What is the Structural Polyethylene Foam Manufacturing Process?

What is the Structural Polyethylene Foam Manufacturing Process?

Polyethylene is the most commonly used plastic in structural foam molding processes. With the plastic’s many beneficial properties combined with the benefits of structural foam molding, it is chosen for manufacturing many large tonnage plastic products. Let’s explore the polyethylene foam manufacturing process.

What is Polyethylene?

Polyethylene is one of the most commonly produced plastics because it has so many beneficial properties to offer. Some of these include:

• Durability for use in a wide range of applications and environments
• Resistance to wear and tear making it long-lasting even in demanding situations
• Affordability to lower the cost of production which you can pass on to consumers
• Easily manufacturable to further lower costs and so you can create complex products
• Resistance to chemicals for use in environments and applications where harsh chemicals or compounds may be involved.

The Structural Polyethylene Foam Manufacturing Process

To start the structural foam manufacturing process, the polyethylene will be melted. Then, the melted polymer will be mixed with nitrogen gas and/or a chemical blowing agent. This mixture is then injected into the structural foam mold under low pressure.

As the polymer mixture touches the walls of the mold, it will cool, forming a product with a solid exterior and a honeycombed interior. This yields a durable product that is lighter weight than straight injection molded products, making the process ideal for large, complex products.

When to Use the Structural Polyethylene Foam Manufacturing Process

Structural foam molding is a great manufacturing method and polyethylene has many great properties, however, they may not be ideal for all applications. Some of the best situations to use the structural polyethylene foam manufacturing process include:

Creating Large Tonnage Products

Since this process uses low pressure, it requires a lower clamping force on the tooling. This will allow you to create your tooling from more cost-effective materials, such as aluminum.

The low-pressure process also leads to less damage when creating large tonnage products compared to straight injection molding, reducing the cost and time spent on rerunning projects due to damaged or deformed products.

Creating Complex Products

Again, the low-pressure process allows the plastic mixture to get into all of the nooks of the mold. This allows you to create complex products with intricate details without worrying about anything being missing in production.

When You Need Specific Desirable Properties

When you are looking for products with the properties that structural foam molding with polyethylene can provide, then this process is perfect for your products. Some of these properties include:

• Being lighter weight than straight injection molding
• Durability
• Chemical resistant
• Affordable
• Easy to manufacture
• Resistance to wear and chemicals

Want to Learn More About the Structural Polyethylene Foam Manufacturing Process? Turn to Port Erie

At Port Erie, we have been creating high-quality structural foam molded products since 1953. Our team is dedicated to engineering and producing the products you need that meet all of your specifications. We take control of quality from the start of your project with our engineering and in-house tooling capabilities. Plus, after your products have been produced, we can help with your warehousing and distribution needs.

Contact us today to get started.

How Injection Molding Tooling Design Ensures Your Project Runs Smoothly

How Injection Molding Tooling Design Ensures Your Project Runs Smoothly

When you are starting an injection molding or structural foam molding project, you want to ensure that your products will be of the highest quality. One of the ways a trusted structural foam molding or injection molding partner will ensure the success and quality of your product is by creating all of the structural foam and injection molding tooling. Let’s explore some of the ways injection molding tooling design can ensure the quality of your products and make the process run smoothly.

The Benefits of Structural Foam and Injection Molding Tooling Design

Improved Product Quality

Since your manufacturer will be creating and designing your injection and structural foam molding tooling, they will have full control over the quality. They will be able to take all of your specifications into consideration, including tolerances and the plastics you are using to create the tooling your project needs.

Smoother Production Processes

If something goes wrong during your manufacturing process, your manufacturer will be able to reassess your tooling design. They also have the equipment needed to make any changes to your tooling in-house, saving time and money on shipping your tooling to another manufacturer and waiting for them to produce the tooling.

Shorter Lead Times

Since your manufacturer will design and create your tooling in-house, you don’t have to spend time or money finding another manufacturer strictly for tooling. You also wouldn’t have to find transportation to and from each manufacturer. This can help reduce lead times since the tooling is already in the same location as production, so your products can be created as soon as your tooling is finished.

Port Erie’s Structural Foam and Injection Molding Tooling Design Services

When you partner with Port Erie for your structural foam and injection molding services, a skilled plastic engineer will be added to your project. The engineer will work with you throughout the production process to provide you with support until your product is to its final destination.

