Plastic mouldings need very careful design to avoid tooling issues like undercuts (which will send up tooling cost significantly), locked-in features and not enough draft (What Draft Angles for Plastic Mouldings ?). The material and temperature will need to be taken into account in wall design, otherwise the mould may not fill fully. The placement of ejectors and cooling lines will need to be considered to ensure the product is aesthetically pleasing.

Fabrik Molded Plastics, Inc. is a custom injection and insert molding provider of thermoplastic products. We use the latest molding technologies and automation equipment in our full-service offerings to ensure we compete at the global level. Because we use the latest molding technologies and a  scientific approach in our molding processes, our clients can reap the benefits of our competitive advantage. Contact us today or request a free quote to start your custom project.

Part repeatability is very high for injection moulding. Even the sprues and runners (the leftover bits of plastic created by the 'tunnels' through which the plastic material reaches the actual mould) can be reground and the material reused. You can explore this in more detail on our environmental impact of injection moulding page.

Whilst there is an initial high investment for the plastic injection moulding tool, after that the cost per part is very low. Other plastic processing techniques may require multiple operations, like polishing, whilst injection moulding can do it all at once. If you chose to CNC machine the part above, it would cost hundreds of pounds per part. If you're looking to go into full production, injection moulding is the way to go.

Also called multi-shot or double-injection molding, two-shot injection molding is an over-molding process that adheres additional material—like thermoplastic elastomer (TPE)—to plastic substrates to improve the appearance, grip, handling, environmental resistance, or impact resistance of injection molded components. Two-shot injection molding is typically performed by multi-barrel injection molding machines, which add extra material shortly after forming the substrate to create strong bonds between the materials.

Cycle times can be as low as 10 seconds. Combine that with a multi-impression injection moulding tool and you get a LOT of products very quickly. That part above takes a bit longer as it's a specialist material and has a lot of features to be moulded correctly, but at about 50 seconds you'd still get 70 parts per cavity per hour. CNC machining a one-off would take half a day - 3D printing it even longer!

The two-shot injection molding process consists of two main phases. Similar to traditional injection molding, the first phase involves injecting resin into a mold, which is then cooled to form a solid part in the shape of the mold. The second phase involves overmolding the 1st shot by transferring it to a second cavity by robot or rotating platen. The two plastic resins will form a molecular bond and, once cooled and ejected, becomes a finished multi-resin molded part.

For bonding to occur, the two parts undergoing the two-shot molding process must be chemically compatible. Fabrik consults with customers and material suppliers to ensure proper material selection for the specific application.

From product conception to final part can take months of design, testing and tool manufacturing. That said, if you know what you want, you can have the finished mouldings within 6 weeks. (Toolcraft's Chinese Mould Tools Flowchart shows how that could work). And as mentioned under advantages, once the tool exists, it takes very little time to run the mouldings, especially when you have a multi-impression mould tool. (Here's a list of Mould Tool Types).

Huge machines are needed to make plastic injection mouldings. Very large parts need an enormous mould tool and become very expensive to make, in which case a process like Plastic Fabrication may be a better choice, depending on the tye of product needed.

Well, it depends on so many factors: design considerations, material, size, quantities needed, your budget. An expert will have to assess each product idea to decide the most effective and economically viable way of manufacturing it.

Once your mould tool is made, identical products can be made over and over again. And again. A decently made mould tool has a very long mould tool life, as long as it's treated well by the moulding machine setters !

The two-shot molding process improves the final product in terms of feel, color, and functionality. There are many design opportunities to suit specific preferences. Examples of two-shot injection molded products include toothbrush handles, buttons, switches, caps and closures, and hand and power tools.

Plastic injection moulding advantages centre around great precision and high repeatability, combined with speed, a low cost per part and a huge choice of available plastics. Disadvantages include a higher initial cost and lead time than some other processes.

Often, several rounds of designing and modelling are needed before the go-ahead or production is given. Then, the injection moulding tool needed to make the mouldings will need designing & manufacturing. The mould tool is an intricate piece of work which costs manpower, material and many machining hours to make and represents the largest cost in getting injection mouldings. Of course, once it's all done, part cost is very low and repeatability very high for hundreds of thousands of mouldings.

In addition to a range of colours, the injection moulding tool can be made with a special finish which will show on the moulding. Just about any finish you like, for example leather look, soft touch, sparked, high shine, you name it. You can also have logos or other text engraved in the tool. Finally, you can have your mouldings printed, as a range of inks are available that will print well on plastic.

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There's a vast amount of materials available for plastic injection moulding. A range of more common materials, but also things like antistatic plastic, thermoplastic rubber, chemical resistant plastics, infrared, biocompostable...and with colour compounding or masterbatch colouring you have an endless choice of colours as well. The moulding above is boring black, but it's made out of PPO - poly(phenylene oxide) - which is an extremely rigid and flame-retardant material.

At Fabrik Molded Plastics, Inc., we offer custom two-shot plastic injection molding capabilities. Other service offerings include precision plastic injection molding, insert molding, CT scanning, scientific plastic injection molding, automotive lighting, tooling transfers, and custom automation services.

Two-shot plastic injection molding is an injection molding process used to create multilayer, multicolor, or multi-material parts in a single process. This process is also sometimes referred to as two shot injection molding, 2-shot molding, 2K, multilayer, multi-shot injection molding, or multishot molding. Multi-shot manufactured products eliminate steps in the manufacturing process while creating a more cost-effective, enhanced finished product.

Plastic injection moulding is perfect for very intricate parts. Compared to other techniques, moulding allows you to incorporate more features at very small tolerances. Have a look at the image to the right. You can hold this moulding in the palm of your hand and it has bosses, ribs, metal inserts, side cores and holes made with a sliding shut off feature in the tool. That's an awful lot of features on a small part! It would be impractical to make using plastic fabrication and impossible to make using the vacuum forming process.

Toolcraft offer plastic injection moulding, vacuum forming and plastic fabrication, including a range of finishing, printing & packing services. Our longstanding experience allows us to help you choose the best manufacturing process for your new project. We also share our knowledge on our plastic moulding advice pages. Or just:

Commonly used materials for two-shot injection molding include thermoplastics, thermoplastic elastomers, and liquid silicone rubber.