Hello Texas!,
In an effort to get the public informed about my favorite material, you guessed it! Plastic! I love to study it, read about it and learn new ways to stay on top of my game on the tooling side of things and molding side as well. Please take a second out of your day to read the short paragraph below. We’ve come so far in this industry from the very first crudely injected billiard ball to all the wonderful things that are injection molded today that make our lives easier and enjoyable. Look at your surroundings and I think you’ll be surprised at all of the items used in your day to day life that came from an injection mold. After all injection molded parts are the dominant method used today for manufacture.
History of Plastic Injection Moulding
The injection mold manufacturing solution has seen steady growth since its beginnings in the late 1800’s. The technique has evolved from the production of combs and buttons to major consumer, industrial, medical, and aerospace products.
In 1868, perhaps in response to a request by billiard ball maker Phelan and Collander, John Wesley Hyatt invented a way to make billiard balls by injecting celluloid into a mold. By 1872, John and his brother Isaiah Hyatt patented the injection molding machine. The machine was primitive yet it was quite suitable for their purposes. It contained a basic plunger to inject the plastic into a mold through a heated cylinder.
Revolutionizing the plastics industry in 1946, James Hendry built the first screw injection molding machine with an auger design to replace Hyatt’s plunger. The auger is placed inside the cylinder and mixes the injection material before pushing forward and injecting the material into the mold. Today, almost all injection molding machines use this same technique.
So, you see this manufacturing solution has come a long, long way since it’s inception so long ago. If you have an injection mold question or any other questions feel free to give us a call @281-639-4729 we’d love to hear from you to discuss your plastic product. Take care!
Peace, love, and Plastic !