Injection Molding Machines. Features and Architecture

Plastic injection molding involves filling the cold cavities of a mold with molten plastic, then demolding the resulting part once it has cooled and solidified.

The mould cavities are filled by introducing molten plastic material under pressure into the mould cavities.

The temperature of the cavities is regulated to a value that cools the injected material.

The injection-molded parts, formed by the plastic material solidified in the cavities, are extracted from the mold by means of a mold opening and an ejection device.

The cost price of injected parts is closely linked to the hourly cost of the press and its technical performance, in terms of precision, reliability and speed. That's why it's important to know and quantify them.

We'll be looking at the characteristics of the injection and clamping unit, which are fundamental to both part quality and production profitability. Of prime importance are the overall qualities of the press, such as real availability, reliability and maintainability, and, above all, the means of measuring them.

Special machines such as injection-compression presses, micro-injection molding machines and multi-material systems, which are becoming increasingly common, are described in detail, and their architectures examined in depth.

The standard press, its use and process optimization are described in [AM 3 673] .