To start, your engineer will meet with you and the tooling manager to gain a good understanding of your project. After that, the engineer and the tooling manager will review 3D models and compile advice on how to improve the design of the product and your tooling to make production more efficient and yield a higher quality product.

Once you have reviewed the changes and approved them, the tooling manager and engineer will be able to finalize the tooling design. This part of the process includes evaluating if more cost-effective options for tooling are appropriate for your project, further saving you money.

With Port Erie’s full-service in-house tool room, we can create the tooling needed for all of your projects. Our team has the skill and equipment needed to create tooling through CNC milling, grinding, turning, drilling, welding, and more. We also have the capabilities needed to create various types of molds:

• Single cavity
• Multi-cavity
• Structural foam molds
• Insert molds
• Over molds
• Hot runners

Our team also offers tooling transfer services where you transfer your existing tooling to our facilities. We will then inspect the tooling and identify any potential issues with the design or any damage we see and from there make the necessary repairs or adjustments. After, we will complete verification testing of your tooling to make sure it is up to our quality and safety standards.

Partner with Port Erie for Your Structural Foam and Injection Molding Tooling Design Services and Production

In addition to our extensive tooling services, we also offer structural foam molding and injection molding services. Once your product is produced, we also can help you with any of your warehousing or distribution needs.

Reach out to our team today to get started.

Structural Foam Injection Machine and Equipment: The Keys to What Sets Port Erie Plastics Apart

Structural Foam Injection Machine and Equipment: The Keys to What Sets Port Erie Plastics Apart

The skill and experience of your plastic manufacturer are extremely important, however, the structural foam injection molding equipment they have is also crucial to the scope of their work. At Port Erie Plastics, our team has been providing structural foam molding and injection molding services since 1953, and to build on our experience, we have grown our collection of equipment to provide top-tier services to all of our customers. Let’s explore our foam injection machine and equipment.

Our New Structural Foam Injection Machine

Just last year we welcomed a new structural foam injection machine to expand our offerings to our customers. The addition of the 1000 SSWP LPIM structural foam molding machine has many features that allow us to take on larger structural foam projects.

The specs of our new machine include:

• Sepro dual-arm 5-axis servo robot
• Ability to handle 100 kg or 220 lbs
• 1000 machine positioned under a new 25-ton crane with a 10-ton kicker
• Platen dimensions are 186” x 103” — increased from our other machines with platen dimensions of 98” x 89”
• Tie bar distance of 144” x 60” compared to our other machines at 58.5” x 67.5”
• Two extruders on the machine — both can extrude 100 lbs PS and the total output is 4800 lbs per hour
• Accumulator volume of 3000 cubic inches

If you are interested in learning more about this specific machine, explore our blog.

Our Other Machinery

We have various other machines in order to best serve our customers. In addition to our above structural foam molding machine, we also have two Uniloy Milacron structural foam molding machines with a 500-tonnage capacity.

We also have numerous injection molding machines. Our machines can handle tonnage up to 100, 101-299, 300-450, and 500-1650 tons. In total, we have 89 injection molding machines and the makes consist of Engel, Milacron, TMC, Nissei, Sumitomo, Haitian, and Haitian Zhafir.

Our facilities also house machinery that we use for milling, EDM, grinding, turning, drilling, engineering, and other services. Learn more about our extensive list of machinery here.

How Our Equipment Allows Us to Best Serve You

With the combination of our decades of experience and our best-in-class equipment, we are able to provide the best services possible for our customers. We have the ability to take on the most challenging and complex structural foam and injection molding projects.

Our engineering team will work closely with your team to ensure your products are Designed for Manufacturability, making the production process more efficient, saving you time and money. Additionally, they will determine if robotics and automation can be implemented into your manufacturing processes, further improving efficiency and accuracy in the production of your products.

Other equipment gives us the ability to offer many value added services. We are able to design and manufacture your structural foam and injection molds, as well as provide finishing and assembly services, such as drilling, welding, kitting, pad printing, and more.

Contact Port Erie Plastics to Get Started On Your Structural Foam or Injection Molding Projects

Since 1953, Port Erie Plastics has been providing best-in-class structural foam and injection molding services. Our team is dedicated to quality, and with our decades of experience and extensive list of machinery, we can ensure quality from the start by manufacturing your molds, implementing automation and robotics, and providing value-added secondary operation services. Once your product is created, we can also help you with your warehousing and distribution needs.

