Making Manufacturing Easier

Plastic Fabrication: Problems To Spot In Your Quality Control Department

2 June 2015 by Izak Wassing

Ensuring your plastic products are high quality means implementing quality control at the start of the production line. However, in many cases, even the strictest adherence to quality control during production can fall off kilter. Check out these problems you may find in your final plastic products and learn how to stop them from occurring again.

When The Trouble Is Not In The Design

In some cases, the plastic mold design is faulty, causing a repetitive issue in your final plastic products. Because of this type of production problem, it is always best to run a line of samples before heading into full swing production. Making a few defective products is less costly than making a couple of thousand of them. Testing plastic fabrication designs before putting them into production should be part of your production protocol.

Flange Defects Are Common In Injection Molding Processes

When hot plastic is poured into a mold, one drop or two too much can cause the molded part to have flange, pieces of plastic jutting off the edges of the seams. Hot plastic, when overflowed in a mold, will squeeze out when pressing takes place. When plastics parts that have too much flange, they will not fit together smoothly after cooling. If you are seeing a lot of flange in your production, discuss with your mechanics about adjusting mold filling. Doing so can help you avoid a lot of lost time remaking parts that are unusable due to flange. Adjusting the wall thickness of your plastic parts can also have a remarkable impact on lowering the occurrence of flange.

Getting Around Shrinkage And The Defects It Can Create

When hot plastic cools inside a mold, it shrinks some as it does so, causing the final product to pull away from the sides of the mold. If the temperature causes the plastic to cool too fast or too slow, you will see pock marks in your final products caused by too much shrinkage. Adjusting temperatures so that plastics will cool accordingly is a good idea. You can also compensate for shrinkage by increasing the packing pressure as well.

If Color Is Crucial To Your Final Products

The last thing you want for your solid colored parts is to have them come off the machine with swirls of color and white. You might also see parts that have two swirling colors when your mixing processes are not working correctly. Bear in mind that when mixing color pellets for injection molding, you will need to compensate for the addition of resin. If too little resin is added, you get swirls in your color because the color is not "sticking" together correctly during the hot liquid stage of your molding process. Ensuring color mixing is carried out properly is important to your production rate as well.

Learning more about how to start high quality part fabrication at the start of production is essential to you producing the plastic parts that are free of defects. If you need services for plastic fabrication in Mississauga, contact a professional company.

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