Injection molding defects: they happen, even to the most experienced and knowledgeable operators out there. Don’t listen to anyone who tells you that molding defects are purely symptomatic of inexperience or inattention — it’s simply not the case. Any number of causes can contribute to molding defects: standard process margins of error, differences from one batch of material to another, changes in machine calibration after repairs or maintenance, ambient environmental factors, and more. And yes, experience can play a role as well, but in a broad range of forms. For instance, a long-time operator working with a machine for the first time may not be familiar with its quirks and particularities, leading to unavoidable errors. There are many types of injection molding defects, but some are more common than others. What this means in practice is that there are more factors that can cause some defects than others, and thus…

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Step 1: Design your part. Step 2: Prototype and iterate on it to optimize your design. Step 3: Move forward to production. Wouldn’t it be nice if product development were that easy? By now, you probably have a pretty good idea that it’s not. There are a few more steps (and sub-steps, and repeated steps, and so on) and considerations of the plastic injection molding process to factor in, which is likely why you’re here. Material selection for injection molding is a primary consideration among these. While the process of “material selection” certainly merits a step of its own, in many ways, it’s something that’s both affected by, and can have an impact on, most (if not all) other steps — and will definitely have an effect on the final step in development: production. The particulars of how you carry out your resin selection process are best defined by you…

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If you only read general interest manufacturing articles aimed at the layperson, it would be easy to consider 3D printing as the “trendy,” new(er) manufacturing process ready to take over the field, while injection molding might be seen as the stodgy old process that’s been surpassed by new technology. In reality, the benefits, qualities and interactions of these two processes are much more complex. First and foremost, 3D printing and injection molding don’t, in general, compete against each other in a traditional sense. One will often have an advantage over the other, depending on specific scenarios and project requirements — but you won’t often see a case where the primary benefits of the two overlap. In other words, when you understand the advantages and disadvantages of each process, it’s usually fairly easy to know which one to use, and when. There are a number of ways — some not so…

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