Design for Moldability Toolkit
Get in-depth design advice to optimize your plastic parts for injection molding. Designing with moldability in mind can accelerate production time and reduce production costs
Optimizing Part Design for Molding
There are many design elements involved when creating plastic parts for injection molding—design for cost, design for quality, design for assembly, design for manufacturability. And navigating that landscape can be challenging at times. At Protolabs, we provide automated design analysis on CAD models that highlights features in your part design that can be adjusted for moldability. It’s a great design resource to have at your fingertips. To keep those moldability advisories at a minimum and optimize your part design, we created this helpful kit of different injection molding resources.
Designing Complex Features for Molded Parts
→ Undercuts
→ Bump-offs
→ Side-actions
→ Shut-offs
→ Core and Cavity
→ Wall Thickness
Navigating Critical Molding Advisories
→ Insufficient Draft
→ Gate and Ejector Pin Layout
→ Radii Added
→ Non-metal Safe Changes
Designing for Moldability
See how designing with moldability in mind can help you avoid manufacturing advisories in quoting, save you development time, and reduce production costs.
A Beginner's Guide to Injection Molding
Whether you’re new to the injection-molding process or a veteran of manufacturing, Designing for Moldability is a quick reference guide to wall thicknesses, surface finishes, tolerances, materials, and other thermoplastic molding insights. It’s a thorough look at injection molding that might just provide a few tips to help you make better parts.
Designing Complex Features for Molded Parts
Undercuts
Undercuts are features like clips or thru-holes that can’t be milled in a standard vertical (Z-axis) milling setup and would otherwise prevent ejection from the mold. Learn about designing for cams and inserts to accommodate undercuts in your part.
Bump-offs
Bump-offs are small undercuts in a part that can be formed and safely ejected from a mold without the need for side-action cams. Learn about the types of features and geometries that are good fits for bump-offs.
Side-actions
Side-actions, also referred to as side-pulls and cams, are mechanical components in the mold that are used to form undercut geometry. Side-actions are pin-actuated and move based on the opening and closing of a mold. Learn about how to use side-actions to accommodate undercuts here.
Shut-offs
A shut-off refers to any two faces in a mold that come together when a mold closes to “shut-off” or divert the flow of material inside of the mold cavity. Some shut-offs, referred to as sliding shut-offs or pass-thru cores, are used to form undercut geometry. Learn how to incorporate shut-offs to form undercuts here.
Core and Cavity
In an injection molding press, one half of the mold (the A-side) is attached and fixed, while the other half of the mold (the B-side) is attached to the moving clamp that opens and closes the mold. Learn how to choose proper core and cavity placement here.
Wall Thickness
Wall thickness is a prime consideration in the molding process to ensure dimensional stability and consistency while a part cools and hardens. If walls are too thin, it might weaken the part and prevent filling. If walls are too thick, it might cause the part to warp or sink. Learn how to incorporate consistent wall thickness here.
Navigating Critical Molding Advisories
Tour Our Injection Molding Facility
Want a peek behind the curtain of our injection molding process? Take a virtual tour. We offer a fully digitized injection molding process to bring you cost-efficient parts fast. From design upload to quoting, from part production to shipping, it’s injection molding tailored to fit your needs, every step of the way.
Get an online quote and injection molding design analysis today.