Tag Archives: Injection Molding

Material Selection for Plastic Injection Molding

Choosing the right plastic material is one of the most critical steps in achieving the best results in plastic injection molding. At Universal Plastic Mold (UPM), we help our customers select the ideal thermoplastic resins for their specific applications, ensuring that each part delivers the strength, durability, and performance needed for success. With our extensive knowledge of plastics and decades of experience, UPM ensures that your products meet functional requirements and cost objectives.

Key Considerations in Material Selection for Injection Molding

Selecting the right material involves balancing multiple factors, such as:

• Mechanical Properties: Required strength, flexibility, impact resistance, and durability.
• Thermal Resistance: Ability to withstand high or low temperatures.
• Chemical Compatibility: Resistance to solvents, acids, or environmental exposure.
• Cost-Effectiveness: Balancing material properties with cost to meet your budget.
• Aesthetic Requirements: Color, texture, and finish for product appeal.
• Regulatory Compliance: Adherence to industry-specific standards (e.g., FDA, RoHS, UL ratings).

Our experts at UPM guide you through the decision-making process to select the best plastic resin for your project based on these and other criteria.

Common Plastics Used in Injection Molding

At UPM, we work with various thermoplastics, each offering unique properties that make them suitable for different applications. Here are some of the most commonly used materials:

1. Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene (ABS)

• Strengths: High impact resistance, toughness, and rigidity.
• Applications: Automotive components, electronics housings, consumer products.
• Best for: Parts requiring a durable, impact-resistant material with excellent surface finish.

2. Polypropylene (PP)

• Strengths: Excellent chemical resistance, flexibility, and fatigue resistance.
• Applications: Packaging, containers, automotive parts, and household goods.
• Best for: Products that require flexibility, chemical resistance, and low moisture absorption.

3. Nylon (Polyamide, PA)

• Strengths: High strength, abrasion resistance, and good thermal stability.
• Applications: Gears, bearings, mechanical parts, automotive components.
• Best for: Mechanical applications requiring toughness and resistance to wear and friction.

4. Polycarbonate (PC)

• Strengths: High transparency, toughness, and impact resistance.
• Applications: Eyewear lenses, medical devices, automotive lenses, and safety equipment.
• Best for: Clear parts or those that require excellent impact resistance and optical clarity.

5. Polyethylene (PE)

• Strengths: High chemical resistance, flexibility, and toughness.
• Applications: Consumer products, medical applications, packaging, and containers.
• Best for: Products that need excellent chemical resistance and flexibility, often used for packaging.

6. Polystyrene (PS)

• Strengths: Cost-effective, rigid, and excellent for detailed part designs.
• Applications: Disposable consumer goods, toys, and product packaging.
• Best for: High-volume, cost-sensitive products where rigidity and detail are important.

7. Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC)

• Strengths: Strong, durable, and resistant to chemicals and fire.
• Applications: Plumbing pipes, electrical conduits, medical devices.
• Best for: Applications requiring excellent chemical resistance and flame retardancy.

8. Polyetherimide (PEI)

• Strengths: High strength, heat resistance, and dimensional stability.
• Applications: Aerospace, medical devices, and high-performance components.
• Best for: High-temperature applications requiring durability and chemical resistance.

Factors Influencing Material Selection

1. Application Requirements
The product’s end-use dictates which properties are most important. For example, parts exposed to high temperatures or abrasive environments need materials with strong thermal and wear resistance, like Nylon or Polyetherimide.

2. Environmental Considerations
Exposure to harsh chemicals, moisture, or UV light can degrade some plastics over time. Materials like Polypropylene and Polyethylene offer excellent chemical resistance, while Polycarbonate provides UV stability.

3. Regulatory and Compliance Needs
Specific industries, such as medical, automotive, and food packaging, require materials that comply with strict regulations, such as FDA approvals or UL ratings. UPM ensures that your chosen materials meet all relevant standards.

4. Cost Constraints
While high-performance plastics may offer exceptional properties, they have a higher price tag. UPM helps balance material performance and cost by selecting plastics that meet budget and technical requirements.

