Part Consolidation with Thermosets

OEM designers & engineers have been utilizing metal-to-plastic conversions within their product assemblies for decades now. From cost advantages to lightweighting objectives, plastics have been instrumental in consolidating multiple parts of a product assembly, providing a host of advantages to OEMs and consumers. Thermosets are no different; they offer the same traditional benefits of thermoplastic injection molding, including outstanding moldability and potential cost savings, yet with improved material performance over many engineered-thermoplastics.

Moldability
Because thermosets may be molded using the same manufacturing processes as thermoplastics, i.e. injection, compression, insert molding; thermosets:

  • Provide a cost-effective way to combine multiple parts of an assembly into one design
  • Lend itself to very complex designs and part geometries difficult to manufacture with metal processes
  • Allow design for manufacturability and assembly (DFMA)
  • May utilize molded-in inserts to take away secondary hardware and assembly requirements


    • Cost Savings
    Targeted part consolidation efforts must offer significant cost advantages to a product assembly in order to achieve feasibility. Molded thermoset components may offer part consolidation cost savings, via:

  • Eliminated or reduced number of secondary machining operations
  • Minimized labor and assembly required
  • Lower assembly and part weight over metal components and assemblies
  • Limited tooling and up-front investment costs for one part vs. multiple parts
  • Reduced supplier list, lessening supplier management and maintenance costs required on backend


    • Material Performance
    Where engineered thermoplastics such as nylons, ABS, polypropylenes may fail in challenging application settings, thermosets offer exceptional material performance with regards to:

  • Dimensional and chemical stability
  • High heat and corrosion resistance
  • Outstanding electrical properties
  • High strength-to-weight ratio
    • Posted by Woodland Plastics on
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