Injection Tooling & Moulding Services
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Trusted by Businesses Around the World
From Conception to Completion
At Formero, we’re able to work with you from prototype to production, reducing lag time in communication between multiple suppliers, and eliminating the Blame Game often played when working with multiple companies.
Injection Tooling Experts
Using injection moulding technology we are able to create pre-production, short-run and mass-production parts in a wide range of plastic and elastomeric materials.
Our capabilities include CAD design, CAM, CNC machining, single & multi-cavity tools, Moldflow®, insert & overmoulding and finishing.
Our experienced Melbourne-based team will walk you through the entire process from:
- Picking the right type of injection moulding for your project
- Selecting the right plastics
- Design validation
- Final product quality assessment
Working closely with you we’re able to provide a service that is cost-effective, timely and reliable.
What is Injection Tooling & Moulding?
Injection moulding is a widely used, high-precision manufacturing process that involves injecting molten material, typically plastic, into a mould cavity under high pressure. Once the material cools and solidifies, the mould opens, and the finished part is ejected. Injection moulding is known for its efficiency and precision, making it suitable for high-volume production runs. This manufacturing service involves two key steps:
Injection Tooling:
This stage involves designing and fabricating a custom tool, typically from hardened steel or other robust materials. The tool, sometimes referred to as a mould, features precisely machined cavities that match the exact shape and features of the desired plastic part. This crucial step ensures consistent and accurate part production throughout the process.
Injection Moulding:
This step, which we call Moulding, is the production step of the finished parts. Molten plastic, carefully selected based on its physical properties and application requirements, is injected under high pressure into the tool. The plastic fills the cavities and cools, solidifying into the final shape of the part. This stage requires precise control of parameters like temperature, pressure, and cooling rate to achieve optimal quality and consistency.
Benefits of Injection Tooling & Moulding:
- High Precision: This process excels at creating complex parts with tight tolerances and intricate details, ideal for demanding applications across various industries.
- High Efficiency: Injection moulding enables the mass production of identical parts with minimal waste, making it cost-effective for high-volume requirements.
- Versatility: This technology accommodates a wide range of plastic and rubber materials, allowing you to choose the optimal material for strength, flexibility, heat resistance, and other properties specific to your needs.
- Durability: The resulting plastic parts are known for their strength and longevity, ensuring product functionality and performance over time.
Our Injection Tooling & Moulding Process
Step 1: Design and Development
It all starts with your vision. Our experienced team in Melbourne, Australia will work closely with you to refine your concept, ensuring it’s optimised for the injection moulding process. We’ll consider factors like material selection, part geometry, and functionality to create a design that is both beautiful and manufacturable.
Step 2: Tooling Design and Manufacturing
Once the design is finalised, it’s time to create the mould. Skilled toolmakers utilise cutting-edge technology and precision engineering to craft a mould that matches your specifications. We select the right steel type, machining intricate features, and ensuring optimal heat and pressure distribution for consistent, high-quality results.
Step 3: Part Material Selection
The choice of material plays a crucial role in the final product’s properties. Our material experts will guide you through a wide range of options, considering factors like strength, flexibility, heat resistance, and chemical compatibility. We use only the highest-grade resins from reputable suppliers to ensure your parts meet strict quality standards.
Step 4: The Injection Moulding Process
Molten plastic is injected into the heated mould under high pressure, filling every cavity with detail and precision. Once cooled and solidified, the part is ejected, ready for any post-processing steps like finishing, assembly, or packaging.
Step 5: Quality Control and Delivery
At every stage, our team in Australia adheres to stringent quality control procedures. We meticulously inspect each order to ensure it meets your exact specifications and delivers exceptional performance.
Our Processes Defined
Injection Moulding
Injection moulding is the process of injecting molten plastic into a steel tool to form your parts. We have access to a wide range of plastic and elastomeric (rubber) materials and can use filled materials. We also manufacture two-shot and insert-moulded parts.
Materials
Injection moulding can be used with a wide range of materials, including but not limited to:
- ABS
- PC
- Acrylic
- PC+ABS
- TPO
- Elastomer/Rubber
- Glass-filled PC, ABS, Nylon
- Nylon
- Ultem
Injection Tooling
Plastic injection tools are integral to the modern manufacturing process. We specialise in both low volume and high-volume quantities. Our team will assist you throughout the tooling design process, including:
- Parting lines, gate locations, ejector pins
- Drafting
- Moldflow analysis
With a huge range of production plastic and elastomeric materials, we utilise traditional technologies such as machining and EDM directly from your CAD files to quickly create tool inserts. These parts can have complex geometry, undercuts, threads, etc.
Materials
- DME Steel Tooling
- P-20 Steel Tooling
- NAK 80 Steel Tooling
- H-13 & S-7 Steel Tooling
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
The injection moulding process works by injecting melted plastic into a steel injection tool (or mould cavity) – allowing it to form a specific shape when it cools and hardens.
Before deciding on an injection moulding tool for the project, one of the most important first steps is the creation of the prototype or part design using CAD software. Next, the right material is selected based on the desired properties and functions of the final product. Rubber injection moulding and the use of other plastic materials are often used for prototype production, as the material can be easily manipulated to create complex designs. Once these steps are completed, the tooling process begins, where the design is fed into an injection moulding machine.
These injection moulding machines utilise a combination of heat and injection pressure to melt plastic pellets. This molten plastic flows into a mould tool, which is made up of two halves that fit together and can be opened and closed. The type of plastic used depends on the requirements of the part.
An injection moulding machine is a piece of machinery used in the manufacturing process of plastic parts by injecting molten material into a mould tool. It is mostly made up of two parts – the injection unit and the clamping unit, which both have unique functions and work together to create the final product.
Micro injection moulding is a specialised form of injection moulding that is used to manufacture miniature parts and components with high precision. It employs the same basic principles as standard injection moulding, but the machinery, tools, and moulds used are tailored to produce extremely small parts, often with intricate designs.
The wall thickness of a part significantly impacts the effectiveness and efficiency of the injection moulding process. The maximum recommended wall thickness will differ depending on the material being used. You can contact our team to discuss your individual requirements.
Moulding condition refers to the various parameters that can be manipulated in an injection moulding machine, such as injection speed, temperature, pressure, and cooling time. These conditions can greatly impact the final product’s quality, so ensuring optimal moulding conditions is crucial for successful production.
Multiple cavity moulds are used in injection moulding to produce multiple parts at once. This is achieved by having multiple cavities (impressions of the final product) within a single mould tool. The number of cavities per tool will depend on the size and complexity of the individual parts. Using multiple cavity moulds can significantly increase production efficiency and reduce costs.
Sink marks are defects that can occur in injection moulding, typically appearing as small depressions or indents on an otherwise flat surface. These marks occur when the outer shell of a moulded part cools and solidifies before the inner, thicker sections. As these sections finally cool, they shrink, pulling the outer surface inward and creating a sink mark. Proper design, uniform wall thickness, and optimal moulding conditions can help minimize the occurrence of these defects. Our team can discuss these with you during the ordering process.
