Plastic Manufacturing: How Companies Create Household Products

Recently, I've begun to research the plastic manufacturing industry. Upon first starting out, I honestly thought it was going to be pretty simple, but I was in for a surprise! There's actually a lot that goes into shaping some of the simplest things, like a coke bottle. Really, the process has been made much easier by experts trying to improve the field. Without the work of several individuals, the mass amounts of plastic production that incur today would never have made it. From discovering different varieties of plastics to reshaping the machinery needed for it, plastic manufacturing has truly come along a way. However, for us to get an accurate understanding of the manufacturing process, we first have to understand plastic itself.

Plastic is basically a large molecule composed of repeating structural units, also referred to as a polymer. Many manufacturers of plastic add a mixture of other compounds in order to reduce the cost and make the product better. This is often very productive. Depending on the manufacturer you go to, composition of plastic may vary, but never too drastically.

Plastic comes from the Greek word plastikos. Plastikos translates to "able to be shaped or molded." This applies to plastic because during its manufacturing, it is easily manipulated in order to fit the shape of various plastic products. When you begin to look at what kind of products are created and used by these manufacturers, you really begin to see its versatility. For instance, the thousands of different types of bottles, tubes, boxes, and plates that are produced by plastic companies every day.

There are really only two types of usable plastic. These include thermoplastics and thermosetting polymers. The main difference between these two types of plastics is that thermoplastic has gone through a chemical change to become what it is. Thermosetting polymers, however, have not been chemically changed, which means that once they've heated and solidified, they can not be reheated as is the case with thermoplastic.

There are many different categories in which you can place plastics, depending on what quality a manufacturer is most interested. For example, it's very likely that plastics are categorized by quality or physical property. These deal with aspects of plastic such as strength, temperature of transition, and density. There is also a good chance that plastics will be grouped by chemical structure: polyesters, halogenated plastics, acrylics, or polyurethanes.

You may not know this, but there are quite a few different types of plastics, some may seem familiar to you. After WWI, the pressure was on to create cheap and durable materials in order to mass produce. Thus, two new plastics were created, PVC (or polyvinyl chloride) and polystyrene. These plastics were manufactured by IG Farben from Germany, and they rose quickly in popularity. These plastics, especially PVC, continues to be a huge member of the plastic community (for things such as housing, plumbing, etc.).

These plastics only scratched the surface, for there was much work to improve over the next several years, and many continued the plastics race. A new contender entering the field was polyamide, or more commonly known as nylon. What shocked everyone so much about nylon was it's ability to stretch without being damaged. Soon after the second World War, demands for nylon climbed to a record high, with women's nylon stockings as one of the best selling products!

Plastics and Rubber Products have become a common feature in homes. For that matter even Industries have fallen hook, line and sinker for the two. Two major factors like credibility and versatility have been driving their demand. Considering the soaring demand for plastic and rubber products, we have come up with a common platform for all plastic and rubber manufacturers, suppliers, exporters and buyers, to trade with each other at the click of a mouse. A few years back, transactions used to take place ‘on –field’, with both parties sitting face-to-face, before closing the deal. Here, the major plus point is the transaction is taking place ‘on-line’ and you can strike a profitable deal right away. Sitting face-to-face can be done anytime.

Injection Molding: Helping Increase The Production Of Plastic

Many don't exactly find injection molding interesting, let alone even know about. However, I've made it my personal goal to, at the very least, get people to begin started on the road towards finding out how things are made! One can easily forget that what they just bought at the store was in fact made by the inventions of people over several years as well as by the hands of specialists and people with a variety of expertise. In fact, this is so often overlooked that it can be pretty fascinating to learn all the ins and outs of plastic extrusion. Man and machine working together in order to make it easier on the population. It's really a beautiful thing to watch and while researching and working alongside specialists in the industry, I've grown to actually respect them for their hard work and dedication. They're responsible for so many plastic products and byproducts that have been in use for years, and will be in use for years to come.

It's extremely important that you understand the molding process. But to start you off, I think it's smarter to just describe it as simply as possible. What polymer molding actually does is to heat and shape thermoplastic and thermosetting plastic in order to manipulate it into a finished product. This is done with the help of a number of people (engineers, moldmakers, and a number of other specialists).

To really appreciate everything that goes into injection molding, it's a good idea to track its beginnings. Throughout the 18th and 19th centuries, contributions to the plastic manufacturing industry have been enormous. It all started with the beginning of synthetic plastic. A man by the name of Alexander Parkes, an inventive thinker from Britain discovered a material which he named Parkesine.

