The mold consists of two primary components, the core side (fixed mold) and the cavity side (moving mold). Plastic material enters the mold through a sprue or gate in the injection mold; the sprue bushing is to seal tightly against the nozzle of the injection barrel of the molding machine and to allow molten plastic to flow from the barrel into the cavity. As the material cools, it will solidify into the shape of the cavity and become the desired part. When the mold is opened, the cavity side and the core side are separated to take out the plastic products.

A good mold should produce high-quality products, should help manufacturer to save time and cost to create higher efficiency, and should have long mold life, low damage rate.

The injection molding process requires the use of an ”injection molding machine”, ”raw plastic material”, and a ”mold”. The plastic is melted in the injection molding machine and then injected into the mold, where it cools and solidifies into the final part. The steps in this process are described in greater detail in the next section.

The reason why people use the hot runners more is that systems produce less wasted plastic (sprue), have shorter cycle times, use less energy, and require less manual labor for runner handling, trimming, and regrinding.

Taking your mold from good to great is as simple as testing it via Mold Flow Analysis (MFA). This software simulates your mold conditions before you open up your wallet to pay for tooling. The effect MFA has on the quality of the mold, the performance and appearance of your product makes it an indispensable component of any plastic injection molding design project.

Manufacturing a mold is not easy, there are many things to pay attention on, so you need to try to find a good mold supplier to make your money worth for this investment.