What’s Foam Injection Molding and Where’s It Used?

Posted by ChinaCasting on December 27th, 2021

Because of some great discoveries in the recent time, we now have an array of alternatives when it comes to choosing a method for the manufacturing of plastic products. That’s the reason why it sometimes gets difficult for manufacturers to choose the most suitable alternative from all available production methods. Today, we’ll discuss what is Foam Injection Molding, and we’ll also have a look at such situations when it can be the right alternative for the production of plastic products. Without wasting any more time, let’s first try to understand what Foam Injection Molding actually is.

Do you know about traditional injection molding methods used for the production of plastic products? Foam Injection Molding is almost similar to those methods, but with a couple of changes. In structural foam injection molding, an inert gas is also injected into the mold along with melted polymer, and low-pressure is used for the injection process. Because of these two differences, end products built through Foam Injection Molding have some unique attributes compared to plastic parts built through traditional injection molding methods.

Difference Between Products Built Through Foam Molding and Traditional Injection Molding

The inert gas acts as a chemical blowing agent, which expands when injected into the mold along with the melted polymer. As a result, final products don’t have a solid core, but it has a foam-like structure. This is why plastic parts built through foam injection molding have a very high strength-to-weight ratio because the core of the final products has a foam-like structure while the outer walls are thick and solid. So basically, foam injection molding is used for the production of such products which need to be strong and durable, but not too heavy.10

Key Characteristics of Foam Injection Molding

1. Just because end products are light-weighted, it doesn’t mean they are not strong. Thick and solid outer walls give decent strength and durability to the final products.
2. Because of the low-pressure used for injection molding, it’s possible to put complex designs on the final products without any error. You get all these advantages while keeping the production cost in control. Thus, it is the best choice if you ever require to build plastic parts with a higher strength-to-weight ratio.