Low Volume Plastic Injection Molding
Elimold is perfectly set up for low-volume plastic injection molding projects. Our team is capable of building molds that will last for the entirety of your project’s lifetime and consistently produce the same high-quality parts. We offer all the molding services necessary to fulfill your production needs.
Meeting your rapid tooling and low-volume injection molding production needs
Elimold’s custom molds and low-volume molding include everything from prototypes to full production runs. Our low-volume molds, whether short-run, small batch, or multi-cavity, are monitored and controlled so you can be confident in every aspect of mold design and manufacturing. This attention to production detail ensures that goals, objectives, and preset project outcomes are met as planned at every stage of the process. All low-volume molding, from design to manufacturing, is done in-house and provides our customers with a competitive advantage in cost, quality, and lead time.
Whether you simply need a rapid bridge tool to provide production parts while your high-volume molds are built, or you want us to provide production parts throughout the entire planning process, we can do it. Our team is able to provide all necessary production requirements, such as CPK studies or PPAP certification. We perform process checks during production part runs to ensure consistency and reliability of identical parts. In addition to our molding services, we also provide molds that are ready to run at our customers’ facilities, which are manufactured to our customers’ mold standards. With Elimold’s in-house mold department, we are able to provide precision-made plastic injection molds in China that are built for reliability and longevity.
We pride ourselves on our speed, providing fast turnaround on injection molding services without sacrificing quality or precision. We are continually improving our production processes, implementing new methods to reduce inefficiencies and shorten lead times for our customers.
Mold Manufacturing Type
- 2 Shot
- Overmolding
- Aluminum Injection Mold
- Epoxy molds for Injection
- Urethane Molds
Custom Aluminum Injection Molds
- Aluminum injection molds can save anywhere from 5%-30% in tooling costs compared to steel or other injection mold material choices.
- Aluminum molds can provide up to a 40% reduction in cycle times for your plastic part manufacturing. See our case study on aluminum molds for more detail!
- Aluminum molds aren’t just for prototyping and low volume manufacturing. QC-10 is a high strength aluminum alloy with costs much less than steel alloys.
- Consider utilizing our custom steel inserts into an aluminum based injection mold, the strength won’t be sacrificed and neither will your tooling cost savings.
- With optimized mold designing and machining; our aluminum molds have far exceeded its projected tool lifespan, providing our customers with even more savings and value added products.
3D Printing Prototype Injection Molds
If you want physical samples of your plastic parts as quickly as possible, consider choosing Elimold as your rapid prototyping and prototype injection mold partner. We have the 3D printing capabilities to create and ship your products quickly and easily.
- Orders per part run of 50-10,000 shots; up to 100,000 annually. (Negotiable)
- Tolerances of +/- .005” standard; tighter tolerances per review of math data.
- Turnaround time of one day to four weeks per review of data, based on part size, geometry, and volumes.
- Geometric specifications of NC cut focus +/- .0005” with EDM and grinding to achieve tight tolerances. Undercuts, holes, clip details, etc. that are not in line of straight pull from mold may require action.
- Same day cost and part feasibility in most cases.
What Is Low Volume Injection Molding?
Traditionally, because of high tooling costs, injection molding is usually regarded as a manufacturing process for high-volume and mass-scale production. Injection molding is a popular method for manufacturing parts, but it’s not always economical or feasible for small-batch injection molding. That’s where low-volume injection molding comes into play.
Low volume injection molding is a production process that is particularly suitable for short runs, typically in the range of hundreds to thousands of parts. It’s a cost-effective solution for projects that don’t require the high quantities often associated with traditional injection molding, which is typically optimized for runs of tens of thousands to millions of units.
Low volume injection molding utilizes the same basic process as traditional injection molding: melting plastic or another suitable material, injecting it into a mold, cooling it, and then ejecting the finished part. However, it often uses different equipment or techniques to make it more suitable and cost-effective for small-run injection molding and small batch plastic manufacturing.
How to do low volume plastic injection molding?
