depending on the part geometry. It is a good idea to involve suitable engineering or manufacturing professionals who can guide you early in your product development process.

Below are some alternatives to injection molding that allow manufacturing low volume parts(10s or 100s of), cost effectively so that you can test the market, receive feedback from users, present your product to investors, run promotions and more.

Urethane Casting is an excellent alternative to injection molding, but without the high upfront costs or long lead times of injection molding.

This breadth of experience enables us to evaluate multiple processes and materials and recommend the optimal combination for your unique application.

In some cases, CNC machining is also used as a secondary operation in combination with another manufacturing processes. For example, CNC machining can be used as a secondary operation on 3D printed parts or metal castings to achieve tighter tolerances.

Plastics are an integral part of consumer products, everything from your smartphone and laptop to your car, contains some amount of plastic parts.

Due to the high tolerance, fast turnaround and wide range of materials available for CNC machining, it is used to create accurate molds, dies or patterns for other manufacturing processes involving molding, casting, forming or extruding.

Outdesign Co is a product design, prototyping and product development company. We help startups as well as established businesses around the world bring new products to market. To discuss your project, click here to get a quote.

SLA and SLS technologies are slightly more costlier than FDM, but provide tighter tolerances and better finishing. There are other specialized 3D printing technologies that allow printing with multiple colors or materials in the same part.

Using 3D printed molds as an alternative to metal molds in injection molding is a fairly new process. As the quality and surface finish of 3D Printing continuously improves, 3D Printed molds for low volume injection molding are being pioneered by companies like Stratasys with their Polyjet printing and Formlabs using their SLA printers.

Our specialized press-to-press transfer technique allows us to mold 360-degrees. It’s ideal when your application requires molding over metal inserts such as fasteners and magnets or other substrates such as structural reinforcements.

Outdesign Co is a product design & development company helping clients across 15+ countries turn their ideas into “World-Firsts” and award-winning products.

We design and manufacture most trim and fabrication tooling, as well as assembly fixtures, in-house. We’ll occasionally build prototype and production molds in-house, but we’ve found it’s usually more cost-effective to design in-house and partner with a dedicated, US-based moldmaker for the manufacturing.

Two-shot design can deliver a competitive advantage far above other molding processes, especially for complex parts. Learn the benefits of the process and explore the special design requirements needed to make it work in this free guide created by engineers, for engineers.

Since this process involves very low pressure and temperatures, the mold can be made from inexpensive materials like plastic or wood. Surface finish is important as the formed product picks up small details on the mold.

We typically work with large customers such as automotive OEMs, Tier 1s, and Tier 2s. The majority of our accounts have volumes of at least 10,000 parts annually and have an annual buy over $100,000. If this sounds like you, we should connect.

The two-shot injection molding process combines two different plastic resins in one machining cycle. To realize the full benefits of this process, you should choose two compatible materials that can form a molecular bond while simultaneously meeting the functional requirements of your part. Learn about the most common two-shot injection molding materials in our Two-Shot Design Guide, or contact us if you need help choosing compatible materials.

A 'master pattern' of the product is created using CNC Machining or high-resolution 3D Printing with the required surface finish. This pattern is then used to create a urethane or silicone mold into which a suitable resin can be poured in order to create multiple copies of the product. The mold typically lasts for around 20 runs.

Two-shot injection molding eliminates the need for secondary processes such as welding and assembly. As such, piece prices tend to be lower for two-shot molded parts compared to multi-component single-shot assemblies. The tooling for two-shot, on the other hand, tends to be more complex and costly than single-shot. Therefore, two-shot injection molding is most cost-efficient for high-volume productions. Request a quote today to see if two-shot molding is the right solution for you.

3D printed parts inherently have a 'layered' surface due to the way 3D printing works. But this surface can be sanded and painted to achieve the desired surface finish.

There are several different types of 3D Printing technologies both for plastics and metals with their own pros and cons. FDM (Fused Deposition Modeling), SLA (Stereolithography) and SLS (Selective Laser Sintering) are the ones that are most commonly used in product development.

Our two-shot injection molded parts contribute to the success of major industrial sectors, including automotive, lawn & garden, heavy equipment, and consumer products. Explore the wide range of uses for our two-shot injection molding solutions.

From concept to production, our tailored design and engineering capabilities deliver cost-effective solutions for two-shot injection molded parts. We have the experience and confidence to take full design responsibility or serve as a design partner.

Thermoforming involves creating a mold of your product over which a thin sheet of plastic is heated and formed using vacuum, pressure or mechanical force. The plastic sheet takes the shape of the mold and extra material is then trimmed off.

Our two-shot injection molding company is located in Bad Axe, Michigan. You can drop us a note online, give us a call at 989-269-9791 or email us at plasticsales@geminigroup.net.

Thermoforming, however, cannot be used to produce highly complex parts which the other processes can. It is therefore limited to 'relatively' simple products like packaging trays, large panels of appliances, vehicle door panels, dashboards, simple product housings etc.