An Overview of India’s Plastic Injection Moulding Industry

Posted by AcmeDisys on September 28th, 2019

In the past one century, injection moulding could be termed as one of the revolutionary concepts in the industry and trade that has found mass usage and acceptance. Among these utilities is the process of fabrication of plastic parts based on moulds (pronounced mold in the USA). Thousands of products are manufactured by mould making companies through plastic injection mould. These vary in size, complexity and application.

The process depends on an injection moulding machine, raw plastic material, and of course, a mould. The molten plastic is melted in the injection moulding machine and then injected into the mould, where it cools and solidifies into the final part. A technician or an engineer designs the mould that is fabricated from metal (mostly either steel or aluminum), and precision-machined to form the features of the desired part.

Application of injected moulding ranges from smallest components to the entire body panels of cars. However, the most common usage has been witnessed in bottles that are used for fool-proof bottling of filtered water, beverages, food, pharmaceuticals and cosmetics, edible oils and other liquid products. This technique is known as polyethylene terephthalate moulding PET in short. Resins and glass fibres are used as the medium in this process.

All these depend on the quality and capacity of the plant that relies on technology of moulding. Hence the make and model of the machinery or system used for moulding are very crucial. There are several industries like New Delhi-based Acme Disys in India which provide such systems of high quality and prescribed standards. Incidentally, the tool room at this company is well-equipped with advanced machinery. This company as a plastic mould manufacturer makes precision driven mould inserts and high quality mould bases.

For PET bottles, there are two types of moulding, viz., one-step and two-step. In the one-step method, the entire process from raw material to finished container is takes place in a single machine, making it especially suitable for moulding non-conventional and tailor-made shapes. These include jars, containers, flasks etc. in various shapes. Apart from occupying lesser space, the capacity and energy consumption in this system are more favourable than the two-step process.

In the two-step moulding, out of the two different machines, the first machine injection moulds the preform that looks like a test tube with the bottle-cap threads. The body of this tube is inflated into its final shape in the second step using stretch blow moulding, SBM in short. The final shape of the product depends on the SBM.

Preform designs and PET machines vary as per mould systems for optimum utilisation. For instance, some companies make preform moulds ranging from 4 grams to 700 grams with neck sizes between 12mm to 150 mm.

To ascertain the credibility of the mould maker and also the quality of the product, it is advised to review the infrastructure of the mould manufacturing companies in India. The mould flow analysis must also be conducted to be assured of superior quality product.