Plastic injection moulding specialist,
custom moulder of parts & precision components manufacture

• Plastic injection moulding: custom component manufacturing services
• Quality Assurance and our Quality Accreditation
• Value Added Services & Secondary Operations
• About polymers used: thermoplastics, thermosets, Tg explained
• Contact details for HBC Engineering Solutions Ltd

Plastic injection moulding of custom and precision parts, as well as production of metal components, has been at the heart of HBC’s business for over 40 years. HBC is a large electromechanical engineering company based in Kent, UK, with an enviable plant list (machines from 25 to 200 ton) and a massive production facility brimming with the latest high-tech equipment, software, robotic and manual assembly units and very highly trained personnel. It is, in short, world-class; it is a truly ‘agile’ manufacturer, in every sense of the term.

HBC Engineering Solutions can be reached via the following: • Telephone: 01293 897 200 (international: +44 (0)1293 897 200) • or use the general online enquiry form on our contact page

Plastic injection moulding
& custom component manufacturing services:

With such a long history and such a high pedigree, HBC should be the first port of call for any projects you may be considering for production and/or design. HBC has a quality track record which is staggeringly impressive and will deliver on all promises but at a price which you will find surprisingly cost-effective. Not only is the quality unusually high, but the prices are likely to come as a pleasant surprise too. HBC has recently been told that their estimate for a new customer was a fraction of the nearest quotation. It is possible because HBC produce everything in-house; from initial design to prototyping, optimisation, tooling, production, and assembly of final finished products (manual and automated). If you would like to try HBC Engineering Solutions for your next project, please contact them; you will probably wonder why you didn't use them years ago. This is genuinely the typical message HBC receive back from their new customers.

HBC Engineering Solutions can be reached via the following: • Telephone: 01293 897 200 (international: +44 (0)1293 897 200) • or use the general online enquiry form on our contact page

HBC’s value added services include:

A look at HBC’s Quality Accreditation

HBC Engineering Solutions can be reached via the following: • Telephone: 01293 897 200 (international: +44 (0)1293 897 200) • or use the general online enquiry form on our contact page

A background to the various polymers used

Thermoplastics:

These are polymers originating from crude oil which has been refined then mixed with chemicals such as fillers, pigments, stabilisers, flow enhancers and plasticisers. These ingredients react together to form ‘polymers’, which are long molecule chains, themselves developed from the chemical bonding of smaller molecular units. The material or ‘resin’ formed is now very easy to melt and shape if heated (hence the word “thermo” in the polymer’s name). It will ultimately be supplied in pellet or powder form to companies such as HBC Engineering Solutions, who will form it into finished products using the processes outlined on this website. A vast array of different types of the polymer can be made, by varying the ingredients and the exact chemical reactions harnessed in the manufacturing process, whether that is to improve performance in some way or make for a more cost-effective, economical material. For example, adding in different pigments will make for different coloured materials and products, while other variations may include additives and processes which will make the polymer flame retardant, i.e. heat resistant, or which might make the material harder, more resilient and so on. One of the greatest benefits of the material is that it is has an immense uniformity of composition. It is also very light in weight. One can start to see why it is used across so many industrial sectors and for so many different products.

Thermosets:

Although seemingly very similar in many ways, thermosets are different because they do not melt when heated. They are what is known as ‘crosslinked’ compounds. At molecular level, ‘bridges’ (crosslinks) tie the polymer chains together. Because of the crosslinks, when the material is heated, the molecules cannot move past each other (melt) and in fact are very hard to break apart from each other generally, making it a very strong compound. Crosslinked materials such as thermosets therefore have to be shaped (usually at high temperature) before the crosslinking process fully takes place. Once formed into shape, they cannot be reshaped (hence the ‘set’ in the word ‘thermoset’)... ... with one interesting exception. There is a crosslinked polymer family which can, believe it or not, have the crosslinking reversed. These reversible materials are known as thermoplastic elastomers and generally contain an amount of rubber in the mix. When cool, it is the solidifying rubber element which causes the crosslinking. When heated, however, the crosslinked rubber melts, so allowing the entire compound to do the same. Now we have a crosslinked polymer (more usually a thermoset) which is instead a rubbery elastomer which has the potential to be recycled, re-heated, reshaped and so on.

The “Tg”

Some polymers are harder and some are softer. Each variant has a different temperature above which it will be softer and pliable. Below that temperature it becomes harder and non-malleable. This temperature is called the “glass transition temperature”, or the “Tg” as it is known. The casing of your printer is probably hard (at room temperature it is below its Tg), while the material surrounding the flexible power cable to your printer is softer and more pliable (room temperature is above its Tg). The addition of plasticisers, in differing amounts, to the polymer mixes will have affected the materials' properties accordingly, in each case.

HBC Engineering Solutions can be reached via the following: • Telephone: 01293 897 200 (international: +44 (0)1293 897 200) • or use the general online enquiry form on our contact page

For more detailed information on the plastic injection molding process please click here.