If you’re an entrepreneur, inventor or business owner looking for the best manufacturing process for a new idea or product line, you may have heard about products made from rotational moulding. But how much do you really know about rotational molding products?
The process of manufacturing roto molded plastic products can be a bit confusing. Because of this, we’ve decided to put together a detailed guide to show you what kinds of products are made with rotational molding.
Let’s take a detailed look at roto molded plastic products.
What Is Rotomolding?
To start out, we’ll talk about what rotational molding is. Then we’ll look at the specific products that are made with the process.
Finally, we’ll find out if rotational molding products will fit the scope of your current project.
Rotomolding, better known as rotational plastic molding, uses heat in order to melt and mold plastic resin inside of a closed mold.
It’s a production process that’s quite unique from different versions of plastic molding that typically use pressure.
Manufacturers that specialize on rotomolded plastic, such as Roto Dynamics, use an intricate process which is broken down into four individual stages:
- Loading the mold with the proper amount of resin
- Heating and then fusing the unfinished resin
- Allowing time for cooling
- Removing rotomolded plastic from mold
The rotomolded plastic is now ready to box and ship to the client.
What Materials Go Into Making Roto Molded Plastic Products?
The manufacturing process of these parts and products utlizes a wide array of materials, which include:
- Nylon
- Polyethylenes
- Polypropylene
- Polyvinyl chloride (PVC)
- Thermoplastics
Note that polyethylenes, which include LLDPE, HHPE, LDPE, recycled/regrind and cross-linked are the most common in the rotational molding products manufacturing process.
Roto molded plastic products are the absolute best solution if you’re looking to produce complicated parts with a a lot of different features like molded-in inserts, double walls, undercuts, or highly detailed contours.
The size and type of product that you can have manufactured with rotational moulding range from items as small as a ping pong ball, to a fuel tank that holds 20,000 gallons or more.
Rotational molding products will considerably vary in terms of complexity, wall thickness and length.
There are basically no limits on custom designs and work.
What Types of Products Are Made With Rotomolded Plastic?
There’s a big variety of plastic products made from rotational moulding. These require different methods of tooling, although cast tooling is most common.
Cast tooling can be ready within six to eight weeks and will offer a range of different options for textures and surface fininshes.
For pieces that are larger and don’t have an overly complicated design, manufacturers will typically use what’s called fabricated sheet metal tooling.
These two specifications, along with others, produce a huge range of rotational molding products.
Here are ten of the most common, everyday examples of roto molded plastic products, listed in no particular order.
1. Bins and Containers
Plastic bins and bulk containers are manufacured as rotomolded plastic in tons of different colors, sizes and designs. They are built sturdy for the stated purpose of storing or shipping items in a convenient and simple way.
They’re also commonly used in material handling and food processing indusries.
2. Automotive Parts
It’s interesting to know that this manufacturing process for plastics is used for many parts in vehicles, including interior design elements (think, cup holders) and mechanical parts that run the car.
3. Road Cones and Barriers
The odds are that you drive past dozes of road cones and barriers every single day. But you probably had no idea that these are typically made using the rotomolding process.
4. Various Toys
From pink flamingos to ping pong balls, rotomolding is the manufacturing might behind a huge variety of plastic toys, various decorative items and other trinkets we see in and around people’s homes today.
This process has even been used for pool table manufacturing.
5. Cribs
Yes, full baby cribs are manufactured with this unique process.
6. Your Kayaks
Are you a nature lover who enjoys nothing more than a peaceful day out on the water?
One of the biggest industries that relies almost fully on rotomolding is the water sports indusry; namely boating, surfing, canoeing and kayaking.
If your water vessel is made from plastic, it was almost certainly manufactured using rolotmolding.
Nearly every plastic floating dock is also made with this process.
7. Other Sports Equipment
Beyond water sports items like canoes and kayaks, rotomolding is also used to make a wide variety of ground-based sports equipment, such as:
- Playground equipment
- Helmets
- Dumbells
- Golf carts
You can see how adaptable it is.
8. Commercial, Agricultural and Industrial Storage Tanks
Rotomolded plastic is also routinely used in storage tanks of all sizes in commerical, agricultural and industrial applications.
Thanks in part to the adaptablitity of the process, storage tanks will range in size from five gallons to over 20,000 gallons.
9. Store Mannequins
This is an interesting one.
If you’ve ever stood and wondered where store mannequins came from, the answer is very likely to be rotational molding.
The process is the perfect way to produce all of the hollowed-out plastic dislay figures.
10. Various Industrial Parts
Although not as interesting as the mannequins, rotational molding is also used to make a wide array of industrial parts, such as:
- Housings
- Covers
- Tote bins
- Water softening tanks
The list definitely goes on.
Is Custom Rotomolded Plastic the Right Answer for Your Company or Project?
Although the perfect answer for a huge array of different manufacturing needs, custom rotomolded plastics may not fit every situation.
Generally speaking roto molded plastic products are the best fit for:
- Individuals or companies that know what kind of mold they want and require a partner to create the mold
- Individuals or companies that already have a mold but need a new manufacturing partner to make products with the existing mold
Rotomolded plastic is perfect for large-scale plastic production because it can produce finished products that have identical wall thickness without any thinning within extremities.
It’s also a highly cost-effective tooling process and offers stress-free parts that are seamless and come in one piece.
Is Now the Time for a Roto Dynamics Molding Project?
You now know more than almost anyone else about rotational molding. And while this information has helped you understand the basics of the rotomolding process, you likely have several more questions that you’d like to ask before beginning a new project with Roto Dynamics or another manufacturer.
Get in touch with us today at Roto Dynamics for a personalized consultant. We look forward to answering all of your specific questions.