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What Does the Custom Molding Process Entail?

Friday, August 06, 2021

The custom plastic mold process looks much simpler than it is in actuality. On the surface, it’s incredible to see something like a plastic bottle or plastic part created using little more than molten liquid and a mold. However, the process of making a mold involves quite a bit of design work and fabrication to make plastic products come to life. Check out how the process moves from an initial prototype to a finished product below.

Step 1: Designing your product. 

Before you can create a custom plastic mold, you need to sit down and figure out what it is that you’re going to be making. You should decide on how big the product will be, what features it will include, and what it will look like when it’s done. This is arguably the most important part of the custom plastic mold process, because if you don’t put the proper plans into place, you could end up with a product that doesn’t function properly later.

Step 2: Coming up with a prototype of your product.

Once you decide what you’re going to create and sketch it out on paper, it’ll be time to put together a prototype of your product. Your prototype will give you a rough idea of what your final product will look like. You should take a good, long look at it and identify any potential shortcomings with it. You don’t want to move forward until you’ve approved your prototype and love the way it looks.

Step 3: Creating a custom plastic mold.

After you have approved your prototype, you can use it to create a custom plastic mold that will be used replicate the prototype while creating the product you’re going to be making. It’s important for the mold to include all of the major and minor details you want included in your final product.

Step 4: Using your custom plastic mold to mass produce your product.

When your custom plastic mold has been created, you can start using it to pump out the products you want to produce. You can do this by injecting a very hot liquid made out of melted down plastic into your mold at a high pressure before cooling it off quickly and removing it from the mold. This will provide you with the products you dreamed up at the beginning.

Would you like to create a custom plastic mold that can help you make plastic parts and other plastic products? Lowrance Machine Shop can help you work through the custom plastic mold process. Call us at 281-449-6524 today to get started.