When it comes to injection moulding your product, there are many factors you need to consider to ensure you’re putting the tool in a suitable machine.
Factors like:
- How big is the tool?
- Will the tool fit between the tie bars of the machine or be able to be bolted onto the platens?
- How big is the barrel?
- Is the barrel size enough to be able to hold enough plastic to mould a full shot?
- And what is the tonnage needed to mould your product?
Let’s take a look at that last factor more closely…
What is the tonnage needed to mould your product?
When looking at injection moulding machines, they are based on how much tonnage they have. Much like how a truck or a ute is referred to as a “one tonne ute,” it’s not referring to the weight of the ute, but rather the load it can carry. The tonnage of an injection moulding machine is similar. Instead of the tonnage meaning how much the machine weighs, it is instead referring to how much clamping force the machine has.
For example, a 120 tonne machine has 120 tonnes of clamping force. This tonnage is what keeps the tool (mould) closed while you are injecting the plastic into the cavities of your tool.
This is a very important factor when working out what machine we are going to mould any product in. If the product only needs 70 tonne of clamping force there is no point in putting it in a 320 tonne machine. But you couldn’t put it in a 60 tonne machine either.
If you do not have enough tonnage (clamping force) to keep the tool shut, when you start injecting the plastic in, you will see your parts come out with excess plastic (flash) around the edges or where you shouldn’t see plastic. This would then require after production trimming which will cost the customer more and cannot guarantee the quality in the appearance of the product.
At Dienamics we have invested in several injection moulding machines and have the capacity of moulding from quite small parts in our 90 tonne machine to much larger parts. We are able to provide the services to our customers to mould parts that are in need of a 500 tonne machine.
If you have a product you are wanting injection moulded please contact the team at Dienamics for a free quote
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