November 15, 2022

Custom injection molding gives manufacturers an edge in a competitive environment, allowing them to tackle complex designs that focus on versatility, functionality, and durability. Finding the right partner to execute your injection molding is a necessity to remain vibrant in a still growing market.

The global injection molded plastic market, valued at nearly $250 billion in 2021, is expected to continue to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 4.2% and reach more than $420 billion by 2030. This growth can also be attributed to the burgeoning demand for plastic components across a host of sectors in the global economy and modern breakthroughs are maximizing quality through the use of complex designs.

Custom injection molding can offer a host of benefits for many businesses. However, before beginning work on any injection molding project, you must partner with a skilled and reputable injection molding partner. Not every custom injection molding company may be the right fit for you. A slight hit-and-miss in terms of the durability or overall functionality of your products can pave the way for your competitors to rise above you. You need to find a partner that understands your unique and often complex demands and meets them.

Expert injection molding manufacturers are equipped to use the right tools and methods to deliver per your requirements with utmost precision while addressing the versatility of your demands.

Injection molding is the process of designing and manufacturing a plastic component, part, or product, by injecting molten thermoplastic material into a mold. Various end-use industries like automotive, packaging, home appliances, electrical and electronics, and medical devices are the biggest consumers of such products.

Custom injection molding is a complex task of new product creation, requiring a high level of precision. Customization can also include techniques like overmolding or insert molding to combine the plastic with other materials. In any case, the process has a higher bar for quality.

Supplementary to providing part design flexibility, custom injection molding incorporates design for manufacturing (DFM) principles to ensure parts can be molded efficiently on the plastic injection molder’s presses. These principles aim to bridge the gap between an easy, cost-effective design process and meeting customer requirements for the best quality. Thus, DFM includes all aspects of the design process, including material selection, part optimization, and design characteristics.

It’s critical you align with a service provider that can meet your needs and has the processes in place to give you options to save time and money. Take into account the following factors when looking for the right custom injection molding partner.

Having worked on different use cases and clients’ requirements, and faced different issues during injection molding, experienced molders will likely have developed adaptive solutions. Therefore, when choosing to partner with a custom injection mold company, look for a proven track record. You can also ask for their work samples. Another useful way to assess and evaluate a custom injection molding company’s experience is by examining their online reviews and ratings, provided by their past clients.

A lot can be understood about a custom injection molding company by its equipment and production capacity. Note that machine sizes are expressed as tonnage; the higher the tonnage, the larger and more complex the parts they can manufacture. You can use this information to develop awareness about their machinery.

Ensure the custom injection molding company you’re planning to partner with has the correct machines to produce your parts, as not all injection molders have overmolding and insert molding capabilities. So, if this is something you need, verify it can be done. Finally, the number of machines the company is operating will give you an indication of their capacity.

Finding a custom injection molding company that aligns to your goals as closely as possible is crucial. Investigate how potential partners can help you meet your goals and their goodwill in the industry. By gauging their values and openness to moving in the right direction together, you can decide whether to collaborate with them and enter a long-term partnership.

For more than 80 years, Ensinger Precision Components has offered injection molding and plastic part manufacturing using a wide range of high-performance plastics to provide customers with optimal solutions to their design and manufacturing challenges.

Given our range of advanced equipment and the ability to match the right machinery to your part requirements, we’re able to execute precision, or tight tolerance, plastic injection molding. Some of our other injection molding services include:

• Insert Molding — This process features the molding or forming of plastic parts around other, non-plastic, parts or inserts.
• Over-Molding — Similar to insert molding, over-molding has the plastic material molded over another molded part.
• Automation — Automation systems are now seen as essential in injection molding manufacturing as they help improve part quality with consistency, lead to less wasted material, reduce labor costs, and operate on consistent cycle times, reducing lead times.

Beyond offering injection molding services for high-performance and engineering thermoplastic components and stock shapes, Ensinger Precision Components also provides essential finishing capabilities and value-adding secondary operations while adhering to strict quality control standards.