Parkesine, as might be expected for what is essentially the first of its kind, had several faults. First of all, and really most importantly, Parkesine was highly flammable. This led to an incredible amount of risk for all those working on it. Moreover, the finished products were expensive, but flimsy, and were widely known to crack and break. Thankfully, In 1868, American John Wesley Hyatt improved Parkesine.

Hyatt titled his invention celluloid, and this plastic material could be molded cheaper, easier, and more durably. This invention really paved the way for the industry to start manipulating injection molded products. Four years after the making of celluloid, John and his brother Isaiah Hyatt worked together to create the prototype of the very first plastic extrusion machine. This machine was actually quite simple (in comparison with the other extrusion machines used today).

Following the introduction of Hyatt's polymer extrusion machine, the industry rapidly grew. Now that the process of plastic profile extrusion was really being set into play, new ideas and innovators were stepping up to the plate, ready to improve. Different versions of Hyatts' machines were made in order to produce different products, including collar clips, hair combs, and even buttons.

During the 1940's, a spike in the demand of plastic products. Companies were forced to turn out huge numbers of products, but too many simply couldn't keep up with the orders! So, in 1945, James Watson Hendry took it upon himself to create a bigger and better plastic manufacturing machine. This particular machine was the first of its kind to employ the use of a screw, and specialists found that they were able to better control the speed of the injection, which in turn greatly increased the quality of the final products.

It was also found out that since the screw was now mixing the molten plastic products, other things could be mixed in with it. By adding different dyes, all sorts of new colorful products could be made, expanding the industry exponentially. Even now, most injection molding machines use a type of screw injection molding. Hendry also worked for thirty more years and release an injection molding machine that applied the use of gas, hugely reducing the use of important resources.

Plastics and Rubber Products have become a common feature in homes. For that matter even Industries have fallen hook, line and sinker for the two. Two major factors like credibility and versatility have been driving their demand. Considering the soaring demand for plastic and rubber products, we have come up with a common platform for all plastic and rubber manufacturers, suppliers, exporters and buyers, to trade with each other at the click of a mouse. A few years back, transactions used to take place ‘on –field’, with both parties sitting face-to-face, before closing the deal. Here, the major plus point is the transaction is taking place ‘on-line’ and you can strike a profitable deal right away. Sitting face-to-face can be done anytime.

Plastic Contract Manufacturing

Plastic contract manufacturing is the process of manufacturing plastic products on a contract basis. There are many contract manufacturers of plastic products, rubber products and other specialty chemical products. They produce fabricated and extruded plastic products. The plastic fabrication facility of most of the plastic contract manufacturers include the latest Computerized Numerical Control (CNC) routers, mills and lathes for top quality machining of plastic parts and products. Plastic contract manufacturers handle plastic fabrication, CNC machining and CNC turning projects. They usually make plastic products from both natural and synthetic materials. Contract manufacturing of plastic provides plastic products of high abrasion resistance, high tensile strength, high tear strength and good oil resistance.

Plastic contract manufacturers usually make plastic products, components and assemblies at the lowest possible prices. They work together with their customers to determine the materials needed, time taken, design specifications, production developments and certifications required. Contract manufacturers of plastics come up with plastic products in any size, design or quantity, according to the needs of the customer. Most contract manufacturers have a full range of services for design engineering and manufacturing of plastic products.

Plastic contract manufacturing mainly focuses on the quality, repeatability and performance of plastic products. Some contract manufacturers specialize in producing the plastic components for high precision electronic and electrical products, consumer products, automobile products and parts. Many of them also manufacture the press components and precision components of other engineering plastics. Plastic contract manufacturers usually manufacture containers, jars, jigs and fixtures. Generally, contract manufactures use advanced technologies in injection blow molding and compression molding to produce high precision components for electronics and electrical plastics. The materials used in plastic contract manufacturing include low density polyethylene (LDPE), linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE), polypropylene (PP), polyethylene terephthalate (PET), polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and high density polyethylene (HDPE).

Injection molding is widely used for thermoplastics. This process avoids the hardening of plastic in the machine. Injection molding helps to produce more accurate moldings having better control on the material usage. Many contract manufacturers of plastic specialize in the manufacturing dies for injection molded products such as plastic compounds, fan regulators, fan regulator switches, electrical rotary switches, fuse boxes and other special purpose machine parts.