Tech Trends
Sep 4th, 2008                                Print this article

Injection molding: Processors says his IMD fits the bill at a lower cost

By Matt Defosse

Injection molder HBW-Gubesch (www.hbw-gubesch.de) says it can offer customers a new means for inmold decoration (IMD) that goes beyond the design options beyond those now available via the process, and is comparable to the aesthetics reached with insert back injection molding, but at a cost below that competitive process. Called IMD-Pro, the process enables the molder to form IMD parts that have complex geometries.

Typically, IMD and insert molding (with injection molding onto the rear of thermoformed inserts) offer similar aesthetics. But IMD has been limited in the complexity of the parts that can be decorated. Insert molding gets around this limitation, but at a cost about double that of IMD, according to Marc Reichert, director of R&D at the processor, which is based in Wilhelmsdorf, Germany. He says the new process fills a niche between IMD and insert molding; while it cannot offer decorated parts with unlimited complexity, it facilitates forming of parts whose complexity goes beyond that of current IMD ones, at a cost well below insert molding. “It really depends on the part,” he notes.

First commercial parts will be formed this year. The molder has no plans to license the technology and builds its own molds, which Reichert says is one critical aspect of the new process. So far he says no simulation program is available for the process, so that prototyping must be done for each project. “But with every part we gain more experience,” he adds.

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