Manufacturers Replace Metal with Plastic Molded Parts to Reap Benefits of Plastic Resins While Maintaining Integrity of Metals
In today’s fast-paced world there is an immense pressure on manufacturers to create a better, faster, stronger, cheaper product, and only those who are willing to adapt and innovate will survive.
Manufacturers who’ve been dragging their heels (or worse, kicking & screaming) are now getting on-board with replacing metal parts with plastic parts.
Industries being most impacted by the switch include:
- Automotive/Transportation
- Aerospace/Aviation
- Military/Defense
- Consumer Appliances/Goods
For many decades these industry manufacturers have relied on metal– not because it’s necessarily better, but because it’s just the way it’s always been.
But, with modern advances in engineered resins and plastic molding capabilities, manufacturers are no longer bound by the heavy, expensive and restrictive metal parts of yesterday.
The forward-thinking manufacturers who have/are switching from metal parts to plastic ones are doing so for a lot of reasons, including:
Plastic Molded Parts vs Metal:
- Plastics weigh and cost significantly less than metal. In fact, plastic can be 6x lighter than Steel and half the weight of Aluminum, and can offer a cost savings of 35% – 50% over metal.
- Plastic molding is less time consuming than metal fabrication because using plastic vs metal streamlines and reduces the amount of secondary operations needed.
- Plastic doesn’t corrode, which means it can actually be a better solution than metal, particularly for those industries mentioned above. Now plastic parts can eliminate the cost and downtime it requires to repair or replace corroded metal parts.
- With plastic, complex geometries, surface texture and branding/labeling can all be directly incorporated into the part’s tooling, which means plastic parts can be produced faster and at a more cost-effective scale than metal parts.
- Plastic parts can go to market faster than metal ones because of the design flexibility, reduced secondary operations, quick molding cycles, and fast production times it has over metal.
Some plastic engineered resins being used to replace metals include:
- ABS
- Acetal Copolymer (POM)
- Acrylic (PMMA)
- LDPE
- PAI
- PEEK
- PET
- PUR
- PPS
While not all metal parts can be replaced with plastic molded parts, there is a substantial opportunity for many manufacturers to take advantage of replacing metal parts with plastic ones when and where it makes sense.
In fact, this is more true now than ever before with advances in engineered resins making it possible for plastic to perform as well as (or even outperform!) metal in aspects like strength-to-weight and strength-to-stiffness ratios.
There is a strong future ahead for plastics and manufacturers who seize these opportunities as they become available will inevitably beat out their competitors.
Want to find out if your metal part can be successfully replaced by plastic?
U.S. Plastic Molding Company Specializing in Engineered Resins
Plastic Molded Concepts (PMC) is a U.S. plastic molding company that uniquely specializes in molding with engineered resins. We have been thriving in the plastic molding business for 45 years. Our experience and certified in-house Master Molders, allow us to take on projects of any complexity. We provide all-inclusive plastic molding services, including post-molding operations.
PMC serves a wide range of industries that need to improve an existing product, transition a part from metal to plastic, or bring an entirely new product to market.
Our in-house Master Molders are technically-trained and certified in plastic mold design, analysis, optimization, troubleshooting and issue resolution relating to complex molding projects.
Request a quote today for your next project.