If you are interested in getting started with our team, contact us today.

What is Better Than Injection Molding for Large Tonnage Products? The Structural Foam Molding Process, Benefits, and Applications

What is Better Than Injection Molding for Large Tonnage Products? The Structural Foam Molding Process, Benefits, and Applications

Plastic injection molding is an efficient, cost-effective manufacturing process that is used to create products in many industries. This process can create products of various sizes, however, it may fall short when it comes to manufacturing large-tonnage products. So, what is better than injection molding for large-tonnage products? One of the best manufacturing processes for producing these large products is structural foam molding.

What is Structural Foam Molding?

Structural foam molding is commonly used to create large-tonnage products with a hard exterior and a honeycombed interior. The manufacturing process begins with mixing a melted polymer with nitrogen gas and/or a chemical blowing agent. Then, this mixture is injected into the structural foam mold under low pressure. The polymer mix will cool as it touches the walls of the mold, forming a product with a solid exterior and a honeycombed interior.

The structural foam molding process results in products that are large, complex, and durable. With their durable exterior layer and less dense inner layer, the weight of these products is also reduced compared to their injection molded counterparts.

What Plastics Are Used in Structural Foam Molding

Polyethylene is the most commonly used plastic in the structural foam molding process. This plastic exhibits many ideal properties including:

• Chemical resistance
• Water resistance
• Recyclability
• High strength-to-weight ratio
• Low moisture absorption
• High impact strength
• Durability

However, there are some disadvantages to polyethylene. It does have poor weather resistance, is flammable, and can be sensitive to stress cracking. Polyethylene is good for use in creating chemical containers, pipe systems, and gardening equipment.

Benefits of Structural Foam Molding

Easily Creates Large Parts While Minimizing Damage and Deformities

Structural foam molding is a low-pressure process that requires less clamping force, allowing you to create tooling and molds from more cost-effective materials, such as aluminum. The low-pressure process also allows manufacturers to create large-tonnage products with a reduced risk of damage and deformities during the manufacturing process. This reduces the cost and time spent on re-running projects.

Increased Design Flexibility and Reduced Risk of Warpage

Since structural foam molding is a low-pressure process, it puts less stress on the product during manufacturing. This reduces the risk of damage compared to straight injection molding. You will also reduce the risk of warpage, allowing you to create more complex molds that maintain the desired shape of the finished product.

A Highly Efficient Process

Multiple structural foam molds can be run at the same time. Again, the low-pressure process allows these molds to run simultaneously without putting stress on the machines and the molds. Since you can run multiple molds at once, you will save time and money on your manufacturing process by producing more parts in a shorter amount of time.

Yields Products With Desirable Physical Properties

Structural foam molded products have various desirable properties, including a high strength-to-weight ratio, good thermal stability, durability, chemical resistance, and more. With so many advantageous properties, your products can be created to your exact specifications to meet the needs of your application and industry.

Structural Foam Molding Applications

Many industries benefit from the use of the structural foam molding manufacturing process. Some of the industries we have worked with include:

• Construction by creating large HDPE trench drains
• Lawn and Garden through carts and other lawn equipment
• Material Handling by creating large pallets

To explore more industries and products that can benefit from structural foam molding, check out our blog.

Ready to Experience the Process That is Better Than Injection Molding? Contact Port Erie Today

At Port Erie Plastics, we have been providing high-quality injection molding and structural foam molding processes since 1953. In addition to our molding processes, we also perform secondary operations and we can help you with your distribution and warehousing needs.

To learn more about our processes or to get started, contact our team today.

Exploring How Construction Industry Injection Molding Service Improves Product Quality

Exploring How Construction Industry Injection Molding Service Improves Product Quality

Within the construction industry, products must be durable, attractive, and long-lasting. In order to create parts and products with these properties, injection molding and structural foam molding are used. These manufacturing processes are popular in the construction industry due to the many beneficial properties they offer and their cost-effective nature. Let’s explore construction industry injection molding service, its benefits, and what it is used to manufacture.

