Lee Lechner, Digital Marketing Specialist, has been with Echo Engineering for over 5 years and specializes in researching, writing, and developing content regardign powder coating, e-coating, compression molding, and injeciton molding.
Automotive manufacturers have used metal fasteners as a norm for decades. However, as car manufacturers continue to focus on reducing the weight of their vehicles to improve fuel and battery efficiency, there has been a growing interest in replacing metal fasteners with plastic alternatives. This shift is driven by several factors, including plastic's lighter weight, corrosion resistance, and the ability to mold and shape plastic into complex geometries. In this post, we'll take you through the pros and cons of injection molded fasteners, design elements to focus on, and other factors that play major rolls in a fastener's success.
Since its introduction into the world in the 1980s, additive manufacturing has been impacting the planet. Every single year additive technologies advance more and more. When done correctly, additive manufacturing speeds up the production process, reduces waste, and saves companies a ton of money. One area, in particular, is additive manufacturing's role in product validation.
The EV market has brought about a surge in demand for the latest and greatest vehicles. It has also brought us massive supply chain disruption with parts like chip shortages. What it has also brought to the world is the need for innovation with additive manufacturing. Manufacturers are now being asked to prototype and validate new parts in much smaller timeframes. This post will take you through how additive manufacturing is used to support this need. We will also take you through some of the fundamentals of this technology and the available techniques commonly used today.
In this post, we are going to take you through not just the basics but also design tips, material breakdown, and what you absolutely need to get right when with the tooling and injection molding process for a successful living hinge.
Achieving crisp, clean masking lines is not always an easy task. It takes knowledge, skill, and the best tools to get the results you're looking for. In this post, we're going to take you through both masking tape tips & tricks as well as rubber molded designs to improve your results and help prevent common coating flaws.
Synthetic rubber, invented in 1909, is any man-made/artificial elastomer created by linking polymer molecules. In this post, we're going to take you through how their made, the history of the material, types of syntethic rubbers, and a few other facts you may not have known
In this post, we take you through the basics of thermoplastics, including the different groups, classes, and types of thermoplastics that are used to make products such as water bottles, clips, plugs, and so much more.
Due to the fear of silicone volatiles, some facilities will not even remotely consider using the material. In the automotive industry specifically, silicone is sometimes not even allowed into the paint production environments. So, what this means is they need alternative solutions. Luckily, we've received these requests many times before so in this post we will take you through the majority of the options you'll typically have.
Repetitive motion injuries. Labor shortages. Manufacturing line bottleneck. These are just a few of the many reasons why it's time to take a closer look into the ergonomics and efficiencies of your masking operations.
