With the various molding processes in manufacturing, it might be quite confusing for you to spot the differences between plastic, extrusion, injection, and compression molding. Let’s dive deeper into each one of them and conclude the differences between them.

 

Plastic moulding – What is It and Its Benefits

 

To put it in simple words, plastic moulding is a type of injection molding process that uses plastic materials as the primary materials to produce various plastic components and parts for various industries. Plastic moulding offers cheaper production costs due the plastic materials being cheaper than metals.

 

Here are some benefits of plastic moulding:

 

• Plenty of plastic material options for various industries. Manufacturers use plastic moulding to create various parts and components made of plastics, which can be usable in various industrial applications. You can always find the plastic materials that will match with your industrial standards by looking at their properties and qualities.
• Better product strength and color choices. You might think that making products with plastic materials won’t give you the same strength as when you make products with metals. It is a wrong misconception. Plastic moulding gives you all the tools to make strong and durable plastic products, along with different color choices.
• Fast production process with complex geometry. You can also complete much more production units with the fast production process offered by plastic moulding. On top of that, it allows for complex geometry in your design, making it easier for you to make intricate plastic parts with this method.

Extrusion Molding – What is It and Its Benefits

 

Extrusion molding is a subset of the injection molding process that allows you to produce lengthy products, such as pipes and hoses, in the most efficient way. With the extrusion molding method, you can also create lengthy products with cross sections and complex geometric designs.

 

Here are the benefits of extrusion molding:

 

• Best for producing tube-shaped products. Extrusion molding is the go-to manufacturing method to produce tubes, hoses, pipes, and other tube-shaped products used in our daily life. The unique process of extrusion molding allows you to generate long products using an uninterrupted molding process.
• Produce lengthy products with continuous production. With extrusion molding, you can produce lengthy products without the need to break the products down into several parts. In fact, extrusion molding is capable of producing long products with up to 60 feet length, and you can also perform the continuous production process with it.
• The use of complex shapes with best cross-section results. You can also apply complex shapes in your extrusion molding process, giving you much flexibility in how to design your products. Extrusion molding can also offer the best cross sections for your products as an additional benefit.

 

Injection Molding – What is It and Its Benefits

 

Injection molding is known as the most common manufacturing process for both plastic and metal materials, whereby you will put the molten plastic or metal materials into the molds that contain the shapes of your final products. Then, you will let the metal or plastic materials solidify inside the mold before you eject them as final products.

 

Here are the benefits of injection molding:

 

• Producing small parts in large quantities. Rapid injection molding is an excellent manufacturing method you can use to produce small parts in large quantities and in fast production cycles. So, any small to medium injection-molded products can be produced by using the rapid injection molding method, and it can get your projects done fast.
• Creating intricate designs for the parts. Injection molding is also the best way to create small parts with intricate designs, not just simple ones. With the capability for the injection molding method to apply tight tolerances, you can also produce injection-molded parts with the best accuracy.
• Minimal post production process. The best part about injection molding is that you don’t need to apply any post-production process for the injection-molded parts. The parts already look polished after the injection molding process is complete. Post-production is only optional for the injection-molded parts.

Compression Molding  – What is It and Its Benefits

 

For the production of large-sized components or parts, you can use compression molding to do the job. Compression molding is the best molding method for producing products that have larger sizes, which might not be supported by the regular injection molding method, such as the one that uses the average size of plastic injection mold.

Here are the benefits of compression molding:

 

• Most affordable molding process. Compared to the other molding processes, compression molding is the cheapest one out there. So, you can benefit from the cheap production costs of compression molding to produce more products based on your needs.
• Producing parts with large sizes. The specialty of compression molding is that it can produce parts with large sizes. This is the go-to molding process if you need to manufacture large objects, which the regular injection molding process can’t perform.
• Very friendly for the environment. The process of compression molding is a process that generates only a little amount of waste. So, compression molding is very friendly for the environment, unlike the other molding processes that might produce a lot of waste materials during the production process.

 

Conclusion – What are the Primary Differences between These Molding Processes?

 

First, let’s take a look at the purpose of each molding method. Each molding method is useful to create different types of products, such as compression molding for large and bulky products and extrusion molding for lengthy products.

 

Second, how each molding method works. For instance, compression molding uses compression technology to turn the raw materials into solid objects, which usually have large sizes. On the other hand, extrusion molding uses extrusion technology to turn the raw materials into lengthy objects, which resemble the shapes of tubes or pipes.

 

About Our Manufacturing Services

 

Want to get the best quality products for your injection molding-related projects? We at Team Rapid can provide you the injection molding-related services at the best price with the best quality results.