Through Thick and Thin: Reflecting on Injection Molding Thin and Thick Walls

Author considers time molding thin-wall food packaging and thicker-walled interior automotive trim, weighing the differences and similarities in process, molds and materials.

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Your Business

economics

Plastics Processing Index Rebounds with 48.5 Reading in May

Plastics processors recover some ground after sharp April drop, but not enough to avoid contraction.

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Commodity Resins

July 2025: Prices for Volume Resins Flat to Down Heading to Third Quarter

Apparent stabilization was driven by supply-and-demand dynamics, but the uncertainty of tariffs and the hurricane season are looming.

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processor's edge

Keeping Process Water Cool and Efficiency High in the Desert

Rehrig Pacific turned to Process Cooling Systems to create a high-efficiency plantwide process-cooling system for its newest injection molding facility outside of Phoenix.

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Processing Plant Tour

Automotive

Skipping the Pellet for Efficient Recycling in Molded Engineering Plastics Applications

AGS Technology leverages deep experience in molding with recycled engineering materials for automotive and heavy equipment parts.

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MPM’s Second Act: Keeping Injection Molding, Moldmaking in the Midwest

Larry Austin’s 35 years at a highly successful injection molding company inform much of what he does and doesn’t want in his second act in plastics owning an injection molding company.

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Metal and Polymer Molding, Additive Manufacturing and MoldMaking All Under One Roof

From metal molding to polymer molding, additive manufacturing to moldmaking, material selection to formulation, prototyping to production, PTI Tech has emerged as a one-stop molding shop.

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Technology in Depth

SPONSORED

How Vacuum Drying Is Revolutionizing Plastics Processing

Maguire's ULTRA drying technology uses a compact design for faster processing and reduced energy consumption.

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Novel Profile Cooling Technology Promises Big Output Boost

Aimed at complex profiles such as PVC lineals, retrofittable system adds turbulent cooling to calibrator to boost output by 25-50%.  

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sustainability

Fermentation Process to Enable Compostable Biopolymers

Valerian Materials was founded to commercialize the results of federally funded research conducted at the University of Minnesota, producing bio-based alternatives to fossil-based polyurethanes.

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 KNOWLEDGE CENTERS

Solutions

best practices

The 3 C's of Clean Lubricants

Clean lubricants enable machines to meet OEM specifications from the outset, keeping sensitive components like servovalves, hoses and proportional control valves operating smoothly while avoiding contaminants — even as small as a few microns — that drastically shorten their lifespans.

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best practices

ICYMI: May Roundup

May was a busy month, especially with the buzz coming out of the Extrusion Conference. Here’s a quick look at the top articles from May you might have missed. 

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How Compression Ratio Impacts Extruder Performance

Let’s investigate how compression ratio affects performance of an extruder processing LLDPE.  

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Essential Reading

Materials

Polymer Science for Those Who Work With Plastics: Why Entanglements — Not Just Molecular Weight — Drive Plastic Performance

Ever try running your fingers through tangled hair? Yeah … that’s not fun, but that’s what happens at the molecular level when polymer chains reach the right length. They wrap around each other, intertwine and … get stuck — and those tangles are the real reason plastics perform the way they do.

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PTXPO

ICYMI: April Roundup

Catch up on the most-read articles that captivated our readers in April.

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Use a Process Assessment to Determine the Benefits of Screw-Design Modification

This type of analysis analysis will provide the converter with a clear picture of whether changes to the screw could provide economic gains through increased rate, yield, and quality.   

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Polymer Showdown — PPO vs. PA66: May the Best Material Win

Second in a series, an expert from plastics engineering consultancy The Madison Group pits leading thermoplastics against each other to see how they differ in processing characteristics, chemical resistance, thermal and mechanical performance, and more.

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Screw Bounce — What Causes It and Why You Should Care

There are a lot of theories about screw bounce in injection molding it, but what’s the actual cause? Through a series of experiments, and some good old-fashioned math, the author found out.

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ICYMI: March Roundup

Still catching up post-PTXPO? Whether you attended the show or not, there were bound to be some must-read articles that may have slipped past you. Catch up on what you missed.

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Plastics Size Reduction
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