Injection Mold for High-Temperature Engineering Material

What are engineering plastics?

Engineering plastics are thermoplastics that offer better properties than commodity plastics like PVC and styrene. Engineering plastics offer good mechanical properties, dimensional stability, chemical resistance and wear characteristics. Many engineering plastics are designed to have a unique combination of properties catering to specific applications. Some examples are highly impact-resistant polycarbonate, extremely heat resistant PEEK, and slippery self-lubricating PTFE.

Engineering plastics are a group of plastic materials that have better mechanical and/or thermal properties than the more widely used commodity plastics (such as polystyrene, polyvinyl chloride, polypropylene and polyethylene).

Being more expensive than standard plastics, engineering plastics are produced in lower quantities and tend to be used for smaller objects or low-volume applications (such as mechanical parts), rather than for bulk and high-volume ends (like containers and packaging). Engineering plastics have a higher heat resistance than standard plastics and are continuously usable at temperatures up to about 150 °C.

The term usually refers to thermoplastic materials rather than thermosetting ones. Examples of engineering plastics include polyamides (PA, nylons), used for skis and ski boots; polycarbonates (PC), used in motorcycle helmets and optical discs; and poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA, major brand names acrylic glass and plexiglass), used e.g. for taillights and protective shields. The currently most-consumed engineering plastic is acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS), used for e.g. car bumpers, dashboard trim and Lego.

Engineering plastics have gradually replaced traditional engineering materials such as metal, glass or ceramics in many applications. Besides equalling or surpassing them in weight/strength and other properties, engineering plastics are much easier to manufacture, especially in complicated shapes.

Relevant properties

Each engineering plastic usually has a unique combination of properties that may make it the material of choice for some application. For example, polycarbonates are highly resistant to impact, while polyamides are highly resistant to abrasion. Other properties exhibited by various grades of engineering plastics include heat resistance, mechanical strength, rigidity, chemical stability, self lubrication (specially used in manufacturing of gears & skids) and fire safety.

Examples

A comparison of standard plastics, engineering plastics, and high-performance plastics

v Acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS)

v Nylon 6

v Nylon 6-6

v Polyamides (PA)

v Polybutylene terephthalate (PBT)

v Polycarbonates (PC)

v Polyetheretherketone (PEEK)

v Polyetherimide (PEI)

v Polyetherketoneketone (PEKK)

v Polyetherketones (PEK)

v Polyketone (PK)

v Polyethylene terephthalate (PET)

v Polyimides

v Polyoxymethylene plastic (POM / Acetal)

v Polyphenylene sulfide (PPS)

v Polyphenylene oxide (PPO)

v Polysulphone (PSU)

v Polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE / Teflon)

v Poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA)

What is the difference between engineering plastic and specialty plastic?

Engineering plastics are thermoplastics that offer better mechanical properties, dimensional stability, chemical resistance and wear characteristics than commodity plastics. Specialty plastics are plastics that meet higher specifications than commodity and engineering plastics. Most high-performance plastics specialize in maximum performance on a single property (i.e. heat or chemical resistance) and are used in very specific applications.

We're HongSheng

Injection Mold

The mold is often referred to as tooling. Mold and tooling are relatively interchangeable terms for the metal mold at the heart of the injection molding process. Mold tooling may also be used to describe the process of machining the mold out of a block of metal. A core & cavity is cut into the negative shape of the part.

High quality tooling is required to produce high quality parts.

Injection Molding

Injection molding is a manufacturing process that uses a metal mold to shape molten plastic resins. The injection molding machines holds the mold together while it is injected with molten plastic at high pressure. Once the plastic has cooled, the mold is opened and the part is ejected. The process is repeated until the desired amount of parts has been completed.

Injection molding is a cost efficient way to manufacture a high volume of complex plastic parts.