Things Nobody Knows About Plastic Injection Molding

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Ok, raise your hand if you know anything about plastic injection molding. Hmm.. just as I thought, maybe one or two tentative hands halfway in the air. Most people have some vague kind of idea about this industry, but in actuality, know almost nothing at all!
This is understandable in our society. For some reason, manufacturing in the USA is a second class occupation, in the eyes of the "educated".
I know this from first hand experience. I am an injection mold maker and live in a community full of college professors and doctors. I am sandwiched in between a world class hospital and an Ivy League university.
When people ask me what I do for a living I can tell they have no idea what I am talking about. They think I grow mold in a laboratory, or am a production machinist, or an injection molding machine operator in a plastic factory.
I actually gave up a long time ago trying to explain what an injection mold maker does. I discovered that if I told them I was an Industrial Engineer, I came closest to connecting with their limited experience in the real world.
People do not realize that their keyboard, laptop, mouse, cell phone, half their car (or SUV), and thousands of other things they use day in and day out, came from a plastic injection molding machine.
Even my own family only half gets it. I gave a tour to my daughters once and one of them was most impressed by the soles of my work boots! Another was fascinated by the overhead crane.
So, if you ever get the opportunity to tour a molding facility, make the effort. You will be amazed at the myriad of very expensive equipment in use; all so we can use and enjoy these plastic items!