What Does Plastic Injection Moulding Mean And What Should I Know

One of the most commonly used plastic production process in the industries is the plastic injection moulding. The wide range of uses and the diversity of injection moulding especially in producing both disposable consumer plastics and vast reengineering plastic components have really endeared it to many.

Of What Uses Are The Plastic Injection Moulding?

The plastic injection moulding process is usually used in the production of many thermoplastics such as polycarbonate, nylon, polystyrene etc. This process doesn’t just give plastic manufacturers the freedom to design several types of micro and industrial plastics but the average weight of the plastic product is usually light when compared to the plastic production process that was use some years back. It is not surprising that there are many huge shaped and brilliantly designed plastic products in the market today, thanks to the plastic injection moulding production process.

Producing different types of plastics with the plastic injection machines are quite easy because it usually begins by having the material introduced to the injection moulding machine through a hopper. The plastic injection moulding machine consists of reciprocating screws that are usually driven by the electric motor and a heated barrel. This electric motor or the hydraulic usually transports the molten polymer via some arranged gates or funnels and deposits them into a temperature controlled split mould.

During the injection phase of the plastic production, the reciprocating screw usually acts as the ram and also melts the polymer. Depending on the required size, shapes etc of the finished plastic product, the melted or plasticized polymer are usually injected into the mould. But this takes place after the additional heating that is usually occasioned by procession action of the screw on the polymer.

In the plastic injection moulding process, very high pressure is usually applied depending on the type of plastic material that is being processed and the sort of end product that is being produced.

Most plastic injection moulding machines are made of a mixture of steal and alloys of aluminum. This is because, steal can be hardened and plated when the need arises and the alloys of aluminum could facilitate the hand polishing speeds and boost cutting. These combinations had made it possible for the massive production of numerous designs and ranges of plastic products.

The importance and overall necessity of the plastic injection moulding machines can not be over emphasized because apart from enabling the massive production of different disposable consumable plastic products, it has been noted that people in the aerospace and even defense industries are benefiting from the brilliant plastic injection moulding processes.

Reflectors

 It has been proven that the majority of road accidents (regardless of whether they involved cars, bicycles, motorcycles or even heavy goods vehicles) occur at night and in conditions of poor visibility, such as fog. It is therefore vital that any road-using vehicle should be fitted with a form of reflector as an additional visibility safety measure and it is an almost near certainty that there is a reflector to meet every make and model of car and motorcycle since in the majority of cases the reflectors for such vehicles are not made specifically for certain makes and models and can easily be separately attached or stuck on.

 There are also several firms specialising in the manufacturing of plastic products that as well as producing reflectors in a range of polymers (from standard ABS compounds to others such as PPS, DMC and ULTEM which have a very high level of heat resistence) for a wide selection of vehicles (manufactured using moulding or vacuuming production processes), also offer a re-metallising service for headlight reflectors of classic and modern cars alike. Such companies are often approached to manufacture suitable reflectors for many makes of cars which have failed their M.O.T. tests.

 For bicycles in particular, reflectors are typically manufactured as a moulded tile of transparent plastic, with a smooth exterior surface (in order to allow light such as from an approaching car’s headlights to enter) whereas the back of the reflector takes the form of an array of angled spherical beads or micro-prisms. These reflectors use the principle of retroreflection to alert motorists to the presence of the cyclist on the road. Retroreflection occurs when light is reflected back to the source with a minimum amount of light being scattered and lost in the surrounding area, making Retroreflectors the perfect materials for use in the manufacture of bicycle and car reflectors.

 When light strikes the rear of such a reflector (meaning the surface housing the spherical beads and micro-prisms) it does so at an angle that is greater than the ‘critical angle’ (the angle of incidence above which total internal reflection can take place). Total internal reflection in this case means that (due to the orientation of the interior surfaces) the light is completely reflected back out through the front of the reflector in the direction it came from and instantly alerts the other road users to the presence of another vehicle on the road.