A plain-English look at how your part goes from raw plastic beads to a finished, packaged product — and what drives the cost of the tooling.
The press closes the two halves of the steel mold together with great force, strong enough to withstand the pressure of the molten plastic.
Raw plastic pellets are fed into a heated cylinder where a rotating screw melts them and pushes a measured "shot" forward, injecting it into the empty cavity.
The machine holds the material under pressure so it fully packs out the part and can begin to solidify.
The part cools to a solid. Meanwhile the screw rotates to build the next shot — keeping the cycle efficient.
The clamp opens, separating the two halves of the mold.
Ejector pins push the finished part free. The cycle returns to step one.
A mold (or "tool") is the biggest up-front cost. It depends on:
Example: a single-cavity steel mold for our 9.5" promotional flying disc ran about $10,000. Don't lose hope — nearly everything around you is made of molded plastic. A good prototype, a marketing plan, and the right partner go a long way.
A hopper mixes color and feeds raw beads in. A heating element melts the plastic. A screw-type plunger injects the molten compound into the mold, where the part is formed. Machines are rated by tonnage — the clamping force holding the mold halves shut. Bigger parts need more tonnage.
Plastic was first invented in 1851 by Alexander Parkes in Birmingham, England. American inventor John Wesley Hyatt created Celluloid and patented the first injection machine in 1872 — crude by today's standards, it used a plunger to inject molten material, producing billiard balls, collar stays and piano keys. Demand exploded during World War II, and in 1946 James Watson Hendry built the first screw-type injection machine, allowing precise control of speed, quality and color. That screw-type machine is still the standard today — and it's exactly what runs on our floor.
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