How to Successfully Design Automation for Injection Molding

As the demand for efficient and cost-effective production of plastic parts and products continues to expand, injection molding offers a great solution as it provides a fast, cost-effective and repeatable manufacturing process for mass produced parts and products. And, injection molding automation, when properly designed, can provide even higher levels of process efficiency and product quality for today’s injection molders. This blog will discuss considerations for injection molding automation design to help ensure success. 

Injection molding is a manufacturing process used to create complex parts and products in industries such as automotive manufacturing, medical device manufacturing and food and beverage packaging.

While there are many variations on the technique, the basic injection molding process follows these steps:

• An injection molding tool design creates a mold that matches the geometries and measurements of the part to be produced.
• A suitable material is selected based on the specifications of the project.
• The material is fed into a heated barrel, mixed and then melted.
• The resulting molten plastic is injected into the mold cavity where it cools and hardens to form the desired shape, part or product.
• Once the plastic is hardened, the part is removed from the mold.

While the injection molding process in and of itself provides a highly efficient means of mass producing plastic parts and products, injection molding automation can help increase the throughput and productivity of the injection molding process, while also ensuring higher levels of quality and lower costs, helping injection molders remain competitive.

As a matter of fact, here are some of the advantages injection molding automation brings to the table:

Greater levels of efficiency as injection molding automation is almost always faster and more efficient than performing tasks manually.

Better quality control as automation and robotics offer greater levels of consistency, precision and repeatability than human workers.

Reduced risk of contamination as injection molding automation minimizes human contact with the process. This is especially crucial when injection molding medical devices or electronic components.

Improved ability to plan production schedules as automating the injection molding process allows more accurate control over process cycle times.

Reduced costs as the precision, accuracy and consistency provided by injection molding automation and robotics reduces defective and out-of-spec products, minimizing the cost of wasted material and labor hours.

Higher profits will likely result from the increased throughput and reduction of waste. In addition, higher levels of product quality may lead to increased client satisfaction and retention.

Where to Apply Injection Molding Automation

The first step in automation machine design for injection molding is deciding if automation is a smart choice for your operation. Experts suggest injection molders that produce parts with intricate or delicate features and/or critical dimensions, require precise control of the process or cannot risk product contamination will greatly benefit from automation. In addition, injection molders struggling to retain a skilled workforce, those that need to minimize costs and increase efficiency and those who experience bottlenecks in the process are good candidates for injection molding automation.

Deciding where to implement automation is also critical. Injection molding automation can be applied in a variety of ways within injection molding operations, including:

• During mold/tool design to machine cavities, intricate details and complex geometries.
• To provide tighter control and enhance efficiency during mold manufacturing.
• For machine tending tasks to increase efficiency and free up skilled labor for more critical tasks.
• To weigh plastic materials prior to pouring into molds.
• During the injection molding process to provide tighter control.
• Post molding to trim parts or assemble components with greater levels of efficiency and accuracy.
• After the injection molding process is complete to efficiently remove parts from the mold.
• For quality control inspections to provide the highest levels of product quality.
• Post molding to pack parts for shipping to reduce errors and increase productivity.

How to Design for Injection Molding

Once it has been determined where in the operation automation will provide the most benefits, there are several considerations for injection molding automated systems design.

Understanding the process and the intent of the automation is crucial to successful automated systems design. As stated above, there are a multitude of ways that injection molding automation can be applied throughout the process, so understanding the tasks that automation is intended to improve will influence the type of equipment and automation machine design.

At this early stage, the layout of the cell should also be considered. This will require knowledge of the available footprint, whether there are obstacles, if robots will be in close proximity to human workers and whether infrastructure and power supplies are in place or will need to be updated or installed. Cell safety should also be considered at this point. Will the cell require safety barriers or will a cobot with built-in safety features be installed?

Once the footprint and details of the cell layout have been determined, the type of technology and automation design should be thought about. If robots or collaborative robots will be installed, the necessary reach and payload must be verified. The force, speed and accuracy of the equipment should also meet application requirements to ensure success of the project.

Another important part of the automated systems design for injection molding is the end-of-arm tooling. To make sure the most suitable tooling is chosen, injection molding system designers should know how the part will be held, if the part will need to be manipulated or rotated or if a robot or cobot will be machining holes or performing assembly, handling delicate parts or gripping, cutting or performing other tasks as there are specialized grippers and tools for almost every task.

When designing injection molding automation systems, controls are also an essential component as they manage the way that the automated equipment will integrate with the injection molding machines, plant controls and monitoring systems. There are several control options available, so it is advisable to have an automation design expert help guide the selection.

Injection molding automation can be applied in a variety of ways throughout the injection molding process to enhance efficiency, productivity and quality while also reducing costs. However, proper automation design is crucial to the success of the endeavor. For assistance with automation machine design for injection molding processes, please contact the experts at DevLinks, a Tavoron company.