Plastic part design involves detailed plans that define the form and function of plastic components. Understanding how to design a plastic product in terms of material selection, adherence to standards, and other important details will help you balance eye-catching appearance with optimal performance.
When you partner with a plastic parts manufacturer, come ready to answer some critical questions for a successful collaboration. From production timelines to material selection, preparing to answer these questions will guide you to make the right choices, so you can achieve the optimal outcome for your plastic product design.
1. What Is the Part’s Intended Use?
A thorough understanding of the part’s intended use gives designers and engineers a better idea about how durable it needs to be. Describe the primary purpose of this part, along with specific functional requirements you have. Be sure to highlight both primary functions and secondary uses.
2. Will It Fit Onto a Bottle or Other Mating Device?
How will the plastic part integrate with other components? Answer this question by providing the device specifications like the shape, dimensions, and extra features that can impact the fit.
Other helpful information is the type of connection or interface you want the plastic part to fit onto. Describe connection points like locking mechanisms or threading. This level of detail gives the designer a better idea about allowances and tolerances they must consider to create a secure fit. The material of the plastic part must also be compatible with the material of the mating device to ensure proper functionality.
3. Do You Have the Specifications of All Other Mating Parts?
Information about more mating parts like bottles and other devices allows the manufacturer to consider your project’s broader context. It can improve the design process to ensure all-around compatibility. Provide the specifications like dimensions and tolerances of those parts. The more information you are able to provide, the more the designer will understand your needs and make recommendations on functionality and material selection.
4. What Is the Planned Material?
When the designer understands the plastic part’s functionality, they can better advise on the best material to use. Mention these variables to help determine the material for the plastic part:
- Functionality: Discuss the functional requirements, like having specific mechanical properties and the ability to withstand certain temperatures or chemical resistance.
- Aesthetics: Specify color requirements and surface finishing if the part’s appearance is essential, as certain plastics offer a more comprehensive range of aesthetic options.
- Regulatory Compliance: The material selection must align with regulatory compliance, especially for the pharmaceutical and food industries.
5. How Important Is Sustainability for the Use of This Part?
If sustainability is important to the overall packaging or this specific part, mention it from the start to ensure you select a material with eco-friendly characteristics. Sustainability extends to various processes outside of material selection. These include:
- End-of-Life Consideration: Consider materials that align with environmentally friendly disposal practices like recyclability. If this is an essential factor, you must pick a material that is widely accepted in recycling programs.
- Energy Efficiency: Some manufacturing processes are more energy efficient, having a lower environmental impact than others.
- Lifecycle Impact: The part’s longevity influences your material choices.Discuss its lifecycle, including whether it is a single-use item or should have the ability to withstand many uses.
6. What Are the Must-Have Features for This Part?
Plastic product design relies on structural integrity. Discuss the geometry of the part you require as a critical feature of the design:
- Aesthetics: Highlight the importance of the part’s appearance and how its construction should contribute to a visually appealing, cohesive design.
- Ergonomics: If users will interact with the plastic part, ensure the design prioritizes ergonomics for better user comfort and functionality.
- Manufacturability: Ensure the design is compatible with the manufacturing process to lower complexities for more efficient production. Draft angle and undercuts can all facilitate the plastic part’s molding.
7. Will It Require a Hermetic Seal?
Does the part need a seal that will serve as a contact-only seal or a seal that will make it airtight? A hermetic seal prevents air, gases, contaminants, or oxygen from getting into the container. Semiconductor electronics, optical devices, switches, and thermostats often use these seals to ensure proper functioning. This sealing can align with epoxy resins, metals, ceramics, glass, and plastics.
8. How Many Units Do You Need?
Estimate how many units you will need ahead of time. Start with a conservative estimate for new products, and scale up according to the market response. Take production capacity, lead time, and economic order quantity (EOQ) into account. EOQ principles will help to determine the optimal order quantity, lowering inventory holding and ordering costs.
9. Who Will Receive the Part?
Will you receive the part or will a contract filler receive the part? Clarify who will receive the part, which will impact the packaging, labeling, and potential presentation. If the part ships to a contract filler where it will assemble into a larger product, share this information to help the manufacturer understand integration requirements. Additionally, manufacturers may need to account for extra protection during transportation if the part ships to a third party.
10. How Quickly Do You Need the Part?
How soon do you need the completed part? Providing this information to your manufacturing partner gives them a clear understanding of your time requirements, allowing them to assess the feasibility of meeting that timeframe. Consider these factors:
- Your Project Timeline: Share your timeline with the manufacturer and point out critical milestones that may affect the deadline. Remember that design revisions may impact this schedule, too.
- Prototype Needs: If you need a prototype, discuss the timeframe for these iterations and how it fits into the overall project schedule.
- Shipping and Distribution: Needing to ship products to different locations will add to your project timeline.
