Extruded plastic part or injection molded plastic part?
Extruded plastic is plastic that has gone through an extrusion process. In this continuous process, thermoplastic resins or plastic polymers are melted, heated and pumped. Molten plastic material is pulled through a calibration system, which includes a die. The die shapes the plastic into the desired shape, or profile. Different methods are used to cool the extrusion as it is pushed from the die and in many cases a cutoff station is employed to produce multiple parts of the same length and shape. The high cost of building multiple cavity injection tools is avoided. The injection molding process also uses the process of heating and pushing molten plastic into a die with a single or multiple cavities. Injection molded parts are quickly cooled by water or specific coolants running through the die so that the parts are very quickly cooled and not distorted as they are ejected from the tool. Many different types of plastics can be used in the injection molding process and molds can be built
