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Currently, throughout the automotive industry, a major emphasis is being placed on reducing costs of plastics part manufacturing. For example, manufacturers of plastics parts used for interior trim applications have traditionally painted parts, to improve part aesthetics and cover over such surface defects as weld lines. Part painting can typically add from $.60-$2.00 to the part costs for these applications. Furthermore, due to the loss in mechanical properties found at weld lines, structural integrity can also be sacrificed. This paper discusses the use of the multi-live feed molding process as a solution to minimize weld lines, improve mechanical properties and part aesthetics, and potentially reduce costs by eliminating steps in manufacturing operations such as painting.

Over the last ten years, the plastics industry has been under pressure by many industries, such as automotive, to resolve issues from an application point of view, such as value engineering, part quality, and time to market. Value engineering programs have been a major thrust for the last several years in many industries. These programs have taken the form of low cost materials, systems integration, part weight reduction, and lower fabrication costs. The automotive industry, forced by foreign competition during the 1980s, has also led the way in providing an emphasis toward improved part quality resulting in longer part life cycles. In addition, automotive producers are shortening their design engineering phase which has caused the plastics industry to find methods to more rapidly move technology from research and development to end-use applications.