5. Aesthetic and Finishing Needs
Some products require a specific look or surface finish in addition to functionality. Materials like ABS provide excellent finishing characteristics for painting and plating, while Polypropylene offers a smooth, clean surface without additional finishing.

Material Selection Process at UPM

1. Project Consultation
Our team begins by understanding your product’s requirements, including functionality, performance, and budget. We evaluate your design to determine the most critical material properties for success.

2. Material Testing
If you’re uncertain about the best material for your project, we can conduct material testing to evaluate performance under simulated real-world conditions. This helps ensure your material selection meets all mechanical and environmental demands.

3. Prototyping and Small Batch Runs
UPM offers prototyping services to test your part design and material choice before moving to full-scale production. This allows us to fine-tune both the material and the mold design, optimizing performance and reducing costs.

Benefits of Proper Material Selection

Choosing the right material for your plastic injection molding project offers several advantages:

• Improved Product Durability: By selecting materials with the appropriate strength and resistance, you ensure your products last longer and perform better.
• Cost Efficiency: Correct material selection minimizes the need for post-production modifications, reducing costs.
• Enhanced Product Performance: Using the correct material ensures that your product meets mechanical, thermal, and chemical requirements.
• Regulatory Compliance: Ensuring materials meet industry standards prevents costly delays and rework during production.

Industries We Serve

UPM provides material selection and plastic injection molding services for a wide range of industries, including:

• Automotive: We use durable, heat-resistant plastics for interior and exterior vehicle components.
• Medical and Pharmaceutical: Our materials are biocompatible and sterilizable, ideal for medical devices.
• Consumer Goods: We provide aesthetically pleasing, cost-effective materials for high-volume products.
• Electronics: Our plastics are used in casings and components requiring precision and reliability.
• Hardware: We supply durable plastics for tools and hardware applications.
• Packaging: Our solutions include plastics for protective and functional packaging.
• Pool and Spa: We offer materials that withstand chemical exposure and environmental conditions.
• Solar: We provide high-performance plastics capable of enduring extreme environmental conditions.

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Need Help Selecting the Right Plastic for Your Project?
Contact Universal Plastic Mold today to speak with one of our experts and ensure that your material selection delivers the best results for your application.

Injection Molding: Thermoplastics vs. Thermosetting Plastics

When it comes to injection molding, two main types of polymers are used: thermoplastics and thermosetting plastics. Even though they sound alike and share similarities, they have very different properties and are used in a variety of unique applications.

Thermoset Plastics & Thermoplastics: What’s the difference?

The main difference between thermoset plastic and thermoplastic is that thermoplastics can be reheated and reformed, while thermoset plastics can not be remelted and remain in a permanent solid state once set. Once thermoset plastics have been hardened, they become more resistant to high temperatures than thermoplastics. They cannot be melted down again to form a new shape, unlike thermoplastics which can be reheated and cooled multiple times to form different shapes.

Think of thermoplastics like cheese and thermoset plastics like a burger patty. Cheese comes in a variety of different shapes but when melted it can take on a new form. Once cooked, a burger patty can’t be melted to take on a new form – it can only be further charred, which can ruin the quality of the burger.

Thermoset vs. Thermoplastic: The Pros & Cons of Each

Thermoset Pros & Cons

Pros:

• Resistant to melting and higher temperatures
• Highly flexible

Cons:

• Unrecyclable
• Can NOT be reshaped or remolded

Thermoplastic Pros & Cons

Pros:

• Recyclable
• CAN be reshaped or remolded
• Highly impact resistant
• Resistant to chemicals
• More available finishing options

Cons:

• Can melt if exposed to extreme temperatures

Our Injection Molding Thermoplastics

We can work with almost any type of thermoplastic compound, but some of our most common thermoplastic polymers include:

• Acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS)

• Polycarbonate

• Polyethylene

• High-impact Polystyrene

• Polypropylene

• Polymethylene

• PVC

• Nylon

• Acrylic

• Polyetherimide

Thermoplastic Injection Molding from UPM

With over 55 years of experience providing original equipment manufacturers and manufacturing businesses with premier plastic injection molding services, we have the expertise and the capabilities to help you choose the perfect thermoplastic polymer for your product. Are you looking for a partner that will work with you to reduce lead times and production costs without sacrificing quality? Then you’ve come to the right place. Get in touch with us to discuss your options today!

