You own a dropshipping business or operate multiple websites and earn money through affiliate marketing. You’ve been watching other businesses cash in on the demand for products in international markets, and now you want to manufacture your own products.
There are many types of plastic manufacturing. Each process has its own lead-time. An example of a rapid process is vacuum forming, in which a sheet of plastic is stretched over a mold, the extra air is sucked out by the vacuum, and then the plastic cools into the desired form. This method has low startup costs. Towards the other end of the spectrum is plastic injection molding, which has a 2-4 month lead-time. However, once you’ve invested heavily in the molds for this manufacturing process, you can produce plastic goods in high volume in a short time.
At a high level, there are multiple steps in the design process. It starts with an idea and then moves to the design stage. You can hire a product designer or build your own model.
Here are the broad steps that will help you manufacture your own products:
You can use paper and pencil or a 3D software program, which is some form of computer-aided design (CAD). You can experiment with a student version of 3D design software.
If you find a similar template online and download it, then you can manipulate it in the software program. This step saves you from having to start building from scratch.
When you contemplate the uses of the product, you can improve the preliminary design to make it more functional.
Before you make an appointment (whether face-to-face or video chat) with a plastics manufacturer, make your own model. A prototype will help the manufacturer visualize your idea and help you choose the right plastic production process.
Try building your model using different materials. Some cheap options are wood, building-grade foam, modeling clay, and cardboard.
This is where you go back to step 2 and see if the product lives up to its potential.
This is not a wish list in which you get to include everything under the sun. The more things you want the product to do, the number of special parts that have to be robotically or manually inserted, and the level of detail required in the molds, for instance, will increase your production costs.
Examples of product specifications relate to the properties of the plastic itself, including thickness, color, durability, porousness, ability to hold a hot or cold liquid, and resistance to wear and tear.
There are other considerations like cost per unit and manufacturing design and development time. If you are making plastic cups into a custom shape, you would want one level of durability. Are you making plastic pens to give away in mass quantities? You would want a different level of durability. If the product is a toy for preschoolers which will cost $100, you would ensure it can stand up to more wear-and-tear and meet product safety standards for youngsters.
Each plastic product starts with an idea in your head and evolves as you design and build it.
If you can build a model and test it in many ways before working with a plastics manufacturer, you should save time when negotiating the final specs, which the engineers will use to create custom molds.
Engineers may need to test the first prototype made in the factory on potential users before you finalize the molds and start production.
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When it comes to producing end-use parts and products, one material stands out the most - Plastic. There are thousands of polymer options and every one of them has a specific mechanical property. With this material we can make almost everything and there is a variety of plastic manufacturing processes that covers a wide range of different needs in product developing.
But manufacturing options can be very limited, for example geometry and design require significant design for manufacturing (DFM) optimization.
1.Blow Molding
By inflating a heated plastic tube inside a mold we can create a hollow plastic parts. This type of manufacturing process operates at far lower pressure than injection molding. It has a lower tolling cost then injection molding. Blow molding is the most common process for creating plastic bottles, toys, automotive parts etc...
Process:
2.Extrusion
Machinery for this process is relatively cheap as it is less complex. Extrusion molding is almost a continous process, which makes the price of the products very low. Products that are most commonly made are pipes, straws, hoses and window frames.
Plastic is heated and pushed through a heated chamber by a screw, then forced through a die that creates a final shape of the part. The extruded plastic is cooled then spooled or cut into desired length.
3.Injection Molding
Molds for this process are higly complex and due to the high temperature and pressure involved these molds are made from metals like hardened steel and aluminium (which is less expensive). DFM helps Injection Molding process to keep tooling managable. Lead time for completing new molds is aproximatly one month.
When it comes to process, the mold is closed by hydraulic press, then the small plastic pellets are melted and extruded by a screw. The molten plastic is then injected into a mold. The part is then cooled into a mold until is solid enough to be ejected, and at the end sprues, runners and any flash is removed from a part.
4. Vacuum Forming
Vacuum formed products are common: product packaging, shower trays, car door liners, boat hulls...
Tooling cost for this process is low compared to other molding techniques. Molds are made from wood, plasters and 3D printed resin, but for high production volumes metal tooling can be used as well. In this process plastic is streched over the mold while vacuum is activated to suck all the air out between the plastic and the mold
5.Rotation Molding
Rotation molding is also called rotomolding, and it is used to produce mainly large hollow objects. Rotomolding creates parts with nearly uniform wall thickness. The cost of the parts are very low relative to the size of the part. It is ideal for short-run production or as an alternative to blow molding for lower volumes.
6.Polymer Casting
For this process molds are made form latex rubber or room temperature vulcanized silicone rubber, but only a limited number can be produced (between 25 to 100). This molds can reproduce even a smallest details. Polymer casting is typicaly used for prototyping and short production.
7. CNC machining
CNC machining is unique process where material is removed by a spinning tool and a fixed part. This is ideal for low volume plastic part application that requires geometrics that are difficult to mold. This process can produce high-quality plastic components with short lead time. Cost per part increases with part complexity.
8. 3D Printing
3D printing process is generaly slower and for some printers it takes days to print complex parts. As this process keeps improving cost per part continues to drop. This type of production requires no tooling and minimal setup time for a new desing. It can create three-dimensional parts directly from CAD models by building material layer by layer until is complete.
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