一,The major goal of the sampling stage:
Check the design of the product
When products are at the 3D modelling stage, they are generally only ideas. After actual injection moulding, there may be problems like dimensional deviations, structural flaws, or problems with assembly.
Check the qualities of the material
Plastic items may need to be able to handle things like heat, impact, and chemicals that can break them down.
Sampling lets you check the performance of the chosen materials in the actual product form to make sure it satisfies the standards.
Check how well it works and how it looks
For consumer electronics, home appliances, or packaging, how things seem, feel, and how smooth the surface is are quite significant.
Sampling can help you figure out if the product's colour, texture, and general look fit your design needs.
Testing the technologies for processing and assembly
The sampling stage can tell if the parts are straightforward to put together, if the interfaces make sense, and if the threads are smooth.
This can improve the design before mass production, which will lower costs and the chance of having to redo work.
二,What kinds of sampling are there
Additive manufacturing, often known as 3D printing
You can quickly print models of products with materials like PLA, ABS, nylon, and others.
Pros: It's cheap, rapid, and you can immediately check the look and structure.
Disadvantages: The properties of the material are very different from those of the final injection material, and the dimensional accuracy is limited, so injection mould sampling can't be entirely replaced.
Handboard (made by hand or with a silicone mould)
Use silicone moulds or small prototype machines to make a few samples at a time.
Pros: It can make a few working prototypes at a lesser cost, which is great for testing assembly or touch.
Disadvantages: Not very durable, not very accurate, and can't do large-scale testing.
Injection moulding with quick moulds (trial moulds)
To make the sample, use a fast aluminium or soft steel mould and manufacture a small amount of injection mould.
Advantages: The product's size and material qualities are similar to those of mass manufacturing, and it can be utilised for functional and assembly testing.
Disadvantages: The mould doesn't last long (typically only a few hundred to a few thousand times), and it costs more than a prototype but less than a formal mould.
Injection mould that is formal
We utilise formal production-grade steel (such P20 and H13) to mould and make samples for mass production.
Pros: It is very near to the effect of mass manufacturing, and it is the most accurate way to check accuracy, materials, and appearance.
Disadvantages: The cost of the mould is high, the development cycle is protracted, and the pressure to invest a lot of money for the first sample is considerable.
三, Pros and cons of opening a formal mould during the sampling stage advantage
Injection Mould can really show how accurate a product is and what the material is like, making it easier to assess its function, strength, durability, and look.
Lower the chance of having to do more work later
The flaws found by formal mould sampling are most like what happens in mass production, and they can be fixed during the small-scale trial production stage, which lowers the risk of mass production.
Customers or the market can easily check it out
High-quality samples can be utilised for display, marketing, or customer reviews to build trust in the product.
lack
very expensive
Formal moulds usually cost tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of yuan to make, which makes it hard to pay for the initial design verification.
lengthy time to develop
It can take anywhere from a few weeks to a few months to develop, process, and debug the formal Injection Mould which makes it hard to iterate quickly.
Not very flexible
Once design problems are found, changing the formal mould costs a lot of money and takes a long time, thus it's not good for the design phase when things change often.
四,When do you need to open a formal injection mould?
It is not necessary to have a formal Injection Mould for sampling, but it is necessary to have one in the following cases:
A complicated product structure and very precise specifications
Products that need to be very precise in terms of size and fit, including precision parts, mechanical housings, or consumer electronics housings.
Important features of the material
The product needs to be made of certain sorts of engineering plastics, and regular prototypes or 3D printing can't completely show the material's qualities, like how well it can handle high temperatures, impacts, and wear.
