4 Types of Plastic Used In Cars & Car Parts

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4 Types Of Plastic Used In Car & Car Parts

Plastic seems to be popping up everywhere nowadays, and the automotive industry is no exception. High performance plastics used in cars are helping shape the future of transportation while providing us the safety and security we need for our morning commutes today. We’re going to introduce you to some of the plastics at the forefront of automotive design and innovation.
1. Polypropylene
Polypropylene is used the most frequently of any plastic in automotive manufacturing. Being a thermoplastic polymer, it can easily be formed into almost any shape. It has excellent chemical and heat resistance and is generally resistant to impact. Given this plastic’s resume, you will frequently find it in car bumpers, gas cans and even the carpet fibers of your car’s interior flooring. It’s also a more economical alternative to expensive plastics of similar strength and durability, which helps drive down the cost of manufacturing.
2.Polyvinyl Chloride
Polyvinyl Chloride, more commonly known as PVC, is a flame retardant plastic that can be formed into either flexible or rigid components. PVC is another common plastic used in cars thanks to its formability and sleek finish: you’ll often see PVC used for dashboards and automotive body parts.
3.Polycarbonate
Like polypropylene, polycarbonate is so resistant to impact that it is often used for car bumpers and headlight lenses. This kind of car plastic is highly resistant to weathering, able to handle conditions from rain and snow to heat and cold. Polycarbonate is also lightweight, so it reduces a car’s overall weight, which in turn improves vehicle and fuel efficiency.
4.Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene
ABS sheet is similar to PVC in that the final product offers a sleek finish. Steering wheel covers and dashboards are often made of ABS plastic. It’s also well-suited to heavy-duty applications, so it can be used for automotive body parts, too. Plastic used in cars, like ABS, helps the body absorb and redistribute energy during an impact, keeping passengers safe.
Learn About Car Plastic & More At PT.Daijo Industrial.
While the varieties of car plastic mentioned here are some of the most common in the automotive industry, we’ve barely scratched the surface of their benefits. To continue learning, and to find the right materials for your business or project, head to our Industry Solutions center or contact us today.
Factory :
PT Daijo Industrial
Kawasan Berikat Nusantara (Nusantara Bonded Zone) Blok E21
Jl. Raya Cakung Cilincing Jakarta Utara.
Phone (021) 44834002

2023 © All rights reserved

The Types of Plastic Manufacturing: Which is Best for Your Business??

Plastics touch almost every part of our lives today, and the reason is simple: its versatility makes it a material highly suited to diverse manufacturing requirements. Plastics give us safe and durable solutions for many scenarios, from the automotive and aerospace industries to sports equipment and household goods — but not all plastics manufacturing methods are the same.
When you approach the problem of selecting a manufacturing process for a part you wish to produce in plastic, it’s important to understand the different solutions available. Let’s look at the most common methods used by plastics manufacturers in Daijo, then consider how you can make a smart selection.
Extrusion Molds
A common method for simpler components, especially tube shapes, extrusion production forces molten plastic at high pressure through and out of a molding die. As the plastic cools, it retains the shape that the extrusion die gave it, making it ideal for creating tubular structures such as PVC hoses and pipes. Because the molding die is usually a relatively simple design, it is cheaper to design and operate. However, extrusion is not suitable for many form factors common in plastics today.
Injection Molds
To achieve more complex part designs that can eventually see use in other assemblies or produce a single component for sale, injection molding is typically the method of choice. Unlike extrusion molds, injection molds inject the molten plastic into a hollow mold cavity shaped like the part. The plastic cools and hardens inside the mold, which then ejects the part before closing to repeat the process. Injection molding processes can handle various plastic materials and can support complex part designs while maintaining rapid output capabilities.
3D Printing/Additive Manufacturing
On the cutting edge of plastics manufacturing is 3D printing, which creates solid parts made of a single piece of plastic by depositing the material layer by layer. Ideal for prototyping parts for injection molds and producing components with high strength requirements, 3D printing is still a slow and expensive process that continues to expand at the industrial scale. Combined with other niche manufacturing methods, such as vacuum forming, casting and subtractive machining, these alternative solutions offer businesses a way to achieve specialized results not possible with injection molds.
Which Solution is Best? Assessing Your Options
Although all these options have strengths and weaknesses that come into play based on the specific nature of a given manufacturing run, there is only one best suited for the largest production cycles of complex 3D shapes.
When your business needs a plastics company near you to produce plastics parts in high volume, at great speed and with consistent accuracy, virtually no method can achieve the results you seek aside from injection molding. Although it takes time and a larger upfront investment to design and produce the molds for these parts, the cost-per-part drops dramatically once completed. Over very large production runs, each part could be perhaps pennies on the dollar.
Factory :
PT Daijo Industrial
Kawasan Berikat Nusantara (Nusantara Bonded Zone) Blok E21
Jl. Raya Cakung Cilincing Jakarta Utara.
Phone (021) 44834002

What Products Can Be Made From Injection Molding?​

What Products Can Be Made From Injection Molding?

