The plastics industry is the 3rd largest manufacturing industry in the United States. The blow molding process can be used to manufacture plastic products. You may not notice it, but blow molding usage is profound in our life, almost every familiar thing around you is blow-molded, such as the water bottle on your desk, or flower pots in your garden. Plastics make our lives easier and help us produce things in a more cost-effective way.
The blow molding process involves heating a plastic tube to its melting point and then putting that into the cavity of a mold. The thickness of a final product is determined by the amount of plastic used and the air pressure. Especially in fully automated processes, to ensure constant and smooth production, it’s necessary to use long-life and low-maintenance heating elements.
The blow molding process has also become a very common method for manufacturing, and we can say that almost every industry relies on blow molding for individual components, containers, or shipping.
But, the real question here is, what are the blow molding usages? Through this article, we will discover all about blow molding usage and its advantages in our lives.
The Blow Molding Usage
There are many blow molding usages that you may not notice, but really, most of them are things you can see in your daily lives.
Automotive Industry
Many parts in the automotive industry that store fluids are blow-molded, as well as the cooling system overflow containers, windshield washer soap bottles, and even fuel tanks, are blow-molded.
Appliance Components
The supplies of your major appliances at home that contain fluid and help to wash your clothes and dishes are made using blow molding.
Medical Supplies and Parts
There are so many hollow plastic part designs that are quickly made with blow molding that is used in a health clinic, dentist, or any doctor equipment. The spray bottles, water bottles, and storage containers in your cabinets are also made with blow molding methods.
Children’s Toys
You can see for yourself how many children’s toys are generally lightweight. Well, that is because the most common children’s toys are commonly made with blow molding, such as blocks and squeeze toys.
Lawn and Garden Items
You could almost put lawn and garden into the automotive and bulk container categories as it uses bottles for liquid products and uses blow molding for mowers and power equipment for fuel tanks, oil storage, and distribution.
Marine
Blow molding makes manufacturing floating products easier, such as reservoirs, buoys, and other items that are commonly made with blow molding.
Packaging
Blow molding makes customized Polystyrene packaging safer for the product inside and harder to create shapes.
Sporting Goods
A common blow molded product in sporting goods is a plastic bat, a plastic ball, or another hollow piece of equipment.
Industrial Bulk Containers
Think of larger fluid containers like barrels to transport and store water, oil, or anything else to store a liquid that is blow-molded.
Blow Molding Plastic Materials
Not every plastic is suitable to be blow-molded, here are the plastics that are suited for the blow molding methods:
- PVC
- PET
- Nylon
- ABS
- EVA
- TPE
- Low and High-Density Polyethylene
- Polypropylene
- Co-polyester
- COP and COC
- Polystyrene
With the wide-range materials that are available for you to use in blow molding, you can develop various parts to fit your needs.
The Advantages of Blow Molding Usage
The blow molding method is one of the most cost-effective and fast ways to manufacture your product at a high rate. If you need a lot of stock in a short amount of time, we recommend you manufacture the stocks with blow molding.
Along with that, there are several other advantages you can get by using blow molding methods, as follows:
Automation
The development of the Placo X-Y machine from Japan gave rise to 3D blow molding; it allows automated production methods allowing minimal flash around the material. The 3D molding process also enables the seamless incorporation of parts and increased production speed. Further, automation helps manufacturers to maintain the quality of blow-molded products.
Mass Manufacturing
Blow molding is a relatively fast manufacturing process that allows you to increase production capabilities in a short amount of time. That is why blow molding is one of the most used globally to produce plastic-based products. Because the machines that are used in the process allow 3D molding, it helps fasten the production rate within a short period of time.
Cost-Effective
This method uses a relatively lower level of pressure, which is the reason why the machinery costs will be lower. Bold molding reduces the expenses in the manufacturing process, as well as the labor costs because blow molding doesn’t require many people to use, it mainly uses machines to manufacture the products.
Multiple Production Methods
Blow molding is very versatile because it has various methods that allow manufacturers to have several production options. In addition to that, you can easily customize many plastic-based products, such as bottles, cans, pots, containers, light bulbs, and many more in large quantities. That is why blow molding is widely famous among food suppliers, medical and pharmaceutical companies, and more.
