Inox Cast Short Run Injection Molding

Inox Cast is a professional manufacturer and supplier of short run injection molding for more than 20 years. We served various industries and built a strong business relationship to customers around the world.

We offer short run injection molding that is also called as low-volume injection molding. It is a cheap and easy molding process. Through our excellent short run injection molding process, we can manufacture simple plastic parts and components.

Inox Cast short run injection molding offers high-quality molds that are made from high-quality materials. It is suitable for producing less than 10000 plastic parts and components. It allows fast turnaround while reducing production cost. Thus, you can save time and money with Inox Cast short run injection molding.

Short run injection molding is used in wide range of applications for different industries. It is very useful for low-volume production runs, functional prototypes, market testing, and bridge tooling. Inox Cast can surely give you exceptional short run injection molding services.

Advantages of Inox Cast Short Run Injection Molding

• No minimum order quantity
• Lower production costs
• Long-lasting molds
• Production-quality prototyping and testing
• Quick turnaround
• Extreme versatility and flexibility
• Expertise and dedication

Inox Cast offers services and products with high efficiency, quickly, and competitive price. We are certified by international quality standards for quality control, automotive, medical, and environmental. By providing unmatched services and competitive price without compromising our products’ quality, we can skyrocket your business and projects.

Inquire now for more information about our short run injection molding services!

Short Run Injection Molding: The Ultimate Guide

If you are wondering what short run injection molding is all about.

You will find all information you are looking for about short run injection molding right here.

Let’s dive right in.

1.  What Is Short Run Injection Molding?

Molding short-run injection is the same technique as normal injection molding, except it uses lower-cost low-grade steel molds or aluminum molds for small-scale production.

Molding Short runs injections are often created by injecting a heating liquified base material into the mold.

short run injection molding

Hence holding the mold together until the substance cools, and lastly, ejecting the finished part.

2.  Benefits Of Short Run Injection Molding

Injection short-run molding has its benefits which are:

Time Reduction

Molding short-run injection often has a shorter production cycle time and rapid mold manufacturing.

And also, the capacity devoted to molding short-run injection will allow the project to be completed in a shorter time, sometimes as few as two days.

As a result, the process makes the turnaround time short.

Cost-effective /Reduction On Investment Cost

It usually helps you mold short-run injection and saves money in every area, including tooling costs.

Using flexible materials such as aluminum and working with only the necessary quantity allows for a speedier time to market.

There Is No Minimum Requirement Order.

For short-run injection molding, there is usually no minimum order quantity.

It provides product testing, iteration, and inventory control in quantities with no volume requirements.

High Quality

Short-run injection molding has a high-dimensional feature tolerance and a high injection molding capacity and surface quality.

They usually employ specified dimensions for the parts to fit together.

Short-run injection molding produces high-quality products that meet or exceed client expectations.

They Have Flexible Material Options.

Because of the mold material, there are no restrictions on material requirements for short-run injection molding.

They can also employ similar materials to those used in higher-volume injection molding while still having access to a thousand material options.

It Allows Being The First Marketer.

Short-run injection molding will eventually allow innovators to design and proceed to production, allowing them to access the market for use by customers quickly.

This will allow innovators to expand more quickly and manage multiple projects simultaneously.

3.  Industries Using Short Run Injection Molding

Below are some of the few industrial uses of short-run molding injection:

Medical Industry

A great deal of medical equipment is required around the world. They are primarily designed for niche applications and may only require a few hundred pieces.

In this circumstance, short-run injection molding will be the best option for high quality and low output, especially since the cost of production is minimal.

Military And Aerospace Applications

Military and aerospace applications are comparable to the health industry in that they do not require a vast volume of equipment to be manufactured.

They believe that short-run injection molding is preferable to retaining flexibility for future possibilities for small part quantities.

Short-run injection molding is used in military and aerospace applications because the material is lightweight, inexpensive to produce, and adaptable.

Trial Parts And Prototype

In most circumstances, new products require many samples, which can be provided at a lesser cost and shorter time.

Compared to 3D prototyping, which is also an option.

Short-run injection molding will win out because it can produce more samples in two days, suitable for many industries.

Car Interiors

When you get a good look inside the car, you’ll notice that it’s bounded by plastic parts made from short-run molding injection.

Short-run injection molding produces window controls, bumpers, radio buttons, dashboards, and cupholders, among other things.

There are times when external parts are produced in the same way as interior elements.

Short-run injection molding is commonly used because the automotive industry produces many cars at once to meet market demand.

short run injection molding

Children’s

Short-run injection molds are used to make dolls like Barbie and Lego and other children’s toys. They’re used in industries since they’re long-lasting, adaptable, and easy to clean.

