Scaling Up: How Plastic Injection Molding Can Revolutionize Your Medical Component Production

By 2050, it's projected that 1.5 billion people worldwide will be 65 or older, significantly increasing the demand for medical devices. In fact, the global outsourced medical device manufacturing market is expected go grow by 14% annually in the coming years.

As we have covered in the past, wearable devices are at the forefront of this fast-changing healthcare landscape. As of 2024, approximately 170 million Americans—about half of the US population—believed to be using wearable devices, driving unprecedented demand for precision components.

To meet this growing demand, manufacturers are increasingly opting for plastic injection molding, enabling them to produce high-quality, precision components and devices at scale with consistency, efficiency, and cost-effectiveness. What they’ve discovered is that the process reduces per-unit costs in large runs while ensuring high-quality products that meet strict industry standards. 

The versatility of plastic injection molding also allows for intricate designs that securely house and protect complex circuit boards and sensitive medical equipment, maintaining their functionality and durability.

In this blog post, we’ll take a closer look at how plastic injection molding is impacting the medical manufacturing landscape, and how it can enable you to scale your production.

Plastic Injection Molding for Medical Components and Devices

Plastic injection molding is a manufacturing process that involves melting plastic resin pellets and injecting the resulting molten material into a pre-made mold to create precisely shaped parts.

The plastic injection molding process typically involves the following steps:

1. Choosing an appropriate medical-grade thermoplastic, such as polyethylene, polypropylene, or polycarbonate.
2. Creating a custom mold that meets the specific requirements of the medical component.
3. Heating the chosen plastic material until it melts and liquefies. 
4. Injecting the molten plastic into the mold cavity under high pressure. 
5. Allowing the plastic to cool and solidify within the mold.
6. Ejecting the formed component from the mold.
   

Plastic injection molding's ability to produce high-precision, high-volume components while meeting strict FDA and industry standards has made it an essential process for a wide range of medical applications and manufacturing, including:

• Diagnostic equipment, such as components for testing kits, and lateral flow in-vitro diagnostic test cartridges.
• Laboratory supplies, including beakers, test tubes, and other containers.
• Medical device enclosures, such as housings and casings for various medical and laboratory equipment.
• Operating room and surgery tools and equipment
• Dental equipment such as components for dental X-ray equipment.
• Drug delivery systems, including the creation of single-use products like tubing, bags, needles, and connectors.

Why Manufacturers Are Choosing Plastic Injection Molding for Medical Components

When it comes to producing medical components and devices, plastic injection molding offers numerous advantages. 

Here are some of the key benefits of plastic injection molding for medical manufacturing:

• A higher level of precision and consistency: Plastic injection molding enables exacting specifications and tight tolerances, and repeatable accuracy, ensuring uniform quality across production runs. This level of precision is crucial, as even minor deviations can render a component unusable or compromise its performance. 
• Cost-effectiveness at scale: While initial tooling costs can be higher, plastic injection molding becomes highly cost-effective for high-volume production. By adding multiple cavities to the mold, manufacturers can produce multiple parts per injection cycle, further lowering costs and increasing production efficiency. Injection molding also typically has shorter cycle times for individual parts compared to methods like 3D printing, especially for complex geometries.
• Design flexibility: Despite some restrictions, such as avoiding sharp corners and maintaining uniform wall thickness, plastic injection molding allows for complex geometries and intricate designs. Multiple features can be incorporated into a single part, reducing the need for costly assemblies.
• Superior product quality: As we’ve touched on, plastic injection molding provides a high level of uniformity and consistency, with parts offering tensile strength and high-temperature resistance comparable to metal—crucial for applications requiring sterilization. Additionally, the process allows flexibility in surface finishes, enabling custom cosmetic finishes to meet specific customer requirements.
• Wide range of compatible materials: The process supports a broad selection of materials, including those with high heat resistance and durability. This versatility allows manufacturers to choose the most suitable material for specific medical applications.
• Compliance with medical industry standards: The controlled nature of the injection molding process makes it easier to meet regulatory requirements, including ISO 13485 standards and FDA regulations. 

How to Scale Your Production with Plastic Injection Molding

Many manufacturers have leveraged the benefits of plastic injection molding to boost product quality and scale production. 

Here are some strategic steps our clients typically take to transition to plastic injection molding: 

Designing for manufacturability: The shift from prototyping to mass production requires careful planning. Integrating manufacturing considerations into your design process from the outset can significantly enhance production efficiency and ensure you are set up for long-term success. 

Begin by refining your product design to ensure it is optimized for large-scale manufacturing. A well-designed part is fundamental to achieving optimal production outcomes. Selecting the right materials, for instance, is crucial, as you should be aiming for a balance between cost and performance. Additionally, you will have to invest in durable tooling that can withstand repeated use, and establish robust quality control measures to maintain consistency across production runs.

Additional design factors to consider include: 

• Maintaining uniform wall thickness to ensure consistent filling and cooling for optimal strength and cosmetics
• Incorporating appropriate draft angles to facilitate easy part ejection
• Including support structures to enhance the part's integrity

Collaborating with an experienced partner like Kingstec can help identify potential design issues early, ensuring alignment with industry best practices.

Optimizing mold design for efficiency: Mold design is a critical factor in enhancing both productivity and part quality in the manufacturing process. By strategically optimizing the gating system and runner layout, manufacturers can significantly reduce cycle times and minimize material waste. A well-designed gating system ensures that the mold cavity fills smoothly, while an efficient runner layout promotes better flow characteristics.

Effective cooling channels are another essential component in maintaining part quality and controlling temperature, which helps prevent warpage and ensures dimensional stability. Additionally, incorporating features like ejector pins facilitates quick and smooth part ejection, further streamlining the production process.

Automating the production process: As we have recently written about, automation can play a vital role in enhancing efficiency and reducing costs. 

By streamlining workflows to minimize material waste and setup times, manufacturers can achieve significant savings. Implementing robotics for repetitive tasks – or working with plastics manufacturing experts like Kingstec, who provide access to world-class manufacturers and facilities –  not only improves consistency and quality but also lowers labor costs and mitigates the risk of human error. 

Furthermore, automated quality control processes ensure compliance with stringent standards without the need for extensive manual inspections, allowing skilled workers to concentrate on more complex and value-added tasks.

Work with a plastic injection molding partner: Partnering with a knowledgeable plastic injection molding provider, such as Kingstec, offers substantial advantages for manufacturers. With in-house mold design and advanced manufacturing capabilities, Kingstec efficiently manages complex, high-volume production. 

Access to state-of-the-art equipment and specialized processes, including double injection and insert molding, enables rapid turnaround times and high-quality output.

By leveraging Kingstec's facilities, partner network, and expertise, manufacturers can effectively scale their production while ensuring compliance with industry standards. This collaboration not only enhances operational efficiency but also drives superior quality in plastic injection molding processes.

Partner With Kingstec for Your Medical Injection Molding Needs

With over 40 years of experience, Kingstec offers comprehensive plastic injection molding services and support that can take your project from concept to market.

Kingstec's expertise in plastic injection molding for medical components includes:

• In-house mold design and mold flow analysis using the latest 3D CAD/CAM software
• Access to over 300 molding machines ranging from 25 to 850 tons
• Specialized processes such as double injection molding, insert molding, and vertical injection molding
• Secondary finishes including spray painting, silk screen printing, and ultrasonic welding
• Strict quality control measures using state-of-the-art CMM and optical inspection equipment
  

Contact Kingstec for a free consultation.