Precision is critical for the injection molding process to work effectively. Your custom tools must not only capture every last detail of your custom parts, but must also be built tough enough to withstand high pressures of the injection molding process and built to last throughought the life of your project.
Our advanced mold making system enables us to quickly and cost-effectively create simple and complex tooling for all of your custom product needs.
Experts in mold design we create long lasting tools that produce high quality parts, faster and more affordably than anyone in the industry.
Our In-House tooling department enables us to build or make modifications to quickly incorporate engineering changes, reducing downtime and getting your parts in your hands as fast as possible.
Plastic Injection Mold Companies use two main methods to manufacture molds: standard machining and EDM.
Standard Machining, in its conventional form, has historically been the method of building injection molds with a knee mill. With technological development, CNC machining became the predominant means of making more complex molds with more accurate mold details in less time than traditional methods.
The electrical discharge machining (EDM) spark erosion process has become widely used in mold making.
Most injection mold companies have EDM in house, as it is essential to the mold build process of complex molds. EDM allows the formation of injection molded shapes which are difficult to machine, such as square corners or ribs.
The process allows pre-hardened molds to be shaped so that no heat treatment is required. Changes to a hardened injection molds by conventional drilling and milling normally require annealing to soften the steel, followed by heat treatment to harden it again.
EDM is a simple process in which a shaped electrode, usually made of copper or graphite, is very slowly lowered onto the mold surface (over a period of many hours), which is immersed in paraffin oil. A voltage applied between tool and mold causes spark erosion of the mold surface in the inverse shape of the electrode.
Cost
The cost of manufacturing injection molds depends on a very large set of factors ranging from number of cavities, size of the parts (and therefore the mold), complexity of the pieces, expected tool longevity, surface finishes and many others.
The initial cost is great, however the piece part cost is low, so with greater quantities the overall price decreases. With global competition, companies with an ISO-Quality system usually will have better pricing as they have streamed lined their process and produce less defects.
The article comes from China injection mold manufacturer - Mold Best Assurance Company Limited, website is www.mbamoldanddesign.com
