Injection molding is a robust process that has stood the test of time. Manufacturers who leverage injection molding know that the way to get the most out of the process is to build the right molds.
Design and engineering teams in some companies tend to break down their product into several parts – often unnecessarily – just to ensure that the mold making process is simplified. However, the reality is that the greater the number of parts in a product, the greater the number of fasteners it requires to hold everything in place, making the final product more vulnerable in the hands of the end-user.
A greater number of parts also implies longer assembly time, more effort, higher chances of human error, more logistics costs, and so on. Truth be told, the push towards simpler parts has been driven by mold makers who’ve shied away from enabling their customers’ need for intricate detailing to build complicated features into molds.
Make no mistake: Complicated molds are hard to build and often cost much more than the many simpler molds they replace. And although a mold sometimes produces as few as 50 parts, it can commonly make up to a million parts over its lifetime – and that’s when real savings materialize.
One of our sister companies is Tersano. One of the company’s flagship products needs a cartridge that is produced using injection molding. Initially, the cartridge was designed in such a way that it required six different parts on six different molds.
With Advantage Engineer’s philosophy in mind, we re-engineered those parts and molds and ended-up with a two-part system for the cartridges. This effort not only resulted in a product that was structurally stronger but also made the assembly simpler and more efficient, reduced logistical complexities, and resulted in lower costs long-term.
What we achieved at Tersano is easy to replicate in any industry. We primarily work with leading players in the automotive, aerospace, consumer goods, and medical devices industries, and in each space, we advise our clients to craft molds that are fit for purpose and support their original design specifications in the best possible way.
Simplification isn’t a requirement at Advantage Engineering. We know it doesn’t yield the best results for the customer, which is why we don’t insist on it. Instead, we focus on working with customers to create complicated molds – molds that challenge our team and force them to think outside the box – because that’s where we add the most value as a manufacturing partner with a consulting-first mindset.
If you’re grappling with design or production issues related to your mold, I think it’ll be worth your time to adopt an approach where you challenge the mold makers rather than get into breaking down and simplifying the parts of your product. Ultimately, we all need to do what’s best for our customers, let’s not lose sight of that.