Construction Industry Injection Molding Services

Structural Foam Molding

Structural foam molding is the process of mixing a melted polymer with nitrogen gas and/or a chemical blowing agent. This mixture is then injected into a mold under low pressure. As the mixture touches the walls of the mold, it cools, forming a solid outer layer with a honeycomb interior.

There are numerous benefits of structural foam molding, including:

Cost-Effective Process for Large Parts

The low-pressure process of structural foam molding allows for the materials that are used to create tooling to be less durable compared to other manufacturing processes. This lowers the cost of your tooling. Additionally, fewer raw materials need to be used because the product isn’t a solid plastic. Both of these characteristics lower the overall cost of your project.

Highly Moldable

The low-pressure process put significantly less stress on parts during the molding process. This reduces the risk of warpage and damage to your process, saving you time and money on damaged products that have to be reproduced.

Weight Reduction

The honeycomb interior of the product reduces the weight of the product compared to solid products created through straight injection molding.

Injection Molding

During the injection molding process, the polymer is melted inside the injection molding machine’s heated barrel. The machine is then closed and the mold halves are closed together and are held together under high clamp pressure. The screw in the barrel pushes the molten polymer under high pressure into the mold. Once all of the polymer is in the mold, the screws pull back and the product starts to cool. When fully cooled, the product is released from the mold.

Injection molding also has various benefits, including:

Efficient

This is one of the fastest plastic manufacturing processes out there. Through injection molding, it is possible to create many parts in a short period of time.

Strength and Durability

Injection molded plastic products are completely solid, giving them uniform strength throughout the product.

Little Post-Injection Molding Processing

Many times, the part will come out of the injection mold with ideal aesthetics, requiring little to no finishing. This will ultimately save you money on your manufacturing costs as you can opt out of certain finishing processes.

Products Created Through Injection Molding and Structural Foam Molding Processes

Many products in the construction industry can be created through structural foam molding and injection molding processes. Some of the biggest items that take advantage of these production processes include siding, flooring, and pipes.

Each of these products benefits from the properties of structural foam molded and injection molded products, including:

• UV resistance
• Weather resistance
• Water resistance
• Durability
• Lightweight
• Corrosion resistance

Turn to Port Erie for Your Construction Industry Injection Molding Services

At Port Erie, we have been trusted to create plastic products through injection molding and structural foam molding since 1953. We pair you with one of our skilled plastic engineers to ensure your product is designed properly and keep your projects running smoothly from the design process to distribution. With our construction industry injection molding services, you can rest assured knowing that your products will be of the highest quality.

Contact us today to learn more.

What is Plastic Engineering and How Can It Help Your Project’s Success?

What is Plastic Engineering and How Can It Help Your Project’s Success?

Plastic engineering is the process of designing, developing, and manufacturing plastic products. This process is crucial to the success of your plastic projects as it helps to improve the design of your product and ensures that you are using the right materials for your application. In this blog, our team will explore the plastic engineering process and how your projects can benefit from these services.

What is the Plastic Engineering Process?

The process of plastic engineering begins with the customer presenting the product concept to the plastic engineer and the tooling manager. This allows them to gain a good understanding of your product’s application and what properties it needs to possess. The engineer and the tooling manager will then review the 3D product models and compile advice on how to improve the design for the chosen manufacturing process — injection molding or structural foam molding. As this is done, they will also evaluate if more cost-effective tooling options are appropriate to help lower the costs of your project.

Once the customer approves the design changes, other conversations can occur to improve your plastic molding project. One of the common conversations to be had is about which polymer to use. Typically, the customer will have an idea of what polymer they want to use, but the plastic engineer can help finalize the decision based on the needs of the application. After a plastic is decided on, the manufacturing process can begin.

How Plastic Engineering Can Improve Your Project

There are many ways working with a plastic engineer can improve your projects. Some of the biggest benefits are listed below.

Alternative Resins

With their impressive expertise, your plastic engineer will be able to tell you what resins are most similar to the one you have chosen or which would be best for your application. If something happens where you can’t get your chosen resin, such as increased cost or supply chain shortages, your plastic engineer can help you source an alternative resin that will still meet all of your needs.

Additionally, if there is a failure in production where the plastic does not work, your plastic engineer can assist here as well. They will re-evaluate the plastic used and find a more appropriate fit that still serves your needs.

Tooling Design and Modification

Complex parts and products can be expensive to manufacture and are more susceptible to failure during the production process. Plastic engineers will work to minimize the complexity of the tooling to ensure that the manufacturing process is as efficient as possible while still maintaining the design of your product.

