Also known as roto molding, roto casting, or roto mold, rotational molding features a large machine with molds in the right shapes and specifications needed for the final product—whether it’s a container for holding chemicals or a children’s plastic slide. It’s often compared to the blow molding process, but rotational molding costs much less and is more versatile.

No, this machine isn’t musically inclined. In fact, its name speaks to the motion it moves in when shaping products. It has a tilting oven and automatic cart movement, which makes this large piece of equipment ideal for bigger roto mold products, like tanks and vessels.Â

ISO9001 Quality systems are in place to ensure moulded products are produced to documented customer requirements. QA testing and monitoring of product quality is undertaken throughout production with constant quality auditing to ensure the highest standards are met.

This style of roto mold machine is great for larger quantities and bigger products because it contains two carts and two stations as well as an oven. Operators can choose to use one station at a time or both, which cranks up efficiency and productivity and keeps the process running smoothly since multiple steps are happening at once.Â

There are a few unique details to be mindful of when you design a product to be made with rotational molding. These might not come up when you’ve worked with other manufacturing methods:

To help you visualize what this looks like, you can see several important steps from the rotational molding process in the image below, including filling, heating, cooling, and removing the product from the molds.

There are several types of rotational molding machines to consider, and the best one for your operation will depend on the type, size, and use of the products you’re interested in making.

Our team’s biggest goal is to help you with manufacturing and processing needs and we have a long list of solutions to do so. We offer various molding options, including quick-turn molding, prototype molding, bridge molding, insert molding, overmolding, and assembly.

When you choose Evolve Group you choose multiple award winning designers, Australian Made, High Quality Products, Robust Supply Chain, Elimination of FOREX risk, Just In Time Manufacturing, Support of Better Trading Terms, Improved Cashflow, Continual Improvement Support and Future New Product Development Support.

Highly skilled and trained moulding staff meet the extremely critical tolerances required by customers of both dimension and colour in high or low volumes. All injection moulding plastic resin applications can be processed, including rigid and flexible injection mouldings and products moulded in more demanding engineering grade resins. Gas-assist injection moulding equipment and experience exists to mould components with this technology.

Although it’s more than 100 years old, rotational molding is still popular with manufacturers who want to make high-quality and uniform products. It’s quite a fascinating process and can make a wide range of products, from hollow water tanks to kayaks. If you want to know how to use this process in your business, this article explains all the ins and outs of rotational molding, as well as how Xometry can help lessen your company’s workload with this process.

These smaller machines have a lid that opens and closes similar to a clamshell, and they’re a good fit for businesses after low-quantity production orders. Normally, they’ll have one arm and an oven, meaning they’re more compact and great for smaller facilities, too.Â

At our core, Evolve is a very proud Australian manufacturer with an amazing team at our award winning advanced manufacturing facility in Brisbane. We service numerous industries - from mining to medical, baby products, automotive, building and DIY, and agricultural to name just a few - and we are very proud of that fact. Not only do we manufacture these high quality products, but in almost every case we have assisted with the design and continual improvement of them.

There are specific materials that are better suited to this type of molding, and you’ll find that polyethylene is the most common because of its low cost, thermal stability, and the structural integrity it has after cooling. A very tiny percentage of companies use other materials, like silicone, ABS, and acrylic, but that’s extremely rare for most applications.Â

This type of roto molding machine has between three and six rotating arms, which makes it look similar to an amusement park ride. It’s built in such a way so that each mold on all of the arms gets the same number of rotations, level of heat, and cooling time.Â

With over 20 injection moulding machines operating 24 hours per day, Evolve Group is able to meet demanding customer lead time requirements. Machine clamp force tonnage ranges from 50 to 1300 tons. All raw material is managed through a centrally feed silo system via an underground drying mechanism into machines to reduce cross contamination and create an optimal product.

The steps that commonly take place when it comes to rotational molding, though they’ll vary slightly depending on the product and material, involve heating and slowly rotating a hollow mold with powdered plastic (usually polyethylene) inside in various directions. The heat melts the plastic powder, and it sticks to the inside of the mold. The rotating trick helps it do so evenly. It’s then cooled and allowed to harden before the solid part can be taken out of the mold.Â

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An open-flame machine has exactly what its name suggests, rows of open flames that get as close as possible to the molds. If you want to make cylindrical parts, it’s worth looking into because it’s efficient and cost-effective.

At our core, Evolve is a very proud Australian manufacturer with an amazing team at our award winning advanced manufacturing facility right here in Brisbane. We service numerous industries - from mining to medical, baby products, automotive, building and DIY, and agricultural to name just a few - and we are very proud of that fact. Evolve Group is winning reshoring business every week due our competitive tool and part pricing, lean manufacturing principles along with our robotics and automation services. If you find it difficult to believe we can do it cheaper than China, please contact us for a free quotation or visit us for a tour of the facility. We would love the opportunity to show you.

The process is quite slow compared to other super speedy high-pressure processes. Many machines spin molds around eight rotations per minute, and it can take up to three hours to complete. Even still, it’s a remarkably effective method for creating hollow, one-piece construction products.Â

At face value, rotational molding—and all the equipment and tools that are necessary for this process—may seem expensive. But from a long-term perspective, this investment will usually pay for itself. In comparison to other molding techniques, it’s actually pretty affordable as far as start-up costs go. Pulling information from one case study, you’ll find it’s much cheaper than blow molding. For 50-gallon trash cans, the tooling cost was $20,000 and the maintenance cost was $1,000 a year for rotational molding, whereas blow molding the same product would cost $210,000 for tooling and $5,000 a year for maintenance.

While it might seem niche, roto casting can be a helpful process for making all kinds of interesting and useful products like: