There are several distinct components that are important during the plastic injection molding process, and at or near the top of any such list is the mold itself. Vital for major areas of mass production, molds are a constant within the injection molding process, required to produce any injected part on a large scale.

At EnviroTech Custom Injection Molders, we’re proud to offer a huge variety of custom injection molded products, from standard and bulk injection molding to slab stock molding and many other related tasks. There are a few different configurations for molds that might be used by our plastic injection molders or others in the industry – what are these and how are they selected? This two-part blog will dig into a few specific mold formats, plus why molds are important during the injection molding process to begin with.

Defining Molds

For any plastic injection process, the mold refers to the hollow form that has the plastic injected into it. Molds will generally be made from stainless steel, shaped to the exact characteristics of the desired part – when the plastic is injected into it, it fills this void and the new part begins to take shape.

Molds are generally used in the mass production process, as they are relatively expensive and detailed to design. Which is chosen for a given project will depend on the component design, your budget, the production volumes included and the kind of mold that’s needed. Our next several sections will dig into the various mold configurations you’ll generally have available within a given plastic injection molding project.

Single Cavity Mold

As the name suggests, the single cavity mold has only one hollowed cavity used for the injection process. It produces a single plastic component for each injection cycle, and will generally be used for smaller volumes or parts required.

Single cavity molds are the simplest and easiest to design, also generally coming with the lowest price tag. There are often cases where single cavity molds are used even when a multi-mold format is available – this is so that if one mold breaks down, the other can still be used.

On the downside, the production rate is not as speedy as some manufacturers or clients are looking for. Single cavity molds can only produce one product at a time, and this may increase the part unit price based on labor costs. In these scenarios, many begin looking to other mold formats that increase production speed and limit related costs, which we’ll go over in part two of our series.

To learn more about any of the molds commonly used in custom injection molding, or for information on any of our engineering resins or other products, speak to the staff at EnviroTech Custom Injection Molders today.

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