They can also evaluate the existing tooling for your project. Plastic engineers will take a look at the tooling and reduce the complexity of it, reducing your cycle times and lowering your production costs.

Automation and Robotics

Automation and robotics have been gaining traction in nearly every industry, and plastics is no different. There are many processes where these services may benefit you and your project. During your quoting phase, your plastic engineer will discuss implementing automation and/or robotics to your project.

If appropriate for your project, implementing automation and robotics to your projects will cut down on the need for human operators, saving you money on labor and reducing the time of your production. Automation and robotics are significantly more efficient and precise than humans, so they can also improve the repeatability and quality of your products.

Still Have Questions About Plastic Engineering? Trust Port Erie Plastics

When you partner with Port Erie for your plastic injection molding or structural foam molding project, we will pair you with one of our skilled plastic engineers. They will stick with you through the duration of your process, providing you with insight into your design, the plastics you have chosen, your manufacturing process, and more. Your plastic engineer will make sure your projects run smoothly from start to finish and address any issues that may arise quickly to keep your timeline tight.

We offer automated injection molding, custom injection molding, and structural foam molding processes to create the plastic parts and products you require. Our goal is to provide you with quality plastic products, and by utilizing plastic engineering, we can easily make this possible.

Contact us today to get started.

Plastics Fabrication Services: How We Make Sure Your Products Are Exactly as You Imagine

Plastics Fabrication Services: How We Make Sure Your Products Are Exactly as You Imagine

Plastics fabrication services ensure that your products are exactly as you imagine before heading to the end consumer. Various services can be performed after the production of your product to make this happen. From assembly and welding to drilling and fastening and more, plastic fabrication is an integral part of your part production.

In this blog, we will focus on the different types of plastic fabrication services and how they can benefit your projects in the long run.

Types of Plastics Fabrication Services

There are many types of plastics fabrication services out there, however, we are going to review some of the common services offered at Port Erie Plastics.

Assembly

One of the most common types of plastic fabrication services out there is assembly. This means your products will arrive to their final consumer fully put together so it is immediately ready for use. Assembly services include fab assembly, kitting, and bag pack-outs.

Adding Components

Fabrication services also include adding components. These components can be used to put products together or assist with functionality. At Port Erie Plastics, our team has the ability to add aluminum extrusions, screws, nuts, fasteners, Velcro strips, spindles, latches, springs, and rods.

Drilling, Welding, and Fastening

At Port Erie, we are able to join plastic products together in a variety of ways, including:

• Drilling: Our team can drill holes for fasteners to join plastic parts together and for other functional purposes.

• Welding: We have various welding capabilities to join your plastic parts together, including heat, ultrasonic welding, and adhesive welding.

• Heat Staking: This process utilizes pulsed heat to join two or more plastic parts together.

Secondary Operations

Other fabrication services include secondary operations. These processes include decorating, assembly, pad printing, heat transfer, hot stamping, packaging, distribution, and warehousing.

Benefits of Plastic Fabrication Services

Improve Aesthetics

Plastic fabrication services improve the look and feel of your products. These services ensure that your products have smooth edges, are assembled correctly, and are decorated exactly as you imagine.

Improve Tolerances

These services ensure that the tolerances of your products are met. From trimming down edges slightly to properly putting products together, and more, these services make it easy for your products to meet the requirements of their application and the industry.

Improve Safety

Fabrication services can also help improve the safety of your products. Whether you are improving the finishes of your products to make them smoother or adding textures to your products, you can make them easier to use or easier to grip, thus improving the safety of your product.

Want to Know More About Our Plastics Fabrication Services? Contact Port Erie Today

Since 1953, Port Erie Plastics has been a trusted manufacturer of plastic injection molded and structural foam molded products. While providing these manufacturing services, we also offer a wide range of fabrication services to ensure that your product meets the specifications of your industry.

After your products are finished, our team is also able to warehouse them for you until they are ready to be shipped. And, if you need assistance with distribution, our team is ready to help there as well.

Contact our team to see what we can do for you.