One of the most common questions about injection molding is what types of parts or products it can be used to make. There is no simple answer to this question simply because this particular manufacturing process can be customized to suit the needs of many industries and manufacturers. Indeed, plastic injection molding is an incredibly versatile process that you can use to manufacture a wide variety of different parts. This post will take a closer look at injection molding, why it is such a dynamic process, and which types of injection molding products and parts it is regularly used to create.
How the Plastic Injection Molding Process Works
Injection molding is typically used to produce a specific part in large volumes with a high degree of accuracy. The process works by injecting melted plastic resin into a hollow mold until the mold fills with the melted plastic. The mold is then cooled so that the plastic resin inside can harden and take on the form of the desired part. Molds can take on a near limitless number of shapes and forms, which is why injection molding is such a versatile approach to manufacturing and why there are so many types of plastic injection molding products that can be made.
Parts and Products Produced By Injection Molding Machines
Because an injection molding machine can be used to fill almost any mold design you can think of, there is no truly comprehensive list of injection molding products with the types of products or parts made with injection molds. However, here are a few common and widely used products that, in most cases, come about thanks to injection molding:
  • Electronic housings. Most electronic devices have some plastic housing that forms both the main exterior body of the product and protects the interior components and wiring from damage. Examples include TVs, computers, remote controls, phones, printers and more. Injection molds are used to manufacture custom plastic housings or enclosures for all these devices.
  • Industrial parts. Many industrial parts and components are crafted using plastic injection molds. Industries such as oil and gas may rely on durable plastic parts as a reliable and low-cost option for replacing more expensive metal parts.
  • Consumer goods: So many plastic consumer goods start in injection molds. From toothbrushes to cosmetic bottles to packaging, many of the things you use every day likely originated thanks to injection molding.
  • Sporting goods. Injection molding is extremely common in sporting goods and parts, including helmets, padding and other protective gear.
  • Health care supplies. Many health care products are plastic and disposable, and most of those are made through a molding process. Examples include plastic syringes, containers (such as beakers or test tubes), surgical equipment and even implants.
  • Construction materials. We often think of construction materials as wood, steel or concrete, but plastic often plays a key role in everything from flooring panels to deck fasteners to vents to housings for fixtures.
As we already mentioned, this injection molding products list is not meant to be comprehensive. Instead, we intend to give a basic idea of just how far-reaching the impact of injection molding can be. Because producing molds is easy and inexpensive, and the overall manufacturing process is so replicable, injection molds can provide money-saving opportunities for product manufacturers of all shapes and sizes. In turn, these savings are passed on to the consumer — all without sacrificing design precision, durability or overall quality.
At Daijo, our plastic manufacturers in North Jakarta work with a diverse slate of clients from across a broad range of industries to craft custom molds and provide plastic injection molding services that suit their needs. Contact us today to learn more and receive a quote.
Factory :
PT Daijo Industrial
Kawasan Berikat Nusantara (Nusantara Bonded Zone) Blok E21
Jl. Raya Cakung Cilincing Jakarta Utara.
Phone (021) 44834002

