Plastic injection molding is the process used to create the plastic parts that are used in most of the products you use every day. Plastics are used in a wide range of applications, from simple buttons to complex implantable medical devices visible under x-ray and everything in between. This is why plastic resin manufacturers offer over 60,000 grades of plastic. Plastics are well suited for manufacturing due to their relatively low cost per part, part consistency, and ability to fabricate large numbers of parts quickly. The basic principle of injection molding hasn’t changed substantially since it was first patented in 1872. Over the last 150 years, innovations have involved the addition of electronic control and automation of the molding process. Plastic injection molding consists of two essential parts: an injection unit and a clamping unit. The injection unit is where the plastic resin is added to the machine, and heat is applied to change the plastic resin to a flowable liquid state. The clamping unit contains the mold. The mold is a machined assembly that contains the part detail to be molded. Once the mold is split into two sections, it allows the clamping unit to open and close the mold as needed. In order to mold a part, the clamping unit closes the mold, and the injection unit pushes the liquid plastic into the mold. The plastic quickly cools. The clamping unit opens the mold, and the part is ejected. The process then repeats.