Like the hardened steel mold production, low volume plastic injection molding requires a mold first, start with CAD design, and then CNC Machining, EDM, wire cut, polish etc. all processing ways used by building a hardened steel mold are adopted to make a mold for low volume production. Low volume plastic injection mold sometimes refer to rapid tooling or prototype tooling. To achieve cost effective, the mold use lower grates steel or aluminum, which don’t have to be withstand hundreds of thousands times of injection press as production mold. Molds made by pre-hardened steel or aluminum are capable of 10,000 to 100,000 molding cycles, this is enough for the needs of most of the low volume plastic injection molding. The manufacture process is shortened massively as the steel don’t have to be hardened, the workability of soft steel is also better than hardened steel, which make the processing is easier and faster.
Who Needs Low Volume Injection Molding?
Low volume injection molding is suitable for companies or individuals who need to produce small quantities of plastic parts. This could include:
- Startups: Startups typically have limited budgets and need to produce a small number of parts to test the market or validate their product design before investing in mass production.
- Small businesses: Small businesses may need to produce a limited number of parts for custom applications, and prototypes, or to fulfill small orders.
- Product designers: Product designers may need to produce a small number of parts to test their designs and ensure that they function as intended.
- Replacement part manufacturers: Companies that manufacture replacement parts may only need to produce a small number of parts to meet the demand for a specific product.
- Medical device manufacturers: Medical device manufacturers may require low volume injection molding to produce small quantities of custom parts or prototypes for testing and validation.
- Aerospace and defense companies: Aerospace and defense companies may need to produce small quantities of specialized parts for military or space applications.
Why you need low volume plastic injection molding?
In a fast-paced market, it is critical for a company to get new custom products into the market quickly, in most of the cases, it could be just a market-testing product with 10,000 units’ volume or even less. But the plastic parts still need to be customized by injection molding to achieve the specified tolerance, finish, function. Traditionally, a hardened steel injection mold would requires a very high investment before you get a piece of sample, and it usually take 8-12 weeks to complete, which are unacceptable for a new product developing at the earliest phrase.
We need a solution to reduce the cost of injection molding and shorten the lead-time of for companies to launch new custom plastic products. Low volume plastic injection molding is what you are looking for, which means low cost, quick turn around and on budget.
Material Options
Elimold can manufacture small quantities of parts using a wide range of materials. The choice of material depends on the end use, production method, desired surface finish, and the number of parts to be manufactured. Each material offers specific properties such as mechanical strength, corrosion resistance, and a high strength-to-weight ratio.
- Acetal polyoxymethylene (POM)
- Nylon 66 (PA66)
- High-density polyethylene (HDPE)
- Polybutylene terephthalate (PBT)
- Glass-filled polycarbonate (PC-GF)
- Polyethylene terephthalate (PET)
- Polyphenylene sulfide (PPS)
- Polystyrene (PS)
- Thermoplastic elastomer (TPE)
- Acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS)
- Glass-filled, polyamide (PA-GF)
- Low-density polyethylene (LDPE)
- Polycarbonate (PC)
- ABS polycarbonate (PC-ABS)
- Polymethyl methacrylate (acrylic) (PMMA)
- Polypropylene (PP)
- Polystyrene + polyphenyl ethers (PS-PPE)
- Thermoplastic vulcanizates (TPV)
Finishing Options
After low-volume production, parts may be treated to several finishes for aesthetic, cosmetic, protective, or functional reasons. Some of our array of options are listed below:
- Polishing
- Pad printing
- Silk screening
- Custom color painting
- Laser finishing
- Heat staking
- Texture finishing
Want to speed up your time to market or reduce the risk associated with expensive injection molding tools?
From design to delivery, Elimold can coordinate your entire tool manufacturing program from start to finish. With its quality assurance program, our mission is to provide molded products that fully meet or exceed customer requirements and expectations. Company management is committed to continuous quality improvement. For high-quality and efficient low-volume injection molding services, contact us today.