Manufacturing Structural Foam and Injection Molding Tooling: Controlling Quality From the Start

Manufacturing Structural Foam and Injection Molding Tooling: Controlling Quality From the Start

When you are choosing a plastic injection molding or structural foam molding partner, it is important to ensure they have in-house tooling capabilities. This allows your manufacturer to design and create your structural foam and injection molds, ensuring that they are exactly what your project needs and of the highest quality possible.

Continue reading to learn more about how you can benefit from in-house tooling and what the process looks like when you partner with Port Erie Plastics.

Why is In-House Tooling Better Than Outsourcing?

When your structural foam or injection molding tooling is made in-house, you don’t have to worry about the hassle or the cost of finding a different company to take on your tooling projects. This means you won’t have to worry about shipping your molds from one manufacturer to another, saving you money and reducing the lead times on your projects.

Additionally, our team has full control over the quality of your molds, allowing us to make any necessary adjustments before we start production. This saves you the time and money required to send molds back and forth to make adjustments before production. Plus, if there are any issues during production, our team can make the necessary changes and repairs to the molds in-house.

How Your Structural Foam and Injection Molding Tooling is Created

At Port Erie Plastics, each project is assigned a plastics engineer who will review your product design to ensure there are no concerns. This process includes a Design for Manufacturability review. During this process, the plastics engineer will review the design of your product and molds to ensure that the product can be efficiently manufactured via your chosen process.

Once the design review takes place, your molds can be manufactured in our in-house, full-service tool room. We have various capabilities that allow us to create the tooling you need, including CNC milling, grinding, turning, drilling, welding, and more. Some of the types of molds we create include:

• Single cavity
• Multi-cavity
• Structural foam molds
• Insert molds
• Over molds
• Hot runners

We also create our molds from P-20 tool steel, stainless steel, hardened steel, or aluminum, ensuring that your injection molding tooling will last for the duration of your project.

In addition to our mold manufacturing services, we also offer tooling transfer services. During this process, you will transfer your existing molds to our facility. Our team will inspect the tooling, identifying any potential problems with the design or any damage to the mold. We will use our in-house tooling capabilities to make the necessary repairs and changes. Then, our team will complete verification testing of the tooling to ensure it is up to our standards and ready for use in production.

When You Need Quality Structural Foam and Injection Molding Tooling, Partner with Port Erie Plastics

At Port Erie Plastics, our team is dedicated to creating high-quality injection molds and structural foam molds to ensure your plastic products are of the highest quality and meet all of your expectations.

In addition to our in-house tooling capabilities, we can also produce the products you need. We have both injection molding and structural foam molding manufacturing capabilities. This allows us to take on large-tonnage plastic projects with ease, as our structural foam molding capabilities are ideal for creating these larger products.

After production, our team has the ability to assemble, decorate, and fabricate your products. This includes drilling holes, welding inserts, pad print, heat transfer, and more. Then, you will have the option to warehouse your products with us and have our team assist with the distribution of your products if you so choose.

Contact our team today to learn more, or to get started.

Collaborative Robots for Plastic Production: How Automation Has Improved

Collaborative Robots for Plastic Production: How Automation Has Improved 

Automation has been making its way into nearly every industry over the last few years, and the plastic injection and structural foam molding industries are no different. The implementation of collaborative robots for plastic production has offered many benefits, including reduced error in production and more efficient production. Let’s explore what collaborative robots are and how they have improved many plastic production processes.

What are Collaborative Robots for Plastic Production?

Collaborative robots, also known as cobots, are industrial robots that safely operate alongside humans in a shared workspace. These robots use mobile technology, AI, machine vision, cognitive computing, and touch technology to perform various tasks safely in close proximity to human workers. They are equipped with software-controlled sensors that give them the ability to detect objects, people, and collisions.

What Do Collaborative Robots Do For Plastic Production?

Collaborative robots can do many things to ensure processes run smoothly and safely while reducing human error. Some common applications of collaborative robots for plastic production include:

• Loading and unloading polymers, materials, and parts
• Quality control by orienting parts and utilizing sensors to determine if there are any dimensional errors
• Assembling, sorting, and stacking, including welding to build assemblies and arranging parts for kitting or packaging
• Secondary processes such as decorating and labeling

Benefits of Collaborative Robots in Plastic Manufacturing Processes

Rapid Production

Automated machinery works faster and longer than human workers in many processes. This allows the machines to create more products in a shorter timeline, and they can work longer hours to meet demand faster than traditional manufacturing methods.

