Processes

This is one of the prime processes for producing plastic parts and articles. It is a fast process and is used to produce large numbers of identical items ranging from high precision engineering components to disposable consumer goods.

Most thermoplastics are produced by injection moulding using the following materials (with alloys like FR, GF, MF, CF, blends etc.)

• PPS : Poly Phenylene Sulphide
• PES : Poly Ether Sulphide
• PPO : Poly Phenylene Oxide
• POM : PolyOxy Methylene (Acetal)
• PA6/66 : Polymides Nylon 6,6/6,plain and glass filled
• PA11/12 : Polymides Nylon 6/12.11,12 transparent
• PA 46/PPA : Polymides Nylon 46 stanyl
• PC : Poly Carbonate
• PBT : Poly Butylene Terepthalate
• PET : Polyester
• TPU : Polyurethane
• TPE : Thermoplastic Elastomer
• ABS : Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene
• SAN : Styrene Acrylonitrile
• PMMA : Acrylic
• All general plastics like PP, PS, LDPE , HDPE , HIPS

Parts to be injection moulded must be very carefully designed to facilitate the moulding process; the material used for the part, the desired shape and features of the part, the material of the mould, and the properties of the moulding machine must all be taken into account. The versatility of injection moulding is facilitated by this breadth of design considerations and possibilities.

• Fast production – can produce an incredible amount of parts per hour
• Material and Colour flexibility – Once we have a tool made, without too much difficulty, we can change the material and colour of the part being produced
• Low labour costs – An automatic tool runs on an injection moulding machine without much difficulty thus readying the parts with little manual intervention
• Design flexibility
• Low waste – Most plastics recycle, so we can reuse it thus reducing the waste

The newest generation of plastics material science and laser systems is driving strong industry demand for indelible laser marking as an alternative to conventional ink printing. As a non-contact digital process, direct laser marking of plastics has far-reaching benefits for many industrial applications with focus on environment friendly approach.

Robust plastics laser-marking operations require engineering expertise in areas ranging from the selection of polymeric resins and their chemical formulations through systems integration - a total solutions methodology approach that includes material-science chemistry, primary moulding operations, laser technology, and systems integration.

Laser marking ensures lifetime visibility of printed matter without being affected by solvents, oils and other elements which affect normal inks. We are already producing various components with laser marking on ABS, Polycarbonate, PA6, PA66, PBT etc.

Screen printing is a printing technique whereby a mesh is used to transfer ink onto a substrate, except in areas made impermeable to the ink by a blocking stencil. A blade or squeegee is moved across the screen to fill the open mesh apertures with ink, and a reverse stroke then causes the screen to touch the substrate momentarily along a line of contact. This causes the ink to wet the substrate and be pulled out of the mesh apertures as the screen springs back after the blade has passed.

We have 3 tables of screen printing with skilled operators. We use Indian made inks as well as imported German, Japanese and Italian inks for best quality and long life adhesion on various plastics. We have an in-house department for making and exposing the screens.

• The pad printing process is versatile and allows us to print on parts irrespective of their shape – e.g. concave, convex, curved parts
• Allows printing of different surface structures like uneven or structured surfaces
• Resolution is far better than screen printing
• Depending on ink type used extremely high resistances against mechanical abrasion or chemicals can be achieved.
• Easy handling and little maintenance Compared to other printing processes pad printing is easy to learn.
• Multi-colour printing: wet in wet Possibility to apply multiple prints without intermediate drying
• Short tooling-up times Plates and inks can be exchanged within a few minutes
• Low set up cost Plates can be produced in-house
• Compared to other printing machines pad printing equipment is very small
• In the most simple case air drying at room temperature is sufficient. But we also have auxiliary equipments like oven dryers, flame treatment, IR treatment for ink bonding on special materials
• For years now there has been a successful combination of pad printing systems with injection moulding equipment or assembly lines

Insert Moulding combines metals and plastics or multiple combinations of materials and components into a single unit

The process ensures plastics have an improved tensile strength and wear resistance

Insert moulding reduces assembly and labour costs, reduces the size and weight of the part, improves component reliability, and delivers improved part strength and structure with enhanced design flexibility

Solid pellets of raw material are melted and extruded into a mould. The metal or plastic insert is placed in the precision location in the mould by the operator before starting the process - the plastic melt solidifies over the inserts and becomes one inseparable part - and then the press opens and the moulded parts are ejected.

Insert moulding uses the same materials as the injection moulding process. For extreme high heat - engineered thermoplastics are used. These materials withstand very high temperatures and the components can withstand a very harsh environment because of the physical, electrical and chemical properties.

We have approved vendors for supplying brass, stainless steel and mild steel inserts with or without plating with high standards of precision, consistency, reliability and on-time delivery. This helps us to mould large volumes of insert moulded parts with almost no damage to the moulds

Good standards yield best solutions and are a universal weapon against pressure on prices and time. We are able to pass on the advantage of being in a low cost region - Ahmednagar to our esteemed clients. Our offerings include components in kits, semi-assembled and fully assembled form for inventory and cost rationalisation. We follow best-in-class manufacturing practices of Lean, Kanban, FIFO, 5S to ensure optimisation of the assembly process for great quality and output. We have a large team of experienced workers in this department.

Our skilled Moulds team with inhouse toolroom maintain the complex, hi-tech and high precision moulds running in our 2 factories. In addition, Ikon has a separate company for making moulds in association with specialists in the industry. Ikon can supply moulds for :

• High cavitation high volume production
• Complex mechanisms and technical parts
• Prototype and short run low cost projects
• Hot runner, valve gated, heated, fast cooling moulds
• Vacumn hardened, wear resistent coated steel moulds

Our team can also support in product design, prototyping, mould design, material selection and trouble shooting to provide a complete solution.

Good standards yield best solutions and are a universal weapon against pressure on prices and time. We are able to pass on the advantage of being in a low cost region - Ahmednagar to our esteemed clients. Our offerings include components in kits, semi-assembled and fully assembled form for inventory and cost rationalisation. We follow best-in-class manufacturing practices of Lean, Kanban, FIFO, 5S to ensure optimisation of the assembly process for great quality and output. We have a large team of experienced workers in this department.

We can supply components in small kit form or assembled form using the unique process of Ultra-sonic welding. This process involves the use of a ultra-high frequency sound emitter machine working through a precise aluminium horn designed as per the product requirements to agitate the plastic material surface in such a way that the two mating parts are welded without any extra adhesive or bonding agent. The process is absolutely clean and environment friendly. It requires a small energy line feature on plastic part to create a strong joint.

Ikon has developed special capabilities in processing engineering plastics in small size parts (less than 5 grams). Moulding machines of 10T, 40T & 50T with custom made very small shot screw barrels, precise servo drive controllers, high temperature heaters, exact matching auxilliaries and dust free environment enable us to supply millions of small parts to our prestigious customers with reliability and timeliness.

We have small pneumatically operated simple presses for riveting, punching, serration, joining etc. using small fixtures. This department helps in combining parts into kits for inventory reduction at customer end