World Class Plastics focuses on superior injection mold tooling for industries that rely on injection molding to manufacture quality parts and components. Our extensive range of capabilities allows us to design and build a plastic injection mold tooling that meets your specifications and requirements.

 

The Right Material Selection for Plastic Injection Molds

Selecting the appropriate tooling for custom injection molding is imperative as it will dictate the tooling’s longevity and performance. Most of the time, steel, aluminum, or alloys are used in manufacturing the injection mold tooling. However, more complex tooling also consists of internal components like pins, alignment devices, lifters, etc.

Before choosing the injection material, ensure that the molding material and components are compatible with it. It ensures that the tooling meets dimensional tolerances while guaranteeing its longevity. 

Other aspects that may affect tooling longevity:

  • Proper steel grade and hardness balances toughness and wear so that components don’t wear out too soon.
  • Steel hardness causes steel brittleness, which can crack when tooling components flex after side-loading or impact.
  • More rigid steel is required for molding glass-filled materials, which can increase the tooling’s fatigue while wearing down the runner systems and gates.

With this in mind, determining the suitable tooling material will be based on the internal components and injection material required for the project. To know what materials are ideal for injection and tooling, understanding the tooling application is paramount for a successful manufacturing process.

 

Tooling Decisions Made for an Effective Custom Injection Molding

Design engineers have plenty of responsibilities to ensure an optimized manufacturing process. Apart from using the proper equipment, like CNC tooling, the tooling’s design will determine the overall costs and product quality.

Why making the right tooling decisions is imperative:

  • Ensure solid part performance
  • The final product functions as intended
  • The correct shape and formation is achieved
  • Guarantee optimal flow, dimensions/tolerance, fill pressure, and cooling time
  • Prevent defects such as shrinkage, warping, and distortions

Industry-standard design aims to reduce costs and ensure that the tooling meets the customer’s expectations. These design considerations can be refined to reduce manufacturing costs and improve product performance.

 

Importance of Superior Quality Plastic Injection Molds

Addressing various design considerations and factors while making the right tooling decisions based on the application’s principle will lead to successful injection mold tooling. These help us deliver a myriad of benefits to our clients.

Several advantages of an optimally designed tooling for custom injection molding:

  • Limitless possibilities: The ability to manufacture virtually everything is evident – from medical devices to industrial components.
  • Consistent products: High-performance tooling can guarantee consistent outcomes. They are accurate and precise to the requirements the client is looking for.
  • Materials used: The suitable materials will provide strength, flexibility, and reliability to the products produced.
  • Cost-effective: The tooling design, choice of material, and automation process help reduce production costs.

 

Tool Design Engineering & Building

World Class Plastics can engineer, design, and build plastic injection molding tooling. A key component of injection molding is molding tools.

Importance of Tooling Engineering

Whether the piece is complex or simple, its quality will be determined by the injection tooling. More specifically, the tooling design is the key to successful plastic molded parts. Scientific molding provides added quality. With scientific molding, parts can meet tight tolerances and replicable dimensions.  A successful design needs to meet four key elements:

  • Efficiency and simplicity
  • Durability
  • Ease of operation and maintenance
  • Satisfies specifications at an affordable cost

Process

Most prototypes and new tool builds are built by WCPI suppliers in Asia and North America. Every tool built undergoes a design review and approval process before any steel is cut. After receiving the tool, an in-depth inspection is conducted to verify it can meet high standards.

 

Mold Maintenance & Repair

World Class Plastics can conduct mold tool repair and maintenance.

Maintenance

Injection mold tool repairs can be expensive. To reduce the likelihood of needing repairs, proper maintenance is recommended. Cycle maintenance schedules should be established to ensure the mold tools are being inspected, cleaned, and maintained after a designated amount of use. Different tools will require different maintenance requirements. It is important to establish different schedules for different tools.

Generally, simple open and shut molds should be inspected after 100,000 cycles. A more complex mold tool should be inspected at 50,000 or 75,000 cycles. When in doubt, we can help you create a successful maintenance schedule for our mold tools.

Like any piece of machinery, maintenance will be far cheaper than repairs. A successful maintenance regimen will help protect your investment while also ensuring high-quality production.

Repair

Even with proper maintenance, mold tools may need repairs from time to time. If products don’t meet standards of quality or are failing to meet specifications, a repair may be necessary. We have a dedicated team that can assist in making the necessary repairs to get the mold tool back to operational status. This can include welding, replacing parts, or building new components.

 

Tooling Changes

When plastic tooling changes are needed in a production line, World Class Plastics can help our clients identify the needed changes. Our dedicated engineers and designers can take a consultative approach when needed.

For example, we had a client that was experiencing cracking in specific parts. Our engineers were able to identify the problem as a gate location. We then developed a new tool with improved gating. That was several years ago, and the client has had zero occurrences of cracking.

 

Equipment

A molding tool company is only as good as the equipment they have in their facilities. When it comes to designing the best modeling tools, we use the best equipment. By using state-of-the-art equipment and high-quality materials, our mold tools frequently exceed 1 million cycles. Our tools can achieve a high production level and withstand fast cycle times.

Additionally, we can help design tools for one-off, small batch, or prototyping purposes. These tools are optimized for lower volume runs and are typically cheaper to manufacture.

Whether prototyping or needing a tool for massive production runs, we have the equipment to manufacture the right molding tool for your needs. Our equipment includes:

  • Charmilles 3 Axis RAM EDM
  • Clausing 15″ Colchester Lathe
  • Okamoto Surface Grinders
  • Branson Ultrasonic Mold Cleaning System
  • Hurco VMX42 Machining Center
  • CNC Milling Machine
  • Shadow Box Comparator
  • TIG Welder

 

Let Experts Fulfill Your Plastic Injection Mold Tooling Needs

World Class Plastics is a leader in mold tooling, ensuring we deliver results that will improve your bottom line. With our CNC tooling capabilities, our engineers can design and develop plastic injection molds to produce the products, parts, and components you need.

If you want to know more about our tooling services, feel free to contact us today. Our team will create a winning solution that won’t break the bank!