7 Reasons to Choose UPM for Your Custom Injection Molding

Our team at Universal Plastic Mold has a long history of serving customers’ custom injection molding needs, and we continue to keep our standards high and be the best provider on the West Coast. Proper custom injection molding isn’t something that can be done just by any company. It takes added skill and commitment to superior services and end results, which got us thinking. What sets Universal Plastic Mold apart from other injection molding providers? Thankfully, the answer wasn’t hard to reach. If you’re wondering what keeps us at UPM at the head of the pack, here are the top seven reasons to choose UPM for custom injection molding services.

Superior Plastic Injection Molding

It’s taken us a long time to get here, and we only get better with age. See what makes us a leader in our industry, and why we’re the best choice for custom injection molding.

1. Our Experience. Universal Plastic Mold has been in operation for over 50 years. That’s 50 years of fine tuning our processes, training our employees, and honing our product until we achieved the best result possible.
2. Our Collaboration. At UPM, we strive to be a real business partner to our customers, so we spend a considerable amount of time carefully listening to our clients and ensuring we understand their needs, challenges, and goals. This approach has paid off, with us now having many customer relationships that have lasted through the years.
3. Our Facility. The UPM facility is world class, with over 127,000 square feet of production and warehouse space, a location that’s close to all major retail distribution centers, cutting-edge technology, superior equipment, and positioning near Los Angeles, the U.S./Mexico border, and the Port of Long Beach.
4. Our Level of Quality Assurance. Above all, we’re committed to genuine customer satisfaction. We maintain high quality standards through  the establishment, maintenance, and continual improvement of our ISO 9001:2008-certified, ISO/TS 16949-compliant quality management system.
5. Our Reliability. UPM proudly staffs over 300 employees, is in operation 24/7/365, and is an all-in-one facility. This dedication is how we ensure our customers are properly taken care of.
6. Our Eco-Friendly Commitment. It’s our mission to prove that we can serve our customers to their highest specification in a timely, cost-effective way without being a detriment to sustainability efforts. In fact, UPM is one of the largest producers of post-consumer recycled plastic products in the western U.S.
7. Our Logistics & Lean Manufacturing. The UPM facility has fully-integrated inventory management and warehousing on site. Our lean manufacturing program eliminates hassles, reduces unnecessary spending, and simplifies shipping processes.

 

This is how we make getting quality custom injection molding easy for our customers. UPM is all about ease without sacrificing quality, and clearly we have what it takes to offer our customers superior service and a lasting partnership. For questions about our custom injection molding capabilities or to learn more about UPM, please call us at 1-888-893-1587 or visit us on our website.

How UPM Provides High-Quality Large Injection Molding

At Universal Plastic Mold, we’ve always had a strong commitment to our customers, and we continue to prioritize providing the best service possible. We’re well known for our large part injection molding capabilities, and we pride ourselves on being able to deliver the highest quality large injection molding. Our team has a lot to do with it, but one aspect of our success that often gets overlooked is our unsung hero: our facility.

Our UPM facility is world class, with 37 injection molding machines ranging from 200 to 2,000 tons that use the most state-of-the-art technologies, such as robotics, gas-assist, and water-assist capabilities. At over 127,000 square feet of production and warehouse space, we’re one of the largest injection molding manufacturers on the West Coast with high tonnage machines. Our facility plays an important role in us being able to provide exactly what our customers are looking for in a timely, cost-effective way, and we want them to be confident in what we can produce.

