Who needs that desktop injection molding machine?
Injection molding machines, also known as presses, consist of a material hopper, an injection ram or screw-type plunger, and a heating unit. The molds are clamped to the platen of the molding machine, where plastic is injected through the sprue orifice to create injection molds.
Today, electric presses are taking over the typical hydraulic injection molding machines. Companies who produce injection molds prefer them as they offer 80% less energy consumption and nearly 100% repeatability, by utilizing electric servo motors. While the cost of an electric molding machine is typically 30% higher than a hydraulic press, higher demand for injection molds is closing the gap on cost.
Among the list below, you will find that APSX-PIM reduces your injection molding costs no matter what. Because it eliminates the situation that your mold design must make the injection molder you hired efficient based on the large size injection mold machine being used. That's why typically ejector pins and side action tools are added to the mold, but not for you. It is for them to be fast and efficient. In the environments listed below, that is not "required" to pay a fortune in terms of either cost or committed long lead-times.
Low Volume Manufacturing
If the part will not be consumed more than 100K pieces a year, the APSX-PIM is a perfect manufacturing machine for the part manufacturers by dedicating an APSX-PIM to each part. Low initial investment cost and fully automated production settings for several types of plastics makes it perfect solution for many low volume manufacturer such as medical device, aerospace and custom plastic part designers.
Engineering Prototype, Research and Development
R&D part requests suddenly can ruin a well-run daily production schedule. APSX-PIM offers an alternative. Its low cost makes it perfectly suited to one-off designs. APSX-PIM allows product development departments to keep a machine "at the ready", dedicated solely to R&D work. There are many benefits to this approach. The prototype turn-around time is quicker, the product designers gain a clearer understanding of the manufacturing process, and consequently the final design is easier to manufacture when the production model shows up in the job queue of the injection machine shop. Development with the use of a APSX-PIM is more efficient, and allows a clear separation of the cost accounting of the daily conventional manufacturing processes from the costs of product development.
Bootstrap Entrepreneur
Establishing a new business is always a high-risk task. The high capital cost of mold design and injection molding is difficult to justify and often impossible to use finance without a proven business plan. APSX-PIM can get you started at very low cost. By using a APSX-PIM instead of a high volume and large size injection machine, your business would have significantly lower capitalization costs.
This is a typical bootstrap technique: it gets you up and running and proves the plan. Once the business is established and the sales are demonstrated, it becomes much easier to justify an investment in equipment for larger volume.
Hobbyist / Engineer Alone
You may start a new business while keeping your day job. One of the problems of this is the difficulty in establishing relationships with local businesses when you have limited working hours. Your contractors will be unwilling to meet you on your time; they may not consider you to be an important customer. You may have trouble getting what you need when you need it. But if you can make your own prototypes, you will reduce your frustration and the time between your initial idea and final product.
Education
Before APSX-PIM, injection molding machinery for education was limited for students. Both demonstrate the theory and pracice on actual production makes the best educational tool. That requires a machine capable of performing real industrial processes. With its precision and real world capability, APSX-PIM can offer your students a much greater understanding of the way things work.