Equipment

Plastics Engineering has curated the top 5 articles on injection molding for 2024, highlighting groundbreaking advancements and industry trends.

The temperature that the polymer experiences upon entering the mold and during solidification directly affects several part properties, ranging from surface appearance to mechanical performance.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) offers significant opportunities for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). However, many SMEs face challenges, including limited resources, that slow AI adoption. This includes not only the plastics industry, but is a bottle neck across all fields.

The rotomolding industry is transforming technologically, enabling manufacturers to achieve higher precision, efficiency, and sustainability.

Reverse engineering (RE) in plastics processing has become an essential method for product reproduction, improvement, and optimization. It involves a thorough understanding of the design, manufacturing, assembly, and maintenance stages.

Energy consumption in injection molding can be reduced by paying attention to material selection and by closely watching different stages in process parametrization.

Denmark leads in environmental initiatives, including recycling Styrofoam (EPS). Widely used in packaging and insulation, expanded polystyrene presents significant challenges in waste management.

Artificial intelligence (AI) transforms the plastics industry through predictive maintenance, which uses data-driven insights to foresee equipment failures.

By leveraging the capabilities of Dielectric Analysis (DEA), manufacturers can achieve higher standards of quality and performance, leading to better products and increased market competitiveness.

To increase the amount of recycled content in plastic products, quality assurance of recyclates must improve. Some manufacturers attempt to characterize the PCR in-house, and DSC tools will be crucial.