Partner With The Plastek Group for Plastic Parts Manufacturing
Navigating the process of designing a plastic part requires a thoughtful approach to some critical questions. Clear communication is vital to the success of your plastic part manufacturing journey, helping ensure you receive parts that align with your project requirements and vision.
Molding the future since 1956, Plastek is a leader in plastic parts and packing manufacturing, with experience supplying numerous markets. We offer quality products and exceptional service. Contact our knowledgeable team to help you design and create the plastic parts that will best meet your application. Request a quote for your specific project needs or call us at 814.878.4400.
(Updated July 2021)
When choosing an injection molder to manufacture custom plastic devices for the medical, pharmaceutical, and military sectors or others, consider these key factors when choosing the right company.
Of course, you will want to understand their injection molding capabilities to ensure they can create a mold for the product properties and characteristics you desire - keeping in mind that the proper injection molder will be well-positioned to grow with you as your demand and product line increases. You will also want to ask about their mold turnaround timeline to ensure they meet your schedule requirements – bearing in mind that a quick and cheap mold is frequently not a high-quality mold!
But you will want to dig deeper than just determining their capabilities and turnaround timeline. You need to have a firm understanding of their quality program and the extent of support they offer throughout your project – these are the areas where excellent injection molders stand out from their competition.
1. What Quality Management System/Quality Standards does the Injection Molder Follow?
It is critically important to confirm that there is a robust Quality Control system in place. The quality system shows the company monitors the effectiveness of their supply chain and demonstrates traceability related to regulations of materials and finished goods. Correct documentation, data monitoring, and storage are critical to any quality injection molding manufacturing process.
Ask your injection molder what quality management certifications they have to determine if their certificates meet your requirements. For instance, FDA registration or ISO 13485 are common requirements for medical devices and components, while ITAR is standard for many military applications. In addition, trusted and unbiased auditing companies perform quality certification assessments, allowing a more “apples to apples” comparison of the injection molding partners you are considering.
If these systems are in place, they require a certain amount of documentation, assessing and minimizing of risks, as well as product realization. These quality certifications also show that this injection molder takes their business seriously, which means they have higher-than-average quality standards.
2. Can They Support your Entire Product Life Cycle for your Plastic Component or Device?
Can they offer you a single source for procurement? A single-source injection molder requires providing services from the design phase through production and then shipping it out the door from the factory. An integrated design and production team can provide sustaining engineering capabilities to better address improvements and changes to the product as feedback returns from the field for proper device operation. Additionally, working with a single-source manufacturer, any changes can be made, reviewed, and implemented within a short time frame – saving you time and money!
Regarding design, will they provide design and development services either as your design team - or enhance your in-house staff? Do they offer insight and recommendations based on their own experience and knowledge of industry best practices – applying this information to a design for manufacturability analysis of your project? When designing new projects, your molder should always assess manufacturing variables that affect the component quality and manufacturability, like wall thickness, draft, and surface finish.
Regarding tooling, do they offer in-house tooling services? Utilizing an injection molding partner with in-house tooling capabilities, including the use of the latest EDM machine tooling technology, has many benefits and can save time and money. Be sure to understand where the tooling is manufactured. Some companies only broker deals between you and an overseas mold fabricator – and there are often significant differences in molds created in the US versus overseas.
Does the injection molder have the ability to handle the fluctuations in demands starting at the prototype level and scaling up to high-volume production? Also, do they offer value-add services such as assembly, packaging, pad printing, and other secondary operations to complete your project, saving you time, resources and money? These secondary operations also streamline your production schedule and efficiency.
Your injection molder should provide inventory management solutions for your project, such as Kanban shipping, Just-in-Time Approach, and Blanket Orders.
3. What Project Support Will I Receive Once I've Selected my Injection Molder?
Does the injection molder have a Project Management Office comprised of a group of professionals who focus on defining the scope and maintaining the standards you have set for your project from the design phase through to production?
The PMO follows every project-related task from start to finish and keeps decisions and implementation moving toward the project goal. PMO is also responsible for all communications about the project to the customer, as well as internally.
Does your injection molder provide mold maintenance programs because all injection molds require maintenance at some point to continue to function correctly? Regular maintenance and cleaning of your injection mold are necessary to maintain part quality, consistency, and cycle time. Maintenance mandates a routine inspection and scheduled program that keeps molds in top condition while detecting problems early. On-site tooling maintenance is a must if you wish to protect your investment and keep your injection mold running.
Will you receive customer service support; this provides you support and feedback to demonstrating value, better collaboration, and more proactive responses from your injection molder.
Crescent Industries is an employee-owned injection molding company that has been setting the standards for quality and production for over 75 years. We are an injection molding partner with a broad scope of experience and industry-leading knowledge providing support through the entire life cycle of your project.
For additional information, please click below to get our white paper "Tips to Assist You in Selecting an Injection Molding Partner".