Injection molding equipment injects molten plastic into a mold and comes in different types such as vertical/horizontal presses, injection cylinders/screw presses, hydraulic/electric presses, and hot/cold runner molding systems. The type of equipment used depends on the application and the size of the parts being manufactured. The molds used can be hot or cold runners, and the primary characteristic needed for a given application determines how the machine is referenced.
Injection molding equipment, also called injection molding machines, injects molten plastic into a mold and then cools the plastic and pops out the newly made parts. The equipment itself is often identified as belonging to one or more different types. Types of injection molding equipment include vertical and horizontal presses, injection cylinders and injection screw presses, hydraulic and electric presses, and other presses rated by the amount of pressure they can apply to the molds. There are also hot and cold runner molding systems used with injection molding equipment.
Sometimes injection molding equipment is identified as horizontal or vertical. This identifies how the injection molding machine holds the mold in the machine. For a given application, this can be critical for a manufacturer. If your manufactured parts are large, gravity may be needed to help pull the part out of the machine. If the parts are small, it may be necessary to pull them out horizontally onto a table or other device to aid in manufacturing the parts.
The way the molten plastic is injected into the mold can also identify the type of molding equipment. Some types use a cylinder that collects molten plastic in a chamber, then pushes a piston down on the chamber to build pressure to inject the plastic into the mold. The other system involves a long, heated barrel that holds a screw. The plastic is inserted into one end and pushed down the barrel by the screw which melts the plastic as it progresses. The pressure needed to inject the plastic into the mold is not created by a cylinder, but by the pressure created by the screw.
Some injection molding equipment is identified by how the pressure is created to hold the different parts of the mold together. In hydraulic systems, a series of hydraulic cylinders move the mold pieces and create pressure to hold them in place while the plastic is injected. In other types of injection molding equipment, molds are moved and held together by a series of electric motors. Higher pressure mold systems tend to use hydraulics and lower pressure systems tend to use electricity; there is a large area of overlap where both may be suitable for a given application, however.
The molds used in injection molding can be of two general types: hot runners or cold runners. Guides are the passageways in the mold that the molten plastic travels through to reach the various chambers it must fill to create the part. If the molding equipment cools these runners, it is referred to as a cold runner system. If the runners are heated, the equipment is called a hot runner system.
When defining injection molding equipment by type in the plastics industry, the primary characteristic needed for a given application tends to determine how the machine is referenced. Those who use hot runner systems will often say they use a hot runner injection molding machine even if it is also horizontal and electric. Those who make large plastic parts may refer to their machines as verticals even though they also have hot runners and hydraulic systems. Because there are many types of injection molding equipment, each equipment is actually one of many different types and can be unique, depending on the combination of systems it has.
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