Many new companies making plastic products must ask themselves what are blow molded containers and how do we produce these items correctly? Plastic is one of the most popular materials throughout the United States, especially when it comes to bottle production. In fact, statistics show that people in the United States use a total of 2.5 million plastic bottles per hour. Considering that, it’s important you to consider partnering with the right plastic manufacturing company to help ensure a percentage of those bottles are coming from your business. These companies often use a blow molding machine which contains three major parts that create blow molded containers. It’s understandable to wonder what are blow molded containers? With that in mind, here are three common types of blow molding to consider.
- Extrusion
If a company needs to create a less conventional plastic container design, it’s wise to utilize the extrusion blow molding process. During this process, a blow molding machine is able to create either intermittent or continuous extrusion molds. Intermittent blow molding works best for smaller products while continuous extrusion molding works well for product designs that are more complex. - Injection
You’ll find that many businesses utilize injection blow molding. In fact, statistics show that there are nearly 16,000 injection molding and plastic manufacturing location across the United States. This type of blow molding is able to produce large quantities of finished products in a relatively short amount of time. Injection blow molding utilizes a formed piece of plastic that is continually heated until it is formed to appear identical to the final product. - Stretch
It’s understandable to ask yourself what are blow molded containers? One of the most iconic plastic designs is the 2 liter bottle. If you’ve ever seen a plastic 2 liter soda bottle, you’ve seen an example of stretch blow molding. Stretch blow molding gets its name from what happens during the production of these types of models. Both stretching and blow molding must take place in order for plastics to be stretched both vertically and horizontally.
To summarize, there are several types of blow molding that commonly takes place. Extrusion blow molding is often utilized when a customized bottle design needs to be created. Businesses that require large amounts of bottles to be created each day often utilize injection molding. Injection molding is known to be very fast but isn’t always best for companies that need specialized bottles made for them. Lastly, you’ll want to consider stretch blow molding. This type of blow molding stretches plastic both vertically and horizontally and is often used to create 2 liter plastic bottles.