Complex: In-mold decoration
This is one of the most common form of manufacturing process in today’s market, especially within the popularity of consumer’s electronic products.
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This decoration process does not rely on any post-production procedures. Rather, it IS part of the production procedures. The desired graphics first got printed on a piece of polyester film, and depends on the shapes of the final product, the film is morphed to match with the product properties (i.e how many dents are there and how long) before it is trimmed off any excess parts. Next, the processed film is then placed into the frame mold with the graphics sides faces ‘out’ (in other words, on the opposite of where the actual mold will be applied) and so the mold will then be applied directly to the graphics film via injection molding. The final outcome will have its own graphics embedded onto the top surface of the finished mold.
In-mold decoration has a lot of advantages, including the fact that it employs a very cost-effective process to customize parts using a variety of different colors, images and even textures that can be applied to any kind of surfaces, even on contoured ones. However, the primary disadvantage is the additional costs for additional film production and layout on top of the standard-based molding fee.
