Injection mold design

Injection molding is indeed a cost-effective method to manufacture a wide range of products with maximum precision and efficiency. Going back in the manufacturing process, the first step involves injection mold designing, carried out by engineers through specific design software. Since 1986, Idea Stampi deals with plastic injection mold design and manufactures molds for en-masse production, guaranteeing precision, customization, speed, and after-sales assistance.

Injection mold design and engineering

Plastic injection mold design is quite a complex task that involves precision, technology, and the highest degree of attention. How is the mold to be used? What products are to be manufactured through the mold? How does it fit to other parts in the assembly? What loads will the mold experience in use? are just a few questions engineers need to take into account when starting to design an injection mold.

As a matter of fact, processing issues play a major role in injection mold designand engineering. For instance, analyzing how the molten plastic enters, fills and cools within the mold, allow engineers to design products that are:

• easy to manufacture
• easy to assembly and change within the machine
• strong and wear resistant
• cost-saving
  
  

A proper design process is critical to realize these advantages:

Essential parameters in plastic mold design

From the initial draft up to the 3D design and modeling, there are a series of parameters to keep front of mind in plastic injection mold design. These are:

• the materials that are going to be used to manufacture the final plastic product
• the critical tolerances – they depend on materials, process control and tool design
• sink marks – maximum wall thickness at the base of a rib or boss should usually be less than 60% that of the perpendicular face wall
• location of the gate – this is a critical point that affects the whole plastic mold design process in terms of appearance, tolerances, warpage, surface finish, wall thickness etc.
• shut-off angles, that is the minimum angle between core and cavity
• draft angle orientation which affects parting lines, tool design, fits between parts and cost
• texturing and draft – the more aggressive the texture is, the more draft you need

Only after considering all these variables, designers and engineers can actually start the design phase of the injection molds and, once it is concluded, it is time to schedule critical start-up phases and check if the designed mold actually works.

How we approach plastic injection mold design

The core of our business lies in our name: “Idea Stampi” means “Molds Idea” and, in fact, we carry out the whole construction process of a mold in-house, from the design and the testing of the manufactured mold up to its delivery to the final customer.

So, when you contact us, the first thing we do is a chat with you to understand your needs and wants as well as the field you work in: this way, we can build a product that meets your requirements. 

Here’s how we proceed:

1. upon request, we start from a co-design phase to discuss the general design of the mold, its aesthetics, and the most suitable material to employ in the construction

2. then, our designers and engineers start the actual plastic injection mold design phase by using some state-of-the-art technologies such as CAD/CAM/CAE and integrated stamping simulation VISI Flow systems that also allow them to carry out some important analyses to define the best position of the gate and optimize thicknesses and conditioning

3. finally, the designed mold is manufactured and tested through presses from 25T to 350T

Injection molding: from mold design to mold construction

Nowadays, injection molding is one of the most used methods to manufacture plastic goods and components for a multitude of industrial applications and production volumes, each requiring properly designed molds such as:

• injection molds for small or niche series 
• injection molds for medium production series with a consumption of 50-100.000 parts per annum
• multiple-impression injection molds for high-volume productions

Plastic molding engineering also helps fix the molds

It happens that intense use wears out the mold, but Idea Stampi has the solution: a maintenance service that ranges from standard cleaning up to more complicated interventions such as the reconstruction of worn parts.

Taking into consideration all the above mentioned variables, our plastic molding engineering and technical department can fix your molds within 24/48 hours (if you cannot manage long down-times).

What’s more, this service also applies to molds that have not been designed or manufactured by Idea Stampi.

Looking for fully customized plastic injection molds?