Mainly, the process of developing a product prototype starts with going through the prototype injection molding process, requesting a quote, and sharing your computer-aided designs with your engineers. These engineers will go ahead to tweak the designs and pass the part using an injection molding machine.
After all these, you realized that you’re not familiar with the entire injection molding process or even know the regular terms used in the Industry. Would you like to know? Hang on to this read!
Parts of injection molding machine
Injection mold can be described as a tool that contains different parts that allow melted plastic to cool in a way to create a specific shape. The following are parts of the injection molding machine that you should know about:
1. Clamp plates
The clamp plates allow the mold halves tightly attached to them. Generally, mold clamps come with large bolts which they use to hold these parts in place. Other machines use magnets to hold down the mold to the platen.
2. Feed system
The feed system allows the plastic to slow using the sprue bushing. Then, it goes to the single runners which collect the materials and transfer them to the gate. The gate is the entry point where the materials enter the cavities.
Note, the runners and sprue can be chopped up and recycled. Also, the hot runner system can be used to eliminate them.
3. Sprue or nozzle bushing
The nozzle accepts the melted plastic through the molding machine barrel. The sprue bushings are also known as the locating ring also help to hold the nozzle to the center.
4. Cavities
The cavities are parts of the mold that allows the products to firm into your preferred shape. Since molds are balanced most times, there’s only a specific number of cavities that can be allowed. It could be 1, 2, 3, 4, etc.
5. Ejector System
The ejector system allows parts to be pushed off through different bars or pins. It’s these pins that are specifically referred to as the ejector system.
6. Cooling system
Plastic that goes into the machine hot is cooled through the different cooling channels. The cooling channels let conduction cool the hot part.
Here, working fluid or water is used for cooling. Oil is also used sometimes if the application is high.
7. Guide pillars
The cavity and other important halves are kept to properly align when the mold is closed using the guide pins or pillars. The guide pillars are also called guide bushings.
8. The ejector plate system
Here, the ejector pins are attached to the ejector plate. Then, the ejector plate’s motion goes forward and lets the pins also move forward, directly causing the part to be pushed off. The ejector which retains the plates also holds down the pin to the ejector plate.
Final Thoughts
Now, if you want to go into designing properly, you must understand that the injection molding machine is an important part of the process. This article shows the different parts of the machine you need to master before you begin!
