What’s The Difference Between Moldability and Manufacturability?
Though subtle, the differences between moldability and manufacturability can have an impact when designing parts for the plastic injection molding process. In this post we will explain the differences and provide resources for following injection molding best practices.
What is Moldability?
Moldability refers to how well the mold of your part will conform to being injected with molten plastic. Once your mold has been created from your design, a good injection molding process needs to account for how well plastic can fill that mold cavity. From material selection to mold complexity, there are many factors that will determine whether the part you designed is capable of accepting this process. Certain features in your part design like undercuts and threading, can be tricky to mold correctly and consistently. These can cause problems like knit lines, warp and flash.
At Xcentric, we’ve built our Proprietary Process Engine specifically to minimize or remove these concerns entirely. If your design is truly moldable, we will be able to mold it consistently and accurately.
What is Manufacturability?
Manufacturability refers to whether or not the mold itself can actually be created based on the geometry of your part. The complexity of your design can cause some real headaches for injection molding manufacturers. As a result, you will be told that your design is not manufacturable and you’ll be asked to remove features to make it manufacturable…for them. After all, how would you know if it really was or wasn’t?
If you’ve ever experienced this, the only way to know for sure is to get a second opinion. Request a quote and upload your design to our quote engine and you’ll receive an interactive quote and a free manufacturability analysis within hours. By thinking outside the box, our experienced sales engineers will review your file and figure out the best, most cost-effective way to manufacture it.
Our Advanced Mold Making System ensures that if it can be injection molded, we can mold it…within 1 to 15 days.
If you’ve been no-quoted, forced to change your design or want to make sure your design can truly be manufactured, upload it to our quote engine and get a definitive answer.
- Internal and External Threads? No problem.
- Undercuts or Side Actions? As many as you need.
- Tight Tolerances? Easy.
- Overmolding? Simple.
- Insert Molding? Nothing to it.
Now imagine what we can do with your less complex projects. Get a Quote
Download: Smart Guide for Designing for Manufacturability
Download the DFM ebook to learn best practices for designing your plastic components for the injection molding process.