What is plastic injection?
Injection moulding is widespread. This technique is particularly developed to produce identical parts at a significant rate. This technical process includes all plastics and elastomers.
Moulds produced with precision and high injection pressures are essential for excellent surface finish and the reproduction of high details. This method is suitable for medium and large production.
The operation is as follows: Injection moulding consists of softening the thermoplastic material. It is then injected under high pressure into a cold mould. When in contact with the cold wall, the material solidifies into shape, and then the object can be taken out of the mould.
There are several variants that operate on the same principle: Injection moulding with the help of gas, multi-material injection moulding and mould decoration moulding.
Details of the concept of plastic injection
A plastic injection makes it possible to achieve finished pieces with simple or complex forms in a single operation. The process generally follows the same pattern:
1. Injection of thermoplastics
2. Injection moulding for the formatting of the thermoplastic materials
3. Cooling of the plastic material
4. Ejection of the plastic piece
What is the process of a classical injection cycle?
To perform the injection cycle, the main functions of a press inject are:
- Feeding with granules
- Fusion of the material
- Determination of the volume of melted material required
- Opening and closing of the mould
- Locking of the mould
- Pressure injection of the melted material into the mould
- Keeping of the material under pressure
- Ejection of the parts after cooling
The injection moulding machine
The injection moulding machine is composed of 2 parts: The injection laminating unit and the closing unit. These two functions allow the merger and transfer of the melt into the mould.
The functions of the injection unit are as follows:
- Feeding with granules
- Fusion of matter: transformation of granules into a viscous state.
- Determination of the amount of the injected material.
- Injection of material melted under pressure.
The functions of the closing group :
The closing group allows locking, the opening and closing of the mould, as well as the ejection of parts.
What are the main applications of plastic injection?
In many areas, plastic is ubiquitous.
The injected parts are found in all sectors of the market: industrial parts for the automotive sector, electronics, robotics, and aeronautics, aerospace, medical... in industrial products but also in household products, such as grocery baskets, stationery, garden furniture, keyboards, electronic boxes, buttons and saucepan handles. Essentially it is found in many everyday products.
Questions to an Expert: ROMER, specialist in thermoplastic injection for small and large productions, custom plastic moulding.
You have been in the field of thermoplastic injection for more than 30 years, what are the advantages of this process?
Thermoplastic injection allows production of finished products with complex shapes in a single operation, allowing the quick production of a large amount of finished parts.
The other advantage of this process is the level of product quality which remains excellent. For this reason, extremely demanding sectors such as automotive, medical, or aeronautics have manufactured quality parts by moulding and injection.
In what sectors is your expertise in plastics processing used?
We manufacture industrial and technical parts for demanding sectors such as lighting, electronics, electrical engineering, mechanics, music etc. We also manufacture elements for POS marketing, and packaging for various industries.
Do you make custom plastic mouldings?
We are specialists in thermoplastic injection for small and medium-sized productions. We make custom plastic injection moulds. ROMER advises its clients and makes custom designs in accordance to the proposed specifications: choice of materials, choice of features, choice of colours etc. We design and manufacture moulds for technical parts for any sector.
In conclusion, injection moulding also known as plastic injection is a method of proven high quality. This is the reason why the most demanding and specific sectors have made use of this technique.