Table of Contents
USA Injection Molding Report 202
What is Injection Molding?
USA Injection Molding in 2024
USA Injection Molding Market Growth Potentials Beyond 2024
Opportunities and Challenges for the USA Injection Molding Market
Opportunities
Challenges
Latest Breakthroughs in the USA Injection Molding Market 4
Increased Automation
Better Sustainable Injection Molding Techniques
Using 3D Printing in Mold Design
Notable Industry Mergers and Acquisitions
Arterex Acquired Micromold
Arcane Capital Partners Acquired Petroflex and Wescon
Cascade Engineering is Getting Back to Their Roots
Rising Demands from End-User Industries
Automotive
Construction
Medical Devices
The Importance of Good Injection Mold Design
Where to Find Good Injection Molds
Conclusion
Injection molding is a big industry in the USA, with a strong growth trajectory as well as room for future investments.
Injection molding is not a new method of production, but it has certainly aged well, as adoption is increasing on a worldwide scale. In this USA injection molding report, we will go through all the past growth of the USA injection molding market, as well as some industry trends and predictions that will become useful to you as a business owner down the line.
What is Injection Molding?
Let’s first establish what the definition of injection molding is. Injection molding is a method of production that is commonly used to produce medical devices as well as automotive parts. In injection molding, engineers pour hot molten material (which can be thermoplastics or metals) into a cast mold. The material will then fill the mold as well as all the compartments. As it cools down, the material will take the shape of the mold, becoming a finished product.
USA Injection Molding in 2024
2024, in general, is expected to be a great year for injection molding, as the industry picks up after a disappointing 2023. Demands were cut in half in the year before, largely due to global instability as well as a difficult supply chain. In 2024, as companies such as US Merchants acquire more and more injection molding machines, the industrial capacity of the country as a whole is expected to increase.
With this increase as well as the gradually recovering economy, injection molding is likely to pick up its pace in Q2 of 2024. Business owners who wish to penetrate into this market will find that this is the perfect time to do so.
USA Injection Molding Market Growth Potentials Beyond 2024
The USA injection molding market is expected to grow beyond 2024. In a market report published by Grandview Research ,the author pointed out that the compounded annual growth rate for injection molding in the USA for the 2023-2030 period is 3.7%, making the industry an attractive piece of the pie for prospective investors.
Among the key driving forces behind this meteoric growth is the increased overall demand for high-quality products in sectors such as healthcare, automotive, and consumer goods. Injection molding as a production method excels in delivering high volumes of products without errors. As more and more businesses require high-quality products, injection molding is seen as the market-leading solution to deliver top-notch products at a large scale.
Opportunities and Challenges for the USA Injection Molding Market
Let’s take our injection molding report to the opportunities and challenges for businesses in the USA injection molding market.
Opportunities
Over the past years, the meteoric rise of AI-assisted tools as well as AI assistants has fundamentally changed how the industry works. AI-assisted tools help businesses to save time as well as to cut down on costs, improving the overall revenue of a business. These tools will be particularly useful if you are just setting up your injection molding business.
The adoption of automation is also at an all-time high in the USA injection molding market. Automated injection molding machines offer not just better workflow but also better overall efficiency, making them very competitive choices for businesses in all segments.
Challenges
The rising adoption of automation and AI tools can be a double-edged sword. While AI tools can help automate a lot of different processes, they cannot replace the human mind in designing and defining these processes. The first initial setups will still have to be done by industry experts, and this is where most of the overhead costs of injection molding should lie. Businesses should take care to address the initial challenges with all their manpower, lest the costs increase tenfold down the line.
Latest Breakthroughs in the USA Injection Molding Market
The last years have seen some of the most amazing breakthroughs in the field, which transformed how injection molding works. If you wish to break into this business, it is wise to take a look at some of the most notable advancements in recent years.
Increased Automation
As noted above, the increasing adoption of automation is an industry trend that will continue well into the late 2020s. Automated solutions help businesses to reduce operation costs immensely without compromising on quality. These solutions can also be scaled according to your business needs, making sure that you can fulfill high-volume orders with ease.
Better Sustainable Injection Molding Techniques
Sustainability is a topic of great concern to any prospective investor. As regulations get more stringent and public opinions on sustainability become more pronounced, injection molding companies will need to learn to adapt to these changes and pivot towards more sustainable injection molding techniques.
In recent years, FUSO, a family-owned injection molding business in the USA, championed a brand new sustainable injection molding production method that combines ultra-modern technologies to bring high-quality plastic parts to the market. This is a proven method that produces parts for diverse industries, making it the premier choice for businesses that want to penetrate into new niches.
The beautiful thing about this latest breakthrough is that it produces parts weighing as little as 0.03mg to huge industrial parts of 2kg. This is a very promising development that encourages other R&D departments to catch up with, ensuring that the industry will develop even further.
Using 3D Printing in Mold Design
Mold design is hard. It is actually one of the most difficult processes in the industry, as one single mistake can ruin an entire mold. 3D printing may be one of the most useful tools to help you get ahead of your competitors, as it offers amazing creative freedom as well as complex geometries that are not usually possible with the usual mold design methods. However, you will need help from expert mold designers, who understand the ins and outs of mold designs, to help you get started. Otherwise, even with 3D printing, your plastic mold is likely to have errors here and there.