Short-run injection molding is utilized because the target market for new toys is usually quite large. Therefore, speed and huge volume of production are considered to meet the needs of all the children.

4.  Short Run Injection Molding Techniques

There is a variety of short-run injection molding techniques to choose from, including:

Extrusion Injection Molding

This method is mostly used to create generally straight and lengthy parts.

Begin, hot melted plastic is always squeezed through a hole known as a die, then applied to form the required shape.

The cross-section will always be different and customized to fit your demands.

extrusion injection molding

L-shapes, round solids, and rectangles are the most frequent extrusion molding shapes.

Normally, shear tensile is used in extrusion molding to create shapes on the material.

This technique is usually quite conducive to practically all thermoplastics, and it works best with materials with a high strength to contact ratio.

Features of extrusion molding

• It is a good approach for high-volume production and has a fast turnaround time.
• It benefits from allowing other molding techniques to make post-extrusion changes to the product while it is still heated.
• The entire operation cost is low due to the simple design machinery.
• It also can enable producers to create flexible goods with constant cross-sections.
• Typically, it is a cost-effective approach in which material waste is recycled several times without compromising its quality or additional maintenance costs.

Technique Of Blow Molding

This is a different alternative to short-run injection molding, mostly used to make thin-walled plastics and hollow objects.

Blow molding is a straightforward way of adding thickness to walls. It starts with the pouring of molten material via a parison.

A parison is a plastic-structured tube with holes designed to flow compressed air through it in blow molding.

The parison is formed when molten material is forced through an extruder.

The machine will heat the plastic until it becomes liquid before injecting air into it to create balloon forms.

Blow molding

The plastic would then be blown into the mold, expanding in size.

Then it starts pressing the wall molds and forming the desired forms. The liquid balloon is poured into the mold and cooled to keep its shape.

Features

• It’s an extremely production cycle that can quickly generate thousands of hollow pieces, with only twelve hours of turnaround time.
• In most cases, the overall cost of operating tools and machinery is merged, which is the most cost-effective alternative for medium and small manufacturers.
• You can add several threads or a single thread without any complications.
• In general, it has a wide range of applications.
• It allows easy modification, making it a good choice for pharmaceutical companies.

Compressive Molding Technique

The application of hydraulic pressure and excess heat for heating is used in this technique, which contacts molten material to each mold corner.

In general, heated molten material is poured into an open cavity mold, sealed with a plug top and hydraulic pressure to get the desired shape.

Keep in mind that a high temperature must be maintained throughout the process to ensure that the end-product does have high strength.

The final step in the technique is to cool the molten to keep its shape before cutting and extracting it from the molt.

compressive molding

Features

• Compressive molding produces robust, lightweight, and strong products, which manufacturers prefer.
• These molding techniques can generate lengthier fibers, resulting in more stiff and stronger products.
• The surface quality of compression molding is usually outstanding.
• If the paste is appropriately dispersed in the film bottom, it can also produce intricate geometries.
• In most cases, the compressed molding technique employed in part manufacture is flexible.

Rotational Molding Technique

It’s a different type of short-run injection molding that can be used to make one-piece hollow parts.

There is no pressure involved with rotational molding, and it is also a less expensive technology, but because it cannot withstand pressure.

It is only suited for short runs. In another name, it’s called rotomolding.

It mostly entails molten material poured into a mold and rotating at a high rate.

The molten material will spread throughout the mold’s surface, forming a thick wall with big hollow parts.

Rotational molding

Features

• Aside from providing manufacturers with unprecedented design freedom.

It also accommodates other production complexities such as inserts and textured surfaces.

• Because it produces small parts, it is also cost-effective and suited for small manufacturers.
• It offers the benefit of inexpensive initial setup expenses.
• Rotational molding in all production runs shows the accuracy of Wall thickness and thick corners.
• Rotational molding is a preferable alternative because there is usually no limit to the number of pieces that may be produced.

Thermoforming Technique

Sheets are frequently heated to a precise temperature for these techniques, making them soft and flexible.

After that, the sheet is expanded and pressed into the required shape using a vacuum or compressed air pressure.

In the thermoforming process, sufficient cooling plays a vital role in handling the sheets.

Molds are often fairly expensive because thermoforming use very little pressure.

thermoforming

Thermoplastics such as polycarbonate, HDPE, PET, and acrylic are suitable for these techniques.

Features

• Thermoforming is extremely adaptable to the scale and complexity of a customer’s requirements.
• When you need speed during the production process, consider this a faster way.
• Thermoforming provides the advantage of high production efficiency and time savings.
• The product’s quality is enhanced via thermoforming.

