Simulating Injection Molding for Efficiency

Producing high-quality, plastic injection-moulded parts more quickly and cost-effectively has become a critical factor for manufacturing success in today’s global market. Instead of engaging in slow, expensive prototype iterations and test cycles to satisfy manufacturing requirements, designers, mold makers, and manufacturing professionals can leverage SOLIDWORKS® Plastics mold-filling simulation software to optimise parts for manufacturability, refine tooling to improve quality and shorten cycle times to reduce manufacturing costs

- Kruti Bharadva

In nearly all types of product development—from consumer electronics and automobiles to children’s toys and medical devices—they use of components made from plastic materials has steadily increased. There are several reasons for the continuation of this trend, which began decades ago. Plastic parts are generally less expensive to make and don’t rust or corrode like metals. Plastics are lighter in weight than traditional materials, and because plastics are very pliable, they can be molded into more complex patterns and shapes, with more elaborate surface details. In short, plastics are better suited for meeting the product development needs of a growing number of today’s manufacturers.

However, anyone involved in the production of plastic components knows that making plastic parts is more challenging and complicated than designing in metal. More than 80 per cent of the plastic parts used in products today have to be injection-moulded—the process of injecting liquefied plastic materials into a mold, cooling/solidification of the material, and ejection of the molded part. In many ways, injection molding is as much an art as a science.

Successfully producing injection-molded parts that are free of manufacturing defects requires a complex mix of time, temperature, pressure, material, and variations in tooling or part design. Designers, mold makers, and manufacturing professionals must balance all these variables to make quality parts.