One-shot manufacturing: What is possible with new molding technologies

A surge of new molding technologies is transforming plastics processing and material forms to the highly efficient, integrated manufacturing that will set industry standards into the early years of the next century. Ten of these emerging material-process technologies are summarized in Tables A1-A10: gas-assisted injection molding and simulation, fusible core injection molding, low pressure injection molding (including laminate molding and liquid-gas assist molding), advanced blow molding, thermoplastic sheet composite processing, reactive liquid composite molding, microcellular plastics, lamellar injection molding, and multimaterial, multiprocess technology. To put these new technologies in a context and to accentuate opportunities, the relations among these technologies are analyzed in terms of MATERIALS: Composition (polymer/nonpolymer) and Scale (macroscopic/microscopic), PROCESSING: Macroscopic Structure (laminate/segment), Size and Shape, and Materials, and GEOMETRY: Function (enclosure/support) and Complexity (symmetric/three-dimensional).