Notable Industry Mergers and Acquisitions
The injection molding industry in the USA experienced some of the most vibrant years for M&A, as well as large investments. Let’s take a look at some highlights to understand how the industry works as well as some areas of interest.
Arterex Acquired Micromold
The medical device manufacturing company Arterex has recently acquired Micromold, a plastic injection company with expertise in plastic medical device production. With this acquisition, Micromold will move its entire production line to where Arterex is based, Mexico, but its employees will stay in the USA for the time being.
With this acquisition, Arterex is expected to vastly increase its output, making it even more competitive than ever. Micromold’s team will be a crucial piece of the puzzle to the company’s continuing success.
Arcane Capital Partners Acquired Petroflex and Wescon
A huge acquisition worth of over $100 million, this deal has solidified Arcane Capital Partners, an investment firm based in Arkansas, as a household name in the plastic injection molding industry in the USA.
The size of both Petroflex and Wescon is nothing to scoff at. Both companies are familiar names in the industry, which means that their expertise will be particularly useful to Arcane Capital Partners. Petroflex boasts a strong portfolio in handling High Density Polyethylene as well as renewables and irrigation projects. Meanwhile, Wescon is a longstanding company with over 50 years of experience in the field. By acquiring both of these giants, Arcane Capital Partners set itself up as an important player with a lot of leverage in the field.
Cascade Engineering is Getting Back to Their Roots
After years of divestitures, Cascade Engineering, a family-owned injection molding business with over 50 years of injection molding expertise in the USA, has finally turned back to its core. In an interview with Crain’s Grand Rapids Business, CEO Christina Keller highlighted how 2024 will be a year of growth for the business, but with a focus on its core competencies and facilities. In 2023, the company sold its injection molding manufacturing business in Hungary to focus its efforts on Michigan.
Rising Demands from End-User Industries
The exponential growth of injection molding is, in part, due to the rising demands from end-user industries. In this section of our USA injection molding report, let’s take a look at some of the most popular end-user industries for injection molding businesses.
Automotive
Automotive parts require extremely high precision, as they need to fit together tightly to prevent accidents as well as malfunctions. This is why automotive parts require injection molding plants to work well. Injection molding provides the amazing scalability as well as the precision needed to manufacture these parts.
In the USA, automotive parts take up a large portion of parts manufactured through injection molding in the country. Parts that are manufactured through this process include outer body panels, bumpers, spoilers, dashboards, and electrical housings. With the rise of demand for automobiles on a global scale, automotive parts have become even more in demand, and injection molding is the solid solution to handle this rising demand.
Construction
In construction projects, injection molding also plays a pivotal part. Injection molding helps create a vast range of construction parts and pipes that fit any requirements as well as specifications for each project. With injection molding, construction companies can easily complete high-value projects in no time. It is also worth noting that injection molding works particularly well with materials with high thermal insulation, which are particularly sought after in the construction industry.
The rise of injection molding in construction projects coincides with a USD 1.2 trillion infrastructure bill that is expected to transform the construction industry. Thus, the stars are aligned for injection molding to shine.
Medical Devices
Medical devices continue to be the darling of injection molding. As you need to have thousands of medical devices ready for medical emergencies, high-volume orders are the norm in the industry. This means that injection molding is the perfect solution for this industry, as it is a scalable production method that produces high-quality parts with precision.
The Importance of Good Injection Mold Design
Advances in injection molding also mean advances in plastic mold design, and it is never enough to state how important mold design is to your whole production line. The mold is where the magic of injection molding occurs, so it has to represent the perfect end product you wish to make. If there is just a single defect in the mold that makes it deviate from the product, all the products down the line will be severely affected, and you might lose a large-volume order.
Efficient mold design is also a good way to cut down on costs as well. Expert plastic mold designers use a wide variety of tools and techniques to bring you the most efficient plastic injection molds, making sure that you can scale your business exponentially with ease.
Where to Find Good Injection Molds
With over 20 years of experience in producing plastic injection molds, Kuixing will be your trusted partner when it comes to injection molding. Our team of experts creates different plastic injection molds for different industries, including automotive, medical, and construction, making sure that you can get started with your production line right away. We will also help you create your custom plastic injection molds if you need our expertise as well as services.
For more information, don’t hesitate to contact us right away!
Conclusion
This USA injection molding report has taken you through the prospects as well as opportunities for injection molding in the USA in 2024. It has also provided a quick overview of the growth rate of the industry going forward. Although 2023 saw some declines in the demands, these declines should not be an issue when 2024 rolls in. The top industries to watch out for if you are interested in injection molding are: Automotive, medical devices, and construction.
With this USA injection molding report, we hope that we have provided actionable knowledge for you to get started. For more details, contact us right away.
References:
https://www.plasticsnews.com/machinery/injection-molding-machinery-outlook-2024-hoping-uptick
https://www.ptonline.com/articles/us-merchants-makes-its-mark-in-injection-molding
https://www.plasticsnews.com/news/arcane-spending-100m-buy-petroflex-wescon
