Plastic Injection Molding as an Alternative to Machining

When to Consider Plastic Injection Molding

Plastic Injection Molding is a diverse process with many possibilities. Often, the precision and repeatability of plastic injection molding makes it a viable alternative to machining.

As a rule of thumb, if you are using 1,000 or more parts per year, you may want to consider plastic injection molding as a way to save money and increase margins. While the initial investment required to produce the tooling can be significant, the reduced part price quickly enables you to start making that money back.

As a rule of thumb, if you are using 1,000 or more parts per year, you may want to consider plastic injection molding as a way to save money and increase margins.

Plastic Injection Molding Saves Money

Case in point: A customer approached us who had been machining 1,500 grommets per year out of Delrin acetal material. Using this method, their cost per part was approximately $2, costing them $3,000 per year.

We were able to build them an injection mold for approximately $2,500 and produce the parts for $.90 each. This allowed our customer to get a return on their investment in just over a year, and save over $1,600 every year after that using plastic injection molding.

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Plastic Injection Molding as a Metal Replacement

In addition to the possibilities available to replace plastic parts, there are many plastics that can replace metal.  While plastic injection molding grades of plastic do not yet exist to match the tensile strength of stainless steel, there are many commercially available grades that are actually higher than some grades of aluminum.

While plastic injection molding grades of plastic do not yet exist to match the tensile strength of stainless steel, there are many commercially available grades of plastic injection molding that are actually higher than some grades of aluminum.

Also, keep in mind there are many products on the market today produced in steel that do not require the strength that steel provides, and steel inserts can be over-molded with plastic when only a portion of the product has strength requirements, such as threads.

With these and other facts in hand, many have product manufacturers have found plastic injection molding to be a cost effective alternative to machining metal.  Is yours one of them?

Contact Rex Plastics Today

If you feel you may be a candidate to convert your product to plastic please give us a call, or submit this form. Rex Plastics has engineers on staff to help you determine whether or not your metal product can be converted to plastic.