Blind Box Art Toys Making – Injection Molding

Different materials and characteristics of the blind box art toys, determine the production process. So how blind box art toys making? Here I introduce you to injection molding, one of the production processes of PVC figures, I will try to make it as easy to understand as possible, and believe you will get something from reading it.

7 Steps to Make Blind Box Art Toys

In short, the process of mass production of the blind boxes is as follows:

1. Toy design

2. Prototype

3. Mold making

4. Molding

5. Coloring

6. Assembly

7. Packing

Mass-produced action figures and blind boxes are suitably made for PVC and ABS, while artist and designer toys made in small quantities are more suitable for PU resin and polystone (POLY resin).

A variety of factors are considered here, including the product appearance, strength, and size of the blind box toy, as well as the raw materials used in production, production cycle time, budget, etc. The molding process, because of different materials, determines the mold method, which also determines the coloring method. Let’s start with “molding”.

2 Ways of Blind Box Art Toy Molding

In order to EASY understand, whether the raw materials should be heated and melted when entering the mold, I divide the molding process of designer art toys into two major categories: thermoplastic and cold-set.

Thermoplastic

Refers to those blind box art toy production processes that require the raw materials to be heated to soften and then cooled to harden. Since the molding process is carried out at high temperatures, metal molds are used. There are mainly injection molding processes, vinyl processes, sofubi processes, etc. PVC and ABS are used in this making of process.

Cold Solid

Refers to those liquid raw materials at room temperature that will be naturally cured, and do not need to heat melting into the mold of the blind box art toy production process. As it is operated at room temperature, silicone molds can be used. PU resin, polystone (POLY resin), and other cold resins are used in this process.

Blind Box Art Toys Injection Molding

In the toy industry, the injection molding process is mainly used in a variety of high-precision requirements of the assembled toys, such as Gundam, Lego, etc. The blind box in the PVC figures is also mostly made by the injection molding process.

The production process of the injection molding process is as follows.

The solid plastic raw materials (PVC, ABS, etc.) are melted at high temperature and injected into the mold at a certain speed by the pressure of the injection machine, and the mold is cooled through the waterway so that the liquid plastic is cured, and the final product is the same rubber part as the designed mold cavity.

The whole process of injection molding can be fully automated from putting in PVC raw materials to molding, so the production speed is fast and efficient, and it is suitable for mass production. In addition, it is possible to produce complex shapes with high precision, regardless of the size of the blind box toys.

Injection Mold of Blind Box Toy

The mold is the core of the injection molding process. The way it is used at high temperatures and multiple frequencies requires that the mold be precise and stable. The injection molding process uses metal molds, mostly steel, and copper molds. the cost of making an injection mold of simple structure and average material for a set of 15cm blind box art toys or less is about $5,000. If requires more precision, the mold cost is even higher.

Complete blind boxes are usually assembled from multiple plastic components (such as a head, hands, feet, accessories, etc.). If the injection molding process is used to produce them, multiple sets of metal molds need to be prepared. As a result, the making of the molds is a costly and long time.

Therefore, considering the cost-sharing and production efficiency, the MOQ of the injection molding blind box toys process is usually around 1000-5000 pieces, depending on the complexity of the steel mold.

Art Toys Parting Line

In the injection molding process, parting lines are hard to avoid. However, the high quality of art toys is often reflected in the details of processing. For the higher quality art toys, the parting lines are not obvious. Either they are set at the edges where they are not easily noticed, or they are polished and filled after the mold is released. You can see if the blind box toys you buy are high quality by checking the parting line.

Final Thoughts

Do you have a better understanding of the injection molding process? Blind box toys are increasingly loved by young people, so many companies are starting to design interesting blind box art toys and looking for Chinese toy manufacturers who have rich experience in producing blind boxes. If you also have a need to custom blind box art toys, you can contact SZRDDM and send your design to them for a quote.