Injection Molding vs. Extrusion Molding - Understanding the Differences between These Popular Manufacturing Methods
Injection molding and extrusion molding use the same injection molding principles, but they are used for different purposes. What are the differences between injection molding vs. extrusion molding? You can learn about the differences between these popular manufacturing methods by reading this guide.
Injection Molding vs. Extrusion Molding: Learning about Injection Molding - The Beginner’s Guide
Injection molding is one of the most common rapid manufacturing processes that allows you to create parts with various geometric shapes by putting the molten materials into the molds that follow the part’s shapes. With injection molding, you can use various materials, starting from plastic to metal materials, to create components, rapid prototypes, and large volume parts for various industries.
The injection molding method will allow you to produce parts and components with low setup costs and low waste materials. In most cases, you don’t need to apply any post processing for the parts and components you have produced with series of injection molding process such as over molding, insert molding etc.
Injection Molding vs. Extrusion Molding: Learning about Extrusion Molding - The Beginner’s Guide
Extrusion molding is the type of injection molding process that focuses on creating long tube-shaped objects, which are often called rods. In this process, the materials will get extruded through the die to form the tube-like shapes, which can be very long in their length. Then, you will need to cut them out based on your length requirements.
The extrusion molding process uses various types of plastic materials, which include acrylic, acetal, nylon, polycarbonate, PVC, and many others. The applications for this process include fuel lines, hoses, pipes, cables, electrical wires, and many other long-shaped or tube-shaped objects.
The Primary Differences between Injection Molding vs. Extrusion Molding
Both the plastic injection molding and extrusion molding processes have the same principles in manufacturing, but they have some key differences. First, the extrusion molding process has the purpose of producing long tube-shaped parts for various industries, whereas the injection molding process has the purpose of producing almost any type of parts and components with both simple and complex designs.
Second, the extrusion molding process is suitable only for plastic materials, whereas the injection molding process is suitable for plastic and other materials, such as rubbers, glasses, and metals. And third, you will use the extrusion molding process to produce very long tube-shaped parts, called rods, which you can then cut based on the length you need to get. Meanwhile, you will use the injection molding process to create hardware parts and components one by one, depending on their design.
Injection Molding vs. Extrusion Molding: Injection Molding - What are the Benefits?
Injection molding offers the ease and simplicity of the production process, helping manufacturers to create the parts, components, and prototypes they need for their products. The benefits of injection molding include:
●Complex shapes and geometries.
Injection molding allows you to create parts and components with complex shapes and geometries. However, you will need to create the rapid tooling or mold for each shape you would like to produce. The shape can be as complex as you need, provided that the materials you use will support it.
●Lots of material varieties.
Injection molding is the manufacturing process you can use for various materials, not just limited to plastics. You can also use silicone rubbers(silicone rubber molding), and glasses as the injection molding materials.
●It allows you to create a wide variety of hardware parts and components.
Unlike extrusion molding that only allows you to create rods or tube-like shapes, you can use injection molding to create plastic parts and components that you can use in various industries, which include automotive, medical, construction, consumer electronics, and more. For plastic injection molding, you can use this process to produce containers, bottle caps, gears, household utilities, frames, and medical tools.
●Cheaper costs for big production.
With injection molding, both the tooling costs and the production costs are cheaper when compared to other manufacturing methods. So, it’s most suitable for big production, although you might need to renew or change the molds from time to time, depending on the mold’s durability.
●Fast production speed and repeatability.
Injection molding is also a quick manufacturing process you can perform for various purposes, in a wide range of industries. You can also repeat the injection molding process how many times you want using the design blueprint that you have.
Injection Molding vs. Extrusion Molding: Extrusion Molding - What are the Benefits?
The extrusion molding process can provide you with a lot of benefits, including various plastic material options, various applications, reusable materials, and low production costs. The benefits of extrusion molding include:
●Creating long tube-shaped parts with ease.
Extrusion molding is the process you can use to create various tube-shaped parts for various purposes, such as hoses, pipes, fuselages, and many others. It is very easy to create these long tube-shaped objects, as you just need to put the plastic materials into the extrusion equipment to start the production process.
●Lots of plastic material choices.
Extrusion molding is only suitable for plastic materials, but you have plenty of plastic material choices that you can use for this process. You can use elastic plastic materials to create wires or cables, and you can use rigid plastic materials to create pipes or fuselages.
●Plenty of applications.
Extrusion molding also has plenty of applications in various industries, ranging from automotive industry to consumer electronics. You can cut the rods produced from this process at any length, based on your needs.
●Reusable plastic materials.
The plastic materials you have used for the extrusion molding process can be reused again after you clean the extrusion molding equipment. Thus, you can minimize the production costs by minimizing the waste materials.
●Some changes can be made for the final products.
The rods produced by the extrusion molding equipment can still be altered in certain ways as long as it is still hot. So, you can apply some fixes before the rods get cold and assume their final shapes.
Conclusion of Injection Molding vs. Extrusion Molding
Both injection molding and extrusion molding have their uses in manufacturing. Each method will help manufacturers create various parts and components for their product assembly process.
Manufacturers can use the injection molding process to create specific hardware parts and components for their industrial applications, such as engines, gears, and frames, and use the extrusion molding process to create tube-shaped parts, such as fuselages, cables, and pipes.
Besides from injection molding and extrusion, TEAM Rapid also offers 3d print services, sheet metal prototyping, CNC machining services, and die casting services to meet your project needs. Contact our team today to request a free quote now!
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