Plastic Injection: In-house or out-house?
Plastic Injection: In-house or out-house?
(OP)
I write this attempting to limit any pre-prejudices. I have the option of bringing in a small electric plastic injection machine, 33 ton, 1 oz shot, about 8 yrs old. It would cost me less than a new proto machine for the lab. With this we would be a rare fish: vertically integrated (we make sensors.) We would continue out-sourcing our big stuff, this could be used for protos, lenses, small parts, high-proprietary parts, etc.
I know just enough to know I dont know much: practicality of an on/off type operation, cleaning!, any real benefits. Someone needs to lean over and slap me silly. Need to decide soon.
I know just enough to know I dont know much: practicality of an on/off type operation, cleaning!, any real benefits. Someone needs to lean over and slap me silly. Need to decide soon.






RE: Plastic Injection: In-house or out-house?
Do you have anyone in-house that's experienced in injection molding processing? If not, will you be bringing anyone in?
Anyone experienced in tool maintenance?
I'm not trying to be a doomsayer, but these are all valid concerns.
RE: Plastic Injection: In-house or out-house?
RE: Plastic Injection: In-house or out-house?
RE: Plastic Injection: In-house or out-house?
Things to consider:
Skill levels in your company (already mentioned!)
Temperature control for the tools (Heaters/chillers, depending what materials)
Material dryers (depending what materials)
Will you be able to buy materials at the price a trade moulder who may be buying tons of resins can get it at?
Maintenance costs: an all electric machine eight years old was new technology at the time - I would budget in to high repair costs. The technology is much more mature now. (e.g. Would you buy an eight year old PC?)
On/Off - Inj. moulding machines are designed for 24/365 operation, although all electric are better than hydraulic as no oil to warm up at shift starts.
Apart from the above, remember, all the scrap is yours (which you will not pay for normally), IMHO I would not buy an eight year old machine - it is likely (though not impossible) to be virtual scrap.
BTW, do not even consider making lenses of any reasonable quality!! (reasons too many to list!)
Cheers
Harry
RE: Plastic Injection: In-house or out-house?
RE: Plastic Injection: In-house or out-house?
Cambria:
Did you?..........
Cheers
Harry
RE: Plastic Injection: In-house or out-house?
thanks for the comments and question.
doug
RE: Plastic Injection: In-house or out-house?
actual parts to show customers/sales etc.?
Id just SLA them save the headache and overhead.
If you want the parts for testing of properties ect. and hope to use this to justify production, test feasibility of production, generate production figures.
I would caution as you equipment/process/team/mold would have to be comparable.
Not sure what you were looking for but i don't think 5 or six prototypes that you are concerned about proprietary i don't think it is worth the 100k or whatever plus the uncountable additional cost
RE: Plastic Injection: In-house or out-house?
RE: Plastic Injection: In-house or out-house?
We have SLAs made of course, thats part of modern biz. The kicker is that transition from SLAs to real tooling, where you may want a field test in-force. Cant do it with SLAs, should not go to final tooling yet.
All the comments are valid. How can one rationalize hardware costs and labor loading to support a small injection operation? Perhaps you cant. American industry is fleeing from the concept of designing and manufacturing its own stuff. The mantra of not being an expert is beat out on the jungle drums daily. What hogwash. Learn it, eat it up. Become the expert. And thats where innovation is born.
Thanks for the comments. I move forward with caution, but the best way to take advantage of an opportunity is to be watching for the opportunity, and thats why this forum is a valuable thing.
doug