Here are just a few facts about our facility to prove what we’re capable of:

• 100,000 square feet of manufacturing space
• 25,000 square feet of warehouse space
• 9 acres of space dedicated to UPM
• Close to all major retail distribution centers
• Complete overhead cranes (25-ton external) able to easily pick up molds
• 12 bulk resin silos
• 35 miles east of Los Angeles
• 110 miles from U.S./Mexico border
• Only 28 miles from Port of Long Beach
• Geared toward direct shipment to major retailers, such as Walmart, Target, & Home Depot

Not only do we have the space, team, and technology to meet any large injection molding need, but we also can do it sustainably. The need for eco-friendly manufacturing practices is at its peak, which is why UPM continues to be on of the largest producers of post-consumer recycled plastic products in the western U.S. With our knowledge of environmentally friendly resin conversion, we help supply greener products, proving that plastic manufacturing can be advantageous to our customers without harming the environment.

Our facility is one of our greatest assets, one that keeps us capable of serving our customers the way they deserve. If you’re in need of quality, reliable large part injection molding, there’s no better partner than Universal Plastic Mold. For questions or to learn more about our large injection molding service, please call us at 1-888-893-1587 or visit us on our website.

Visit Us In Long Beach, CA Design-2-Part Trade Show

Universal Plastic Mold would like to invite you to come visit us at the Long Beach Design-2-Part Show at the Long Beach Convention Center, October 26-27. UPM will be displaying a wide variety of injection molded parts that showcase our manufacturing capabilities, services, tooling, and design capabilities. Our representatives will be there to answer any questions and to review any upcoming projects that you might be working on. The Design-2-Part Show is the region’s largest design & contract manufacturing show. The show features exhibiting companies covering more than 300 manufacturing and service categories for the metals, plastics, rubber, and electronics industries. Please see the attached VIP below Invitation and click through to register for free admission. We look forward to seeing you at the show.

UPM Adds New Kaeser Air Compressor

UPM recently installed a new @KaeserUSA 75 horsepower direct drive air compressor to replace an aging air compressor. “The new compressor is much more energy efficient and allows us to maintain our volume and pressure using less electricity”, said Walter Pipan, UPM’s Plant Engineering Manager.

“Plastic injection molding businesses are always looking for ways to reduce costs to remain competitive in the marketplace”, remarked Steve Dowling, UPM’s VP of Operations. The new compressor will work in parallel with UPM’s secondary air compressor to ensure redundant air supply to its injection molding machines, molds, and automation.

UPM’s 100,000 square foot facility and large tonnage injection molding machines require a reliable and good quality compressed air system. This is just one way UPM reinforces the core value of “Operational Excellence”. UPM strives to be disciplined in everything, remove waste, and correct problems quickly to allow its customers to receive the highest quality products on-time.

Streamline your Production Program with Logistics and Supply Chain services.

Building a manufacturing process can be difficult enough. Between managing all the expenses, working out material selections, patents, tooling, and more, you can quickly find yourself with a headache. When you start to consider the complexity of creating your supply chain and balancing the many variables that go into place, it’s obvious that choosing the right manufacturing partner is critical. We at UPM help our partners avoid having to deal with all those details by designing a program that works at the absolute lowest cost. This not only boosts your margins, but frees your company up to work on activities that allow your company to grow.

We have a large 9 acre facility with 127,000 sq ft of production and warehouse space. Our facility can load and unload both international and domestic containers, as well as store your product in a clean and safe manner whether it is bulk stacked or pallet racked.

 

Our experienced shipping team works wonders in order pulling, labeling, and consolidation for our clients as well as maintaining a 98% inventory accuracy on our finish goods. Our fleet of trucks transport local cartage and handle outbound and inbound freight for both domestic and international intermodal shipments. We handle everything from pulling the order, consolidating your freight, scheduling the pickup, and producing and managing the necessary shipping documentation needed for inventory control. We take pride in being a very versatile 3PL provider and can provide for any special program needs.

Michael Hartman, UPM’s Logistics Manager, explained it this way, “In a consistently changing global environment, UPM stays flexible and keeps your logistical supply chain flexible and lean. We have the ability to perform container pickup, customer consigned inventory, complex intermodal shipping programs, and much more. Because we are a full service manufacturing company, we are able to greatly lower the rapidly increasing shipping and logistics expenses currently plaguing businesses.”