In general, TPE double material injection molding in the product design can produce the following functions:
Makes the surface of the product feel soft and comfortable;
Make the product non-slip function;
Improve product impact resistance
Add value added to old products and increase product levels.
1. Multiple Material Molding
Multiple Material Molding (Multiple Material Molding) is a multi-material co-moulding machine (commonly known as two-color machine) processing, two-color machine is generally divided into two different designs, such as the right-angle shooting table arrangement and balanced shooting table arrangement.
The right-angle two-color machine can be used with many kinds of two-color mold operation methods, such as: turntable type, supporting core rotation, core sinking, valve separation, core sliding, etc. Two (or more) plastics are injected into different cavity at the same time. To achieve multi-color or multi-material effect.
Its advantages are briefly as follows:
The production cycle is short and the yield is higher than the traditional method;
The product quality is relatively stable, and the reject rate is low;
Stronger material bonding force and fewer joints;
Can produce more complex design of dual-material products.
2. Insert Molding
Insert molding is also called a two-step process. It uses a general horizontal or vertical injection molding machine for processing. This method requires the use of two sets of molds and two injection molding machines to fix the prefabricated hard plastic parts in the form of inserts. In the cavity of the second set of molds, TPE is injected into the hard plastic parts to achieve multi-color and multi-material effects.
In the application of dual material and plastic molding, different products will use different rigid plastics, such as brush will use PP material, and home appliances will use ABS, PC or PA (nylon) material.
Since the characteristics of TPE are different for each specification or type, a single TPE cannot have a good bonding ability with each rigid plastic. Therefore, it is necessary to cooperate in the cooperation of soft materials and different hard materials. Different specifications of TPE, in order to achieve the best fit effect.
What material can be molded with TPE?
Polyolefins PP, PE;
ABS, PC, ABS/PC;
Nylon PA66, PA+GF;
SAN, PS, HIPS, PMMA.