Injection Molding Goes High Volume

Nothing new here.

Injection Molding has always been high volume. The use of blowing agents was common years ago.

Structural foam? Been there, done that.

"Nothing new here.

Injection Molding has always been high volume."

I concur. 25 years ago, I worked at a place that ran a 64-cavity injection mold on a 9-second cycle, 24/7, usually about 25 days a month. We had a couple of similar molds with fewer cavities for use with different plastics (different shrinkage), and we kept the 32-cavity mold used a few years earlier as a back-up for times when the production one was being polished or otherwise maintained. Often, two or even three molds were being run on different machines, simultaneously. A mating part, a small piece with gear teeth on two faces (rack-type gearing) ran 64 cavities on a 3-second cycle, and kept up with production. It, too, ran 24/7; we had 4th and 5th shifts, people who worked two 12-hour days every weekend.

Parts with dimensions of 3/4" x 3/16" x 3/16" were stored in containers holding over a cubic yard each: that's high-volume production, I'd say. Those very same parts may well be running today.