Hey I'm currently looking for chinese manufacturers on alibaba to produce a product I designed. Should I have them all sign an NNN agreement before sharing my product and files, to protect it from being stolen, shared, produced without my permission, etc. Or am I being too on edge and the chance of that happening is low? Also with the new tariffs war, do you still recommened I source from china?

Hi people,

I’ve been working on a software to help with the preliminary issues that come around setting up moulds to get good quality parts. I have the base code sorted but was wondering if anyone has input into whether they might find this useful.

So far the calculator can take raw input data (such as machine spec, mould specs and material) and give a base profile to get good-ish parts from the get go. My vision is for this to get the parts around 80% of the way from the get go, hopefully reducing the time taken to process (either virtual or physical). Please let me know if this is a poor idea or if there is any specific output information you think would be useful.

Also, the site has a troubleshooting guide to hopefully help get the parts closer to final form.

I keep getting this error message when I zero out the nozzle. Anyone with experience with this?

Dear community,

I need some support in the field of marketing for IMM servise. We are small, just recently founded company in centre of Europe, that is using high-performance polymers and producing ultra-clean parts for European semiconductor industry. Our question would be: how to you reach our your customers? What there any tips nad tricks?

Think we might have

G'day Guys! I'm having trouble making my marriage work!

My plan is to have a tool made in China and exported to the US for the production of the actual parts. 

I would prefer to have a US company provide input into the mold design and tooling to ensure everything goes smoothly; however, all the US companies I have had quotes from are using in-house or are adding massive mark-ups with tooling costs coming back at $100,000 USD [+.]()
When I try to approach it from the Chinese side, I can get quotes of around $20,000 USD for the mold tooling but they do not have US contacts to liaise with for design input/producing.

I understand I want my cake and to eat it too, but given the current trade climate, this seems like the only viable option (if I can make it work).

Seeking any advice or contacts that may be willing to look at the project or point me to those who might.

Thanks in advance!

My friend has an injection molding factory in China specialized in plastic molding, due to the slowdown of the Chinese economy as well as oversupply of these machines, the utilization rate for these machines （they have a dozen of these for different sizes and capabilities） are only about 30% this year and they are having a hard time keeping their business running.

They are thinking of renting their machines out to anyone who needs it. The actual manufacturing takes place in their factory. You can buy your own material supplies or using theirs. You pay for the rent of the machine used as well as electricities etc. You can also hire your own people to supervise the work or use their own workers. If you have your 3D sample ready, they can take a look and provide you with a quote. They have been in business for 10 years and have all the certificates required for exporting.

Let me know if anyone is interested or have any questions!

Hi all! I am doing a second round interview for a metal and plastic injection molding company for a marketing position next week and I am meeting with their lead engineers this time. I am very new to this industry and admittedly very green and do not have much knowledge. Their largest applications are in firearms and aerospace. I have been asked to familiarize myself with injection molding, as I'll be meeting with the technical guys and want to impress them with my research. A few questions.

1. What are some resources I can utilize to familiarize myself with MIM and PIM?

2. What are some insightful questions I could come prepared with, that show my understanding of these applications? I am not expected to be an expert by any means, as it is a marketing position, but help in getting a leg up would be much appreciated.

Thank you!

Hey, Humans.

I got this two part aluminum mould made to make guitars and I've had a few attempts at this. My attempts aren't great, but they're nearly there. This isn't exactly injection moulding, but I'm heating the super heavy aluminum mould in the oven and pressing it together. I know I'm putting too much plastic into it, and that's a big problem, but the problem I'm trying to solve is getting this out without chipping away at my mould. I got the previous one out, but with slight damage to the mould. Any tips would be awesome.

Hi folks, I just got fired from one of the big procurement firm for AI stuff. RIP. Anyway one of my contact is asking for a shitload of LDPE 2426H from ExxonMobil. I'm trying to find appropriately large distributor for this, beside the usual suspect due to incoming tariff, but had no luck so far. Please help the recently fired me, thank you.

Has anyone here tried importing a mould from China? If yes, what are the companies you recommend?

