The automotive industry accounts for a large portion of any custom plastic injection molding manufacturer’s operations. Exterior vehicle trim parts, handles, bumpers, side mirror covers, interior class A parts, and visual and functional assemblies are just a few examples of parts that rely on injection molding.
And the difference the right custom plastic injection molding manufacturer can make for these components matters. But what makes the right manufacturer, right? Agape Plastics explores the topic by highlighting pre-manufacturing capabilities and quality management systems.
DFM Avoids Costly Problems
One of the largest differences the right custom plastic injection molding manufacturer can make for your automotive components is implementing design for manufacturability reviews. Ensuring a design is both manufacturable and functional in real-world applications starts by looking at the core design aspects. Does the design feature consistent wall thickness? Are there draft angles that support dependable ejection? Are ribs and bosses in place to increase stiffness without changing wall thickness?
Those are just the beginning points in DFM review for automotive injection molded components. Parts should also consider proper gate locations and material flow behavior to control weld lines, balanced fill, and structural performance. Automotive components created through injection molding are suspect to defects like shrinkage and warpage, so ensuring tolerances are consistent throughout the part is critical.
When DFM reviews happen, it can save customers on costs throughout an injection molding program, but particularly in tooling. If a design is modified after tooling happens, this means your tooling will need to be modified or replaced, and that’s the most expensive part of the injection molding process – and it becomes doubled because of reworked designs.
A Note on Material Selection
Material selection is just as important as the geometric design of a part. A design might be manufacturable, but if the wrong material is selected, a part could fail – especially in automotive applications.
Injection molded components for automotive applications are exposed to harsh conditions from heat exposure, temperature fluctuations in general, vibrations, impact, friction, and more. The elements should be used as the driving force of material selection.
Quality Management and IATF 16949:2016
The right custom plastic injection molding manufacturer will have strong quality management systems in place that specifically cater to the automotive industry. And the first sign of that is having their quality management systems recognized by the International Automotive Task Force. The IATF is a group of automotive OEMs and other manufacturers that set industry manufacturing standards, and the QMS certification that customers should search for is IATF 16949:2016.
If your injection molder holds this specific certification, you should expect a high-quality manufacturing program. But, superior quality management goes beyond seeing a certification. What matters more is how the certification was earned.
Whether it’s the implementation of production part approval process (PPAP), advanced product quality planning (APQP), in-mold sensoring, lab testing, CMM management, or SPC tracking, high-level quality management systems will use all available resources to assure part quality.
Agape Plastics is the Right Custom Plastic Injection Molding Manufacturer for Your Automotive Components
Agape Plastics is a premier custom plastic injection molding manufacturer located in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Our facility is home to 46 injection molding machines with press tonnage capabilities as low as 85 and as high as 1650.
Creating custom injection molded automotive components is how Agape got its start. In 1983 we started manufacturing a two-bolt stud plate that was developed with General Motors’ Oldsmobile division. Since then, our automotive injection molding has taken off and we’ve manufactured parts for some of the biggest names in the industry including all major North American OEM’s.
Automotive manufacturers know they can rely on Agape Plastics because of our capabilities as a turnkey injection molding manufacturer. Mold design and builds, pre-manufacturing engineering, and post molding assembly all factors into our injection molding programs.
Our manufacturing capabilities are backed by our robust quality management systems which have been continuously IATF 16949:2016 certified for years. In order to keep quality at the center point of every project, we have a dedicated program manager, customer quality engineer, launch support with samples, tuning, part print development, and 24-hour customer support for on-site maintenance.
Contact Agape Plastics today for your automotive components and partner with an experienced custom plastic injection manufacturer.