About foam injection molding companies
Structural foam molding (SFM) is an injection molding process that is used to make strong, durable, and lightweight molded plastic products. Since it consumes fewer resources, structural foam molding is more efficient and less expensive than other injection molding processes while delivering similar results.
What is structural foam?
Structural foam is a combination of a base polymer resin and a foaming agent. The process is able to use quite a few different types of base polymer resins to produce finished structural foam products.
Since it is less dense than conventional types of injection-molded polymers, it would be natural to assume that structural foam is also less durable. However, foam molding results in plastics that are significantly more rigid than other solid materials.
Structural foam is a great alternative to wood, fiberglass, metal, or even concrete. Parts can be foamed that have features which thermoforming is not capable of molding.
How is structural foam part made?
Structural foam parts are made using a process that’s very similar to the process used to make other injection-molded plastics. However, a blowing agent is used to expand the material outwards. As a result, less pressure is involved which therefore requires less expensive tooling than injection molding.
This reduced pressure allows us to make foam molds that are much larger than parts we make with conventional polymer resins for a lower price. In fact, parts made with foam molding can weigh hundreds of pounds. Structural foam molding can also be used to produce multiple parts during a single production cycle.