Hi everybody,

I can’t (and never have been able to) get past this “drive1 STOP” check. My understanding is that I go through and check each safety door rear guard, injection guard, guard door, safety bar on power up to ensure everything is working properly.

The problem is I can’t figure out how to perform this “check” for drive1 stop. I’ve tried the red e stop button, but there is no change. I’ve checked all the fuses/breakers and everything looks good. I’ve also tried pressing the motor start/stop.

Is there something I’m missing? Broken e stop?

2001 Battenfeld ba250/50 cdc, unilog b4.

I got a used yuh-dak vertical IM machine. I was told by a IM repair man that I needed an oil chiller. I asked the people I bought it from and they told me it was running without one. I don't know what an oil chiller even is for (besides the obvious). If I need one, where do I get one? Which one do i need?

I don't even know what this is...

We recently got a 550 ton Roboshot. I really like this machine, but… We have molds that we want to run that were too thin, so we had parallel bars made. The machine will successfully adjust the die height (automatic) at 200 tons, but i really need 500 to run the part, and I get a system error when I try. Where can I change this sensitivity?

I am from the commerce background. I would like to learn catia. Any guidance as to how to start and what resources to use will be very helpful.

I would like to hear everyone's opinion on newly imposed tariffs. As a distributor of global colorant and additive supplier, I can most definitely say that tariffs will increase the prices of colorants and additives by %30-40 in the following weeks. Nearly all the pigments for colorants are sourced from either India, China, Vietnam. As well as European Union for higher end colorants/applications. I do fully expect a enormous price hike regardless of your material supplier. Tariffs would increase our competitive edge, however I believe this is a rare case.

From the injection molder's perspective, how do you expect the industry to be affected?

Can I use spring shut off nozzle for glass filled nylon resin?

What are everyone’s thoughts on a potential ban on PVC? Specifically in Europe and the United States. It’s hard to gauge how serious this movement really is. I saw an article saying that the EPA’s process on a potential ban in the US would take at least eight years (article from Feb 2024). In Europe it seems more likely to happen since they are typically more aggressive in banning stuff like this.

The company I work for molds a lot of parts from PVC and is currently investing in new ultrasonic welding equipment for PVC parts. Are we going the wrong direction?

What do you guys think?

What material(s) make you wanna run screaming when they pop up on the schedule?

For me it's PC/ABS with blowing agent. Also have a tool that runs PA66 with blowing agent. Both drool uncontrollably, degrade in an instant and stink.

Runner up, new-ish stuff we run for an all weather casing is nylon 6 with rubber and a UV protectant additive. Evil material, rubber degrades in minutes after shot build, will stain steel if there is excess atmosphere available to the molten material, degrades in manifold in less than 5 mins.

Does anyone know what the purpose of a QSO nozzle?

What I found online is that it helps to prevent drooling and stringing. I can’t find much information beyond that and I was wondering if they had any other functionality.

We have some of them sitting on the shelf in maintenance and am considering installing one to try it out.

Hey, I’m exploring and learning injection molded part and mold design further. When I come across design challenges I tend to look up examples from existing products. So I started a small collection of my own that has interesting parts from objects i disassembled. I’m curious if there is an online library for something similar? For example i wanted look up ip 68 rated products but didn’t manage to find much other than a few repair and teardown videos that show a few frames of the parts. But even then dimensions, materials, thicknesses are information i cannot reach.

Would appreciate any insights. Thanks!

Does anyone own a Computrac VaporPro XL Moisture analyzer that has found a workaround to the annual factory calibration required in the software? We do our own calibration on it to verify the results every week but there is also a required annual factory calibration built into the software that is password protected. I'm convinced that their calibration process is no different than our weekly calibration routine. Sending the unit out to the factory for annual calibration costs an arm and a leg considering we have to get a loaner unit for a few months while it's out and the manufacturer Brookfield-Ametek has not been fun to work with for anything besides purchasing the unit and accessories.

Hi,

I'm moulding some high performance engineering polymers. Wanted suggestions of some troubleshooting guides which can be referred for issues during moulding.

Thanks!