Injection molding is a forming process, in which molten polymeric material is injected under pressure into a mold of a desired shape. With our lab scale and semi-industrial injection devices we can offer the production of the following shape and objects with the existing molds straight away:
• Standard tensile testing specimens (e.g., 38X2X1 mm)
• Flat specimens (14X14X2 mm)
• Cubes (15X6X4 mm)
• Cups (conical shaped) with inner diameter top 12 mm and bottom 11 mm and wall thickness of 2 mm and height of 18 mm. The second such mold has inner diameter top 5.5 mm and bottom 5 mm and wall thickness of 0.8 mm and height of 10 mm. And the lids of the cups with respective dimension
• Rods with lengths of 40 or 60 mm and diameter of 10 or 15 mm
• Spirals with outer diameter of 25 mm and thickness of 2 mm
Specific molds can also be designed and developed according to the customer requirements after initial discussion.

The minimum material required for lab scale device is 50 grams. Materials can either be provided by the customer or can be purchased by SciMatter on behalf of a customer on agreed upon conditions. Manufacturing of molds for more sophisticated 3D-structures as well as their design has to be considered separately. The materials must be packed in a dry and tightly closed container. Please inform us, if the sample is sensitive to light, moisture or anything else and pack it accordingly. If you don’t know this about your sample, ask us !

The manufactured objects are packed as the materials require and delivered to the customer.

The polymer pallets are fed into a heated barrel on injection molding device where they are molten and mixed using a helical screw and the molten polymer is injected into a mold cavity under pressure. Depending on the material processing requirements, the mold can be preheated while after injection (of the molten polymer), it is cooled down and molten polymer hardens in the geometry of the cavity. Molds of the required geometry are conventionally made from metal, e.g. steel or aluminum. In some cases, the molds can also be 3D printed using photopolymers that do not melt during the injection molding of some lower-temperature thermoplastics.