What is Plastic Cutlery Mold?

Plastic cutlery mold is a specialized tool used in the manufacturing process of plastic utensils like spoons, forks, and knives. These molds are designed to precisely shape molten plastic into the desired utensil form and are often used in injection molding. They come in various types and sizes to accommodate different designs and production needs.

What Type of Plastic Material is used for Cutlery Molding?

For cutlery, polypropylene (PP) and polystyrene (PS) are the most common plastic materials used in injection molding. PP is known for its flexibility, making it suitable for lighter applications like soups and salads, while PS is more cost-effective and suitable for disposable cutlery and other items.

PP material is relatively soft and not easy to break when used, while PS material is easy to break, so the choice of plastic material should be based on the use of the type of plastic to determine the type of plastic.

After determining the plastic material, we will use different shrinkage rate according to the different materials. 1.7% for PP material and 1.05% for PS material, so the choice of material must be determined before making the mold.

Besides, polylactic acid (PLA) can be used for cutlery too, it is known for its biodegradability, good strength, and ease of processing, but it also has limitations like lower heat resistance and brittleness.

Techniques in Cutlery Molds

Plastic disposable cutleries are convenient, cost-effective, lightweight, and easy to use and dispose off. The demand for plastic cutlery is growing globally as it is a cost effective and convenient food packaging solution. The cutlery can be produced by high speed injection machine. The high injection pressure requires the cutlery mold steel has to be with high hardness to get longer mold life. And there require the steel suitable for high polishing to get excellent transparency.

For cutlery mold steel generally are H13, S136, 2344, 2316, quenching material etc. Because the cutlery is fast moving consumer goods, the plastic cutlery mold is commonly made into multi-cavities. The plastic injection cutlery mold shape is designed to be square or round.

Using pin point gate, hot runner system or semi-hot runner. If the cutlery mold designed as square shape, it could use semi-hot runner. The mold processing will need high speed engraving, high speed milling machines etc. Common cutlery molds have two halves. For folding cutlery mold, there need add slides on the mold halves. The folding cutlery molds are more complicated and difficult than common cutlery molds.

Hot Runner or Cold Runner for Cutlery Molds

For cutlery molds, hot runners are generally preferred over cold runners for high-volume production and to minimize waste, especially when considering the overall cost and efficiency. However, the choice depends on production volume, material sensitivity, and specific requirements.

Hot runners eliminate the need for a cold runner, meaning no runner waste is generated, reducing material costs and improving material utilization. By maintaining the molten plastic at a consistent temperature, hot runners allow for faster cooling and solidification, leading to shorter cycle times and increased production volume. But hot runner cutlery molds have a higher initial setup and maintenance cost compared to cold runner molds. To save the cost, we usually use semi-hot runner with 1 tip of pin point gate. This design is economical in production and has good efficiency.

We can also do cold runner cutlery molds according to customer's needs.