5.  Short Run Injection Molding Process

In most cases, there is a cycle process for short-run injection molding that includes:

Stage 1: Clamping

In the short run, injection molding clamping is the first stage.

Before injecting the material, both mold halves must be clamped together by clamping devices. Inject the material while the clamping units force the halves together and hold tightly.

Stage 2: Injection

The plastic pellets are normally supplied using a hopper in the injection molding process. The pellets are then transported to the injection unit.

The heat surrounding the barrel and the serving pressure eventually melt the pellets. The shot is the term used to describe the amount of material injected.

The injection period ends when the mold is filled.

In most cases, shot volume and pressure rate parameters predict injection time. The hydraulic system inside the machine controls the pressure at this step.

Stage 3: Cooling

Parts inside the mold begin to cool down after making contact with the inside mold at this step of the cooling process.

It hardens the pieces inside the mold as it cools, allowing the final shape to be created.

The parts will compress while cooling and can only be removed once the cooling phase is over. The cooling time will be calculated based on the part’s wall thickness.

Stage 4: Ejection

When molds are opened after the cooling step, it is the final stage for the parts to be completed, which is normally done by an ejection mechanism.

After the mold is opened, the parts are pushed out.

Because the parts may compress and attach to the mold, some force will be required.

After ejection, the mold is closed again for the next short injection, and the process repeats all over again.

6.  Factors Affecting Short Run Injection Molding Cost

The following factors usually affect the cost of short-run injection molding cost.

Choice Of Material

There is the main influence on the cost of short-run injection molding.

The price of the material used to make the pieces is usually determined by its quality, availability of additives, and color.

Some materials are expensive and inexpensive.

Complexity

If the item is complicated.

It will be more complex to design during the manufacturing process, resulting in a higher final product cost than simple designs that are simple to manufacture and design at reduced costs.

Size

The size of the part impacts the cost of short-run injection molding. Larger pieces demand more materials and more expensive molds to be manufactured.

These will inevitably result in greater costs. Remember that they take a long time to make, which is an additional cost.

Mold Material

Molds are one of the factors to consider in short-run injection molding since they can either increase or decrease the cost.

In general, aluminum molds are used in small manufacturing runs since they are less expensive.

Cavities

Fewer cavities require minimal time and material, resulting in lower production costs, whereas a larger number of mold cavities results in a higher manufacturing cost.

Manufacturing Location

The location where your injection short-run molding will be done will also affect the cost.

The cost will be extremely high when you decide to work with a manufacturer outside the country since it involves handling and shipping charges.

While the manufacturers within the country will charge you an affair rate since there is no shipping cost included.

Parts Finish

For short-run injection molds, there is a variety of part finishes. When you require more advanced ones, they will be more expensive than the simpler ones.

7.  Is Injection Molding Prototyping Same As Short Run Injection Molding?

Molding injection prototypes involve the precise injection of molded parts during functional testing. Typically, they act as a tooling bridge, filling manufacturing gaps for production tooling.

injection molding prototype

Injection short-run molding, also known as low volume injection molding, is a technology that uses less expensive molds to enable small manufacturing runs.

It is essentially a faster and more cost-effective technology that provides the same quality and efficiency benefits as injection molding.

8.  Choosing Mold For Short Run Injection Molding

When choosing the mold for short-run injection molding, you need to consider

Speed Of Fabrication

This is a key factor to consider while selecting a mold.

When it comes to construction speed, it’s more important to consider what the project requires rather than how quickly it can be completed.

Consider the molds created for small production runs of low-volume materials like aluminum.

If you’re not sure if you’ll be able to work with manufacturers to make the best choice,

Cost Of The Initial Mold Build

With molds costing $5000 and over, it’s usually critical to creating one. You can choose cheaper molds with lower costs if you have a simple design.

However, if you have several complex designs, you should consider molds that can handle complex designs but are more expensive, which will provide you with high-quality molds free of trouble.

Project Development Stage

The stage of your project must be addressed while selecting short-run injection molding. It could be pre-production, production, or high-volume production.

The main reason for considering this aspect is that in the initial step, you may expect a lower-quality mold that can be modified.

However, there is no modification in the final stage and just part manufacturing.

It will save you time and money in the long run if you consider the project development stage.

Number Of Parts To Be Produced

You’ll need a broad idea of the part numbers created from the mold.

You can have a design that won’t change since you only need a few parts to make it, or you might have a design that will alter but is more sophisticated and has superior features.

An excellent mold to choose perfectly hardens the molten material, which will undoubtedly be expensive and flexible to modify regardless of the quantity produced until the final stage.

More Resources:

Die Casting

Injection Mold Tooling

Injection Molding

Mold Components

For all your short run injection molding needs, contact us now.