2023 © All rights reserved

Everything You Need To Know About Injection Molding

What is Injection Molding:
Injection Molding is a manufacturing process for producing parts in large volume. It is most typically used in mass-production processes where the same part is being created thousands or even millions of times in succession.
Why Use Injection Molding:
The principal advantage of injection molding is the ability to scale production en masse. Once the initial costs have been paid the price per unit during injection molded manufacturing is extremely low. The price also tends to drop drastically as more parts are produced. Other advantages include the following:
  • Injection Molding produces low scrap rates relative to traditional manufacturing processes like CNC machining which cut away substantial percentages of an original plastic block or sheet. This however can be a negative relative to additive manufacturing processes like 3D printing that have even lower scrap rates.
Note: waste plastic from injection molding manufacturing typically comes consistently from four areas:
  • The sprue
  • The runners
  • The gate locations
  • Any overflow material that leaks out of the part cavity itself (a condition called “flash”).
A sprue is simply the channel that guides molten plastic from the nozzle of the injection molding machine to the entry point for the entire injection mold tool. It is a separate part from the mold tool itself.
A runner is a system of channels that meet up with the sprue, typically within or as part of the mold tool, that guides the molten plastic into the part cavities within the mold tool. There are two principal categories of runners (hot and cold) which you can read about here.
Lastly, the gate is the part of the channel after the runner that leads directly into the part cavity. After an injection mold cycle (typically only seconds long) the entirety of the molten plastic will cool leaving solid plastic in the sprue, runners, gates, part cavities themselves, as well as a little bit of overflow potentially on the edges of the parts (if the seal isn’t 100% right).
Thermoset material, such as an epoxy resin that cures once exposed to air, is a material that cures and would burn after curing if one attempt is made to melt it. Thermoplastic material by contrast, is a plastic material that can be melted, cool and solidify, and then be melted again without burning. 
With thermoplastic materials the material can be recycled are used again. Sometimes this happens right on the factory floor. They grind up the sprues/runners and any reject parts. Then they add that material back into the raw material that goes into the injection molding press. This material is referred to as “re-grind”. 
Typically, quality control departments will limit the amount of regrind that is allowed to be placed back into the press. (Some performance properties of the plastic can degrade as it is molded over and over). Or, if they have a lot of it, a factory can sell this re-grind to some other factory who can use it. Typically regrind material is used for low-quality parts that don’t need high performance properties.
  • Injection Molding is very repeatable. That is, the second part you produce is going to be practically identical to the first one etc. This is a wonderful characteristic when trying to produce brand consistency and part reliability in high volume production.
What Are Some of The Considerations For Injection Molding:
Before you endeavor to produce a part via injection molding consider a few of the following things:
  • Financial Considerations
    1. Determine the number of parts produced at which injection molding becomes the most cost effective method of manufacturing
    2. Determine the number of parts produced at which you expect to break even on your investment (consider the costs of design, testing, production, assembly, marketing, and distribution as well as the expected price point for sales). Build in a conservative margin.
    3. Entry Cost: Preparing a product for injection molded manufacturing requires a large initial investment. Make sure you understand this crucial point up front.
    4. Production Quantity
  • Design Considerations
    1. Part Design: You want to design the part from day one with injection molding in mind. Simplifying geometry and minimizing the number of parts early on will pay dividends down the road.
    2. Tool Design: Make sure to design the mold tool to prevent defects during production. For a list of 10 common injection molding defects and how to fix or prevent them read here. Consider gate locations and run simulations using moldflow software like Solidworks Plastics.
  • Production Considerations
    1. Cycle Time: Minimize cycle time in as much as it is possible. Using machines with hot runner technology will help as will well-thought-out tooling. Small changes can make a big difference and cutting a few seconds from your cycle time can translate into big savings when you’re producing millions of parts.
    2. Assembly: Design your part to minimize assembly. Much of the reason injection molding is done in southeast Asia is the cost of assembling simple parts during an injection molding run. To the extent that you can design assembly out of the process you will save significant money on the cost of labor.
An Example (Designing For Injection Molding)
Designing a part that’s suitable for injection molding versus one that’s suitable for machining, thermal forming, or 3D printing means taking into consideration some of the differences between the various fabrication techniques and recognizing when your project is better suited to one or the other. Typical parts you might want to injection mold include joints, brackets, or housings. For example, most consumer electronic tools are made with a plastic shell (housing) that’s injection molded and used for the body of the tool. Consider the housing for an automotive part (see below): (Photo By PT Daijo Industrial)
One of the most obvious advantages to injection molding is that the housing serves multiple purposes. First, it serves as a handle for the end user to interact with. It also acts as a receptacle for the battery and motor as well the location of various screw bosses that will be used to fasten the device together once the internal parts are assembled. In other words, injection molding is extremely effective when you need to organize a lot of internal parts within a housing. As a consequence, it’s a fantastic way to reduce the number of total parts (“piece count”). Of note, this part is also an overmolded part. For more on this process read here.
Some of the other reasons that injection molding is a good fit for this example include the fact that the drill is being produced in large volume. That is, Panasonic is creating a large number of copies of the same drill handle. Injection molding is wonderful for this kind of high volume production because the high initial costs pay the manufacturer back over time with low per unit costs. For this same reason injection molding can be a poor choice for low volume production. Additionally of note, there are some design constraints if using injection molding. For example, the part has nearly uniform wall thickness (which is important in order to avoid defects), and the part is made with a thermoplastic material (allowing for solid plastic stock to be repeatedly melted for the procedure). If you were designing a part with a thermoset material then injection molding would be more nuanced. You can injection mold a thermoset material but you can only do it once. Trying to melt a thermoset plastic a second time will result in burning the material. Similarly, a part with varied wall thickness would require more attention in the mold tool design to ensure uniform cooling and to avoid defects during production.
Conclusion
Injection molding is a great technology for finished production on a massive scale. It is also useful for finalized prototypes that are used for consumer and/or product testing. Prior to this late stage in production, however, 3D printing is much more affordable and flexible for products in the early stages of design.
Factory :
PT Daijo Industrial
Kawasan Berikat Nusantara (Nusantara Bonded Zone) Blok E21
Jl. Raya Cakung Cilincing Jakarta Utara.
Phone (021) 44834002

2023 © All rights reserved