Category Archive: Thermoset Molding
As a performance-based material, thermosets offer molded components with corrosion resistance, chemical resistance, and durability within high heat and operating temperatures. This durability allows thermosets to be used in applications exposed to tough environments where thermoplastic components could degrade or compromise the safety and performance of a product assembly. Industries such as the automotive, electrical, appliance, and energy markets all take advantage of these material benefits to utilize thermoset plastics within their product offerings. (more…)
A big difference between molded thermoplastic (nylon, ABS, polypropylene, etc.) parts and thermoset (BMC, phenolic) parts is the performance properties the molding material provides a part with. Whereas thermoplastics can be remelted and remolded, a molded thermoset part cannot be remelted and re-molded a second time. This is due to the chemistry composition thermosets exude. This unique chemistry composition not only creates permanent molecular bonds in a thermoset molded part, but protects parts from corrosion in moist, damp, condensation, steam, or water-based environments. (more…)
With history dating back to the original Bakelite plastic in the 1900s, thermoset plastics have been molded into parts and components for many decades. While thermosets have historically been formed with a compression molding process, thermoset production has evolved as new molding technologies have been discovered and advanced over the years. Currently, thermoset materials can be injection, compression, injection-compression hybrid, insert, and transfer molded into complex shapes and geometries. Each process offers its own advantages and disadvantages, depending on the part or assemblies end performance requirements, geometries, and volume throughput required. (more…)
One major difference between thermoset molding and thermoplastic molding is the appearance of parts coming out of the press. While both thermoset and thermoplastic materials may be formed using similar molding processes (injection, compression, or insert molded), thermoset molded parts must be molded with excess flash, or plastic material, around the parts in order to be fully molded, or cured. (more…)
What is a manufacturing ERP system?
Manufacturing ERP is a business management software system that streamlines manufacturing operations and data to provide a real-time view of its core business processes. While manufacturers can tailor their own ERP applications to relevant avenues of their manufacturing operations, some common applications included in a manufacturing ERP system may include real time production data tracking, production capacity and downtime, order processing and entry, inventory management, and quality documentation, and employee payroll, amongst others. (more…)
As engineers and product designers continue to try and maximize efficiency and minimize costs in existing or new product applications, thermosets are an excellent material conversion option for high-performance, price-sensitive applications that are currently manufactured in metallic materials. Whether converting for cost reductions, material performance improvement, or expanding capacity, thermoset composites are allowing engineers to “do more with less” within new and existing product applications. (more…)
By utilizing a molding process, OEMs and manufacturers are able to design parts into complex geometries to meet the needs of the end product. This design flexibility allows part designers to implement more features into a part design, consolidate multiple parts of an assembly, and reduce overall manufacturing costs for a product assembly. Along with the availability to design intricate and complex design geometries, manufacturers are also able to implement inserts into a molded part for a variety of reasons, most typically to use as a threaded fastener to join multiple parts of an assembly together. Inserts can be designed to be molded-in during the molding of the part, or they can be tapped and/or installed in a secondary operation after molding. Depending on the part and assembly requirements, each option has its own benefits and advantages. Below are two main types of inserts used within molded thermoset parts. (more…)
One of the main benefits of using thermosets as a molding material for parts and components is the heat resistance and high temperature deflection properties that thermoset materials offer. Whereas thermoplastic molding materials such as a nylon or ABS can disfigure, melt, or carbonize; parts molded from a thermoset remain dimensionally stable, allowing the molded component or assembly to remain durable over the lifespan of a product even when exposed to elevated operating temperatures up to 400 or 500 degrees Fahrenheit. If your part or product assembly must withstand high operating temperatures and aggressive end-use elements, choosing a thermoset as your molding material may help keep your product assembly safe and functioning correctly. (more…)
Thermoset plastics have been widely used in manufacturing for parts requiring protection against high operating temperatures and electrical currents. From the historic bakelite materials to new age composite formulations used in advanced automotive, aerospace, and electrical markets; thermosets are a material of choice for challenging applications and aggressive operating elements. Aside from determining the correct material to make a component from, engineers and molders must take into consideration the best manufacturing process to use for their application. As a molding material, thermoset plastics may be injection, compression, injection-compression hybrid, and transfer molded; with each different molding process providing certain benefits and disadvantages such as cost, throughput, and material properties.
Why Injection Mold Thermosets?
The single biggest advantage of injection molding thermosets compared to a compression molding process for example, is the increase in production throughput an injection molding process can achieve. High volume programs requiring long or continuous production runs benefit from faster cycle times injection molding provides over compression molding. The increase in throughput allows molders to produce more parts in a given day or hour, allowing further capacity on a machine for other jobs to run. Injection molding can also allow for designing a mold or tool with higher cavitation than a compression process. Thermoset injection molders can offer a lower unit cost on a component or part based on running more parts in an hour through higher cavitation tooling. Industries that rely on thermoset injection molding for higher throughput include the automotive, electrical, and appliance markets; all of which can require millions of parts annually to meet production requirements.
Thermoset and thermoplastic materials are two types of plastic or composite molding materials.
While both have a similar end-product appearance of a plastic part, the two material types can have drastically different material performance properties. Choosing the correct molding material type depends on the end use application and what material property requirements the end-product needs to withstand to function properly and ensure safety. While thermoplastic materials are much more commonly used, applications requiring further material performance in the areas of electrical strength, heat resistance, and chemical resistance are likely to rely on thermosets as the molding material of choice. (more…)
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