Prototyping: Its Vital Role In The Injection Molding Process

January 15, 2018

The mass production of injection molded parts is efficient, cost-saving, and applicable to a variety of industries driven by consumer and industrial demand. While the benefits of large-scale product output may be universally known, there are some crucial considerations regarding the process that mass producers, designers, and consumers should all understand.

The engineering and design of the product must be carefully evaluated before constructing a single piece, let alone thousand to millions. The design must be technically sound, highly functional, and aesthetically pleasing.

Today, intertwining those three components while managing the consistency of production is a significant concern. Fortunately, with prototyping for plastic parts, injection molding manufacturers can now increase the quality of final products, the rate of production, and time to market.

Prototyping ensures consistent quality and efficient part production. From form to function, companies and manufacturers who want to deliver or incorporate top-tier products into their consumer baseline should closely consider the benefits of prototyping in the injection molding process.

What Does Prototyping in Injection Molding Do?

When you build a prototype, you’re creating a functional sample to test how a final product will look and act. Depending on the product type, a prototype might be constructed out of a different material and allows a molder to determine the functionality, feel, and quality of a product before mass production.

More importantly, a prototype will help a company or individual understand the shape, size, aesthetic details, and functionality of the part.

A prototype can increase the fluidity of the design and manufacturing processes. Without a prototype, the jump from these two stages can be challenging to manage. With a prototype model, however, you can look, see, and feel a representation of your final product.

A prototype also allows you to test product strength unless it is built from a different material than the final product. Testing the prototype will help you identify potential weak points in your product design.

Incorporating Mold Flow Simulations

Once a process is developed, it’s relatively easy to produce products en masse. However, challenges regarding production, such as major tool modifications, can dramatically slow down output and increase costs.

Rebuilding or adjusting tools is a labor-intensive process that requires a lot of time and labor. If you go into production and find that your design isn’t moldable, you’ll find yourself in a tough situation. Mold Flow simulations can reduce this risk. For the record, this can be done without producing prototypes.

Keep Things Cost Effective

Prototyping may seem like an investment, but getting the product 100% right the first time is rare, and reevaluating and creating another product can be extremely expensive.

After creating a prototype, you might discover small inefficiencies in the design that could make your real-time product weak, low quality, or ineffective.

If you’ve manufactured hundreds or even thousands of products before recognizing errors, you’ll probably have to scrap the entire production batch or even engage in a recall. Even if you identify the issue before a big production run, you will end up losing time and money due to adjustments in tooling and loss of manufacturing time.

With prototyping, you’re more likely to identify critical weaknesses and dramatically reduce the risk of having to retool and rework the entire production process. Prototyping can significantly lower costs and streamline your focus on production rather than retesting.

Two Examples of Prototyping in Injection Molding

Today, many manufacturers are using aluminum tooling as an alternative to steel in their prototype runs. Aluminum tools are easier to cut and cool rapidly, which ultimately reduces cycle times and manufacturing costs. Using aluminum as a medium to perfect your part’s design will leverage the success of large-scale production. As with any initial model, doing your homework and making appropriate altercations to a prototype will undoubtedly ease your production launch.

Recently in the injection molding industry, many companies have also engaged in 3D printing to develop advanced visual prototypes at a rapid pace. With the ability to test and refine a model with ease and speed, this design technique reduces the labor required to create a prototype model for design validation. While 3D printing dictates the fit and function of a design before tooling, the ability to prove a design assures quality even in the later mold manufacturing process.

Conclusion: Prototyping is a Valuable Tool

Ultimately, prototyping is essential and influential for quality control and design. Prototyping is utilized heavily for manufacturing plastic injection molded parts and will provide valuable insights into their durability, functionality, and precision before production. By making the upfront investment in prototyping, you can protect yourself from greater expenditures down the road. It’s all about total cost of ownership.