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3DEXPERIENCE Make is an On-Demand Manufacturing platform, which connects designers or engineers with industrial plastic manufacturing service providers. Our service providers are mostly based in North America (United States and Canada) and in Europe (United Kingdom, France, Netherlands, Germany etc...). We offer plastic manufacturing options accross multiples processes such as 3D printing, CNC machining, Laser cutting and Injection molding.
Plastic manufacturing is well suited for Mockup or Prototyping thanks to the lower cost of plastic versus other materials.
Thanks to our powerful algorithm, you can get quote in seconds for your plastic manufacturing project from dozens of plastic manufacturing providers.
Our plastic manufacturing network of service providers is handling projects in various industry such as Aerospace & defense, Business Services, Construction, Consumer goods & retail, Energy & Materials, High-Tech, Home & Lifestyle, Industrial Equipment, Life Sciences & Healthcare, Marine & offshore, or Transportation & Mobility.
Our network of service providers offers dozen of plastic materials for your project. They can be classified as Acrylics, Polyesters, Silicones, Polyurethanes, Halogenated plastic and a few generic plastic materials that we offer include PA12, ABS, PLA, PET etc...
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Check & repair or Geometry check is a feature that helps you to understand Geometry issue of your part and could repair it live and online.
Check & repair or Geometry check is a feature that helps you to detect geometry issue on your part and repair it online and live.
This feature is available only for 3D Printing service. It helps you check the manufacturability of your part, depending on the materials and the process.
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Plastic is a material consisting of any of a wide range of synthetic or semi-synthetic organic compounds that are malleable and therefore can be molded into solid objects. Plasticity is the general property of all materials that involves permanent deformation without breaking. Polymers’ name is derived from their flexible and plastic properties.
Plastics are typically organic polymers of high molecular mass, but they often contain other substances. They are usually synthetic and most commonly derived from petrochemicals. However, today’s focus on the environment has led to a growing number of plastics to be derived from renewable materials such as polylactic acid from corn or cellulosics from cotton linters.
Plastics have been adopted in a significant, and ever-expanding, range of products thanks to their relatively low cost, ease of manufacture, versatility, and imperviousness to water. They can be found in products as simple as paperclips or as complex as planes.
A large source of diverse plastic material is available across a widespread manufacturing spectrum such as 3D printing, CNC Machining, Polymer casting, Rotational molding, Vacuum forming, Injection molding, Extrusion, Blow molding. One of the most recent and exciting manufacturing domains is in 3D Printing. As new applications for 3D Printing are discovered almost daily, a diverse array of plastic objects have already been produced using the 3D Printing process. These objects can be found in prototyping labs, toys, mechanical gearboxes, medical prosthetics, and many more.
Plastics are generally classified by the chemical structure of the polymer's backbone and side chains; some important groups in these classifications include: Acrylics, Polyesters, Silicones, Polyurethanes, Halogenated plastics.
Questions People ask about Plastic manufacturing
Plastic is the name given to a vast collection of materials that can be molded into an ever-expanding list of shapes, colours and sizes.
Products made entirely from plastic, or containing plastic components, surround us. Examples span simple items such as paperclips all the way to complex feats of engineering such as space satellites.
Plastic gained this popularity by being relatively low cost, versatile, easy to work with, durable, moldable and water-resistant.
Plastics consist of a wide range of synthetic or semi-synthetic organic compounds, with the main element being long molecule chains called polymers. These polymers give plastic the strength and flexibility to be formed into solid objects.
Scientists and chemical engineers have spent the past 100 years developing a broad range of different plastics. These are generally grouped together by the chemical structure of their primary polymer.
Some of the most important groups include:
The most frequently used plastics are:
Whether derived from petrochemicals or biological material, the process to make plastic involves five steps:
Raw ingredients are removed from either petroleum (crude oil), natural gas and coal or renewable feedstock such as plant starch or sugar cane. The extracted material contains many different compounds which need to be split apart and separated from each other.
Heating the material converts it into different monomers (molecules), making it easier to separate out the useable elements from impurities and contaminants. In the case of petroleum, these monomers include liquid fuels, lubricants, petrochemicals and naphtha, a key ingredient in the manufacture of plastic.
A combination of heat and pressure is then used to chemically bond chains of these monomers together to create polymers, the building blocks of all modern plastics.
Additives are blended with the polymers to create plastics with different strengths and applications. UV-stabilizers, for example, are added to protect the plastic in a similar way to how sunscreen protects skin. Other additives include glass fibre to add strength, or chemicals to enable the plastic to breakdown and biodegrade.
The last step is to mechanically extrude, or squeeze out, this molten mixture, usually in long tubes or sheets. These are then broken up into sheets or pellets of different shapes, sizes and colors depending on their intended end-use, and shipped to manufacturers to be transformed into countless products.
The techniques used in plastic manufacturing vary, but almost all start with heating the plastic sheets or pellets. The most common processes include:
Plastic is so prevalent because it provides several key advantages:
Plastics do have a number of downsides that are worth noting:
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