For injection molding, you can run a regular injection process or the two-shot injection process, depending on your design requirements, the mold, and the machine you have. Let’s dive deeper into the differences between regular plastic mold and two-color injection mold and find out about their key differences.
Characteristics of Regular Plastic Mold
Regular plastic mold will work well with the regular injection or plastic molding machine, as you just need to install the mold into the machine before using them. However, it only supports one-shot injection, meaning that you can only inject the materials into the mold once.
Here are the characteristics of regular plastic mold:
- Plastic molds come in different types. Do you want to produce pipes and hoses or other lengthy products? There’s a type of plastic mold you can use for this process. Do you want to build plastic products with a large size? There’s also a type of plastic mold you need to make for it.
- Suitable only for one-time injection molding process. Plastic molds are suitable only for one-shot injection molding processes, meaning that you can’t use the regular plastic molds for two-shot injection molding process or any other type of injection molding processes that require more than the one-shot injection.
- Suitable for various design complexities. Plastic molds are also suitable to use for various design complexities, including the design that has various complex geometries that are intricate and seem to be difficult to create. Plastic molds can accommodate intricate geometries in your design, and with the right molding technique, you can still create the plastic parts that will follow the design very well, without any problem in their dimensional accuracy.
- Compatible with the regular injection molding machine. Plastic molds can be used with the regular injection molding machine, and it will be compatible with the machine’s basic installation procedure. You can also integrate it with the machine’s configuration, so that you can set various settings for the plastic molds before starting the molding operation.
Characteristics of Two-Color Injection Mold
Because of the different function of two-color injection mold when compared to the regular plastic mold injection, the two-color mold has the characteristics that differ from the regular mold, such as more complexity, material compatibility requirements, different design guidelines, and so on.
Here are the characteristics of two-color injection mold:
- Using two different molds and combining them. The two-color injection mold will require you to create two different molds, which you will use as the first and second injection shot, and combine these molds together during installation. This is in contrast to the regular mold that will only require you to create a single mold for a single injection shot.
- You can also use the same mold with different injection points. Another type of two-shot injection mold is when you use only one primary mold with two injection points inside the mold. The injection points will act as a kind of partition for the mold, and you can use each partition for different injection shots inside the mold. Again, with this mold type, you will eventually need to combine the two injection shots later.
- It is used for the two-shot injection molding process. Unlike the regular plastic mold that only supports one-shot injection, the two-color injection mold will support two-shot injection or even multiple injection shots. The way you design the mold will also differ, as the two-color mold will have more design intricacies that will allow you to combine different injection shots to form a single plastic product.
- The use of the two-shot injection molding machine. Also, it’s worth mentioning that the two-color injection mold will only be suitable to use with the two-shot injection molding machine. Most of the time, you can’t use the regular injection machine for the two-color injection mold, as it doesn’t have the suitable installation support for this type of mold.
- Much more complex design guidelines. The guidelines to design the two-color injection mold will require you to consider various additional aspects, such as material compatibility, different melting points of the material, and so on. This is to ensure the best adhesion between the first and second injection shot.
- Combining different materials and colors in one product. Unlike a regular mold, the two-color mold will allow you to combine different materials and colors into a single product for various purposes, such as improving its functionality and aesthetics.
Key Differences between Regular Plastic Mold and Two-Color Injection Mold
- A regular plastic mold is suitable only for a single-shot injection, whereas the two-color mold is suitable for two or more injection shots.
- About the design complexity, the two-color mold has more complicated design guidelines when compared to the regular plastic mold.
- With two-color mold, you will need to take into account the different material compatibility factors to ensure that both the first and second injection shots can be combined into a single product without much hassle.
- What about the machine requirement? You can’t just use the regular injection machine for the two-color mold, as it is a different mold type that requires you to use the two-shot injection molding machine.
- Two-shot mold will also give you a more expensive injection molding cost, as it requires you to process two different injection shots for a single product.
Conclusion
To make matters as simple as possible, keep in mind that the purpose of the two-color injection mold is to produce plastic products with two different color variations to enhance its function and aesthetics. Meanwhile, a regular plastic mold can only use a single injection shot that has no color or material variations in it.
Also, you need to keep in mind that these two molds use different machines to process them, so you often can’t use these molds interchangeably with one machine only. At least you need to have a two-shot machine ready to process the two-color mold.
TEAM Rapid is an expert in various injection molding processes, and they offer various manufacturing services for businesses and brands who would like to work with them to complete their projects.