Quality inspection and assurance are an important aspects of any plastic pallet injection molding process. Even though most plastic pallet manufacturing companies have put various measures in place; it is still worthwhile to inspect and verify their quality.

Normally, checking the quality of injection molded pallets aim to identify possible defects during the molding process. To ensure, all plastic pallets meet the desired quality standards, you should need to consider the following key aspects:

Step #1: How should you inspect the quality of injection molded pallets?

You need to adopt a comprehensive approach that will give more insights about the defects, and their causes. This is where most plastic pallet manufacturers go wrong.

So, let’s highlight these critical aspects:

  1. Inspect the plastic pallet injection molding machine

The defects you may see on your pallets could be due to a faulty injection molding machine. Nearly 76% of defects are due to a faulty or inappropriate use of these machines.

Any fault can be catastrophic, considering that we use injection molding for large scale production. You may end up wasting over 15,000 pallets. This can lead to high operating costs.

Be it sink marks, short shots or burns; all these are mainly due to faulty molding machine.

Before you begin the molding process, be sure to configure your machine as recommended. Moreover, only experienced personnel should operate the injection molding machines.

  1. Check quality of HDPE and PP plastics

You need to verify the quality of HDPE and PP materials. Impurities could be an impediment to meeting the desired quality standards.

Normally, it is advisable to go for high quality virgin HDPE and PP materials.

  1. Inspect all injection molded plastic at the end of the production process

At the end of every production cycle, you need to inspect every batch of plastic pallets. This will ensure there is consistency in the manufacturing process. With this, you can identify defects early enough and take appropriate measures.

  1. Have a dedicated quality control department

This is a crucial step in case you want every individual in the plastic pallet injection molding process to be accountable for his or her actions. The department should carry out the final inspection on every plastic pallet.

Step #2: Learn to identify defects in injection molded plastic pallets

With this knowledge, you will easily make appropriate adjustments in the manufacturing process. It won’t make sense trying to fix a plastic pallet manufacturing defect that you don’t actually understand its cause and consequences.

Here is a list of possible injection molding defects:

Sink marks; a common phenomenon when the outer section of plastic pallet solidified when the inner material is still in a molten state.

To avoid this, ensure you design all sections with consistent wall thickness. Also, you may adjust parameters of the plastic injection molding equipment. That is, either time or pressure.

Gas mark; also referred to as burning and it occurs when there is no exit for air in the mold to escape as molten metal fills the mold.

Always locate all air vents strategically in the mold. You may also consider adjusting injection speed.

Flow marks; a common phenomenon when plastic does not flow properly in the mold cavity.

You can change either gate location or size to ensure plastic pallets are free from flow marks.

Splay; it occurs when bubbles flow during injection molding of plastic pallets. To eliminate this, you may consider redesigning the mold.

Short shots; it takes place when the plastic pallet injection mold is not filled properly. You may adjust mold parameters to eliminate short shots.

Knit lines; this is a common phenomenon with injection molded pallets. Most pallets are designed with small holes on their surface. Normally, knit line manifest themselves in the form of weak line where molten materials meet around these holes.

In short, these are some of the most common defects in injection molded plastic pallets.

Conclusion

These are the two important steps in when you want to check the quality of injection molded plastic pallets. Remember, quality evaluation should be a continuous process and not a one-time task.

At WeePallet, we ride of 100% customer satisfaction and quality is always guaranteed. For more information on our products, contact our technical team.