Some time ago I lost my job. Fortunately I had some money saved just for inconveniences like this. A friend of mine talked to me about the Dip moulding industry. He worked there for 10 years and he was in the same situation: jobless. I was reluctant at first to believe that I could get into a business that I didn’t know at all.
One night we went for a drink where he explained to me how cheap compared to other plastic techniques Dip moulding was.
When you think about it, we use plastic every day. We put our food in plastic containers, we manufacture plastic toys and we even produce some clothes from recycled plastic. After the talk with my friend I went online to do some research. Dip moulding the technique that consists in fabricating metal molds. Then these mold are heated and dipped into liquid Plastisol. Plastisol is liquid PVC basically. The temperature difference causes that the liquid mix gets attached to the molds. The molds then are retired and left to cool down until the plastic is solidified. These solids are put into an oven to get cured. Finally the plastic structures are removed from the molds and the product is ready. Second procedures could be performed such as painting or customization processes like imprinting a logo or a name.
You can really achieve good plastic products using this techniques but it has its limitations. If you need more control in the interior and exterior design and texture then Injection moulding should be used. The machines are very easy to set up and acquire for Dip moulding because there is no injection machines.
Another limitation when compared to injection moulding is time. Dip moulding takes time. People who have plenty of time and need a prototype product go for this technique. There are machines that can dip more than one mod into the liquid plastisol mixture. This decreases the cost per unit. Dip moulding produced product are cheaper to produce than product manufactured using injection moulding. The industry is tending to go more for Dip moulding. This is a technique that is constantly being improved. There are many variations of plastisol released in the market. The latest ones are some plastic foams that can acquire rubber texture.
My friend and my friend convinced me. I decided to give it a go and bought machinery. My friend brought all our first clients and they are bringing more customers. I am learning to operate the machines and I am constantly reading about mixes and plastic variations. You have no idea the infinite number of different products you can produce using this amazing technique.