Reduced Costs

Utilizing automated processes reduces the risk of error in the production processes, including fewer mistakes, less warpage, and less damage. Additionally, automated robots can take the place of human employees, reducing the cost of labor, and manufacturers can pass these savings on to their customers.

Improved Sustainability

Since automated machines produce parts and products with fewer errors, there is no need to rerun production processes, reducing the amount of inaccurate or warped products. Additionally, with improved fabrication efficiency, less energy can be used during production. Overall, the process reduces the amount of waste produced and energy used during the manufacturing process.

If You Are Interested in Using Collaborative Robots for Plastic Production, Contact Port Erie Plastics

Since 1953, Port Erie Plastics has been providing high-quality structural foam molded and injection molded products to customers in a wide range of industries. Not only do we provide traditional manufacturing services, but we also offer automated injection molding services to streamline your manufacturing.

When you partner with us, our team will match you with one of our skilled plastics engineers to help ensure your products are properly designed for the manufacturing process you choose. We will then create your tools and molds with our in-house tooling capabilities and begin manufacturing your products.

Once your products are created, we offer secondary operations, including assembly, decorating, fabrication, welding, and more. Then, our team can warehouse your products for you based on your timeline and can even help with distribution.

Contact our team today to learn more about what we can do for your projects.

How Do You Mold Large Plastic Parts?: The Structural Foam Molding Process and Advantages

How Do You Mold Large Plastic Parts?: The Structural Foam Molding Process and Advantages

Large plastic parts and products are needed in many industries, including construction, consumer goods material handling, and more. Unfortunately, finding the right manufacturing processes to create large plastic parts can be difficult. Many times, creating these parts is expensive, and time-consuming, and you run the risk of having issues with deformities. So, how do you mold large plastic parts and products? One of the best ways is through structural foam molding. Continue on to learn more about the process and its advantages.

The Structural Foam Molding Process

The Manufacturing Process

The structural foam molding process begins with mixing a melted polymer with nitrogen gas and/or a chemical blowing agent. This mixture is then injected into the structural foam mold under low pressure. The polymer mix will touch the walls of the mold and cool, forming a product with a solid exterior and honeycomb interior. The result is a large, complex product with a durable exterior layer and a less dense inner layer, reducing its weight compared to its injection molded counterparts.

Plastics Used in the Structural Foam Molding Process

Polyethylene is the most common plastic used in the structural foam molding process. This polymer is resistant to chemicals and water, is recyclable, has a high strength-to-weight ratio, low moisture absorption, high impact strength, and is durable. However, polyethylene does have poor weather resistance, is flammable, and can be sensitive to stress cracking. Polyethylene is used to create chemical containers, pipe systems, gardening equipment, and more.

Benefits of Structural Foam Molding

Create Large Parts Easily

The low-pressure process requires less clamping force which allows you to create tooling and molds from more cost-effective materials, such as aluminum. This low-pressure process also leads to less damage, reducing the cost and time spent on rerunning projects.

Design Flexibility and Reduced Risk of Warpage

Again, the low-pressure process puts less stress on the product, so it doesn’t experience as much damage as parts that are produced through straight injection molding. This reduced risk of warpage allows you to create more complex molds that maintain the desired shape of the finished product.

Efficiency

Multiple structural foam molds can be run at the same time. The low-pressure process allows molds to run simultaneously without putting stress on the machines and the models, saving you time and money in your manufacturing process.

Desirable Physical Properties

Structural foam molded products have many desirable properties, including a high strength-to-weight ratio, good thermal stability, durability, chemical resistance, and more.

Structural Foam Molding Applications

Numerous industries use structural foam molding to create their products. Port Erie has been lucky enough to partner with many companies to manufacture the large tonnage plastic products they need, including HDPE trench drains, garden carts, lawn equipment, and pallets. Learn more about the products created through structural foam molding by viewing our blog.

Ready to Learn How You Mold Large Plastic Parts? Contact Port Erie Plastics

At Port Erie, we have been creating plastic products through structural foam molding and injection molding since 1953. Not only do we have the capabilities to create your products, but we take quality into account from the very start by offering in-house tooling and mold design. Plus, our team also assigns a skilled plastics engineer to each project to ensure your products are of the highest quality and designed for efficient manufacturing.

Contact our team today to learn more.