TABLE OF CONTENTS Whilst injection moulding can be considered a relatively young manufacturing technology, many variants of the basic process have been developed. Examples include processes such as injection-compression, gas assisted, water injection, co-injection and over-moulding. Each of these processes are suitable for specific market applications. An overview of the technologies covered in this chapter is shown in Figure 10.1.
The processes are split into two categories, multi-material moulding and assisted moulding, the next section will introduce each of these in turn.
Various terminologies are used in multi-material moulding to describe particular process routes. These have been split into three categories here: multi-component, multi-shot and over-mould. Assisted moulding techniques include both gas and water. A brief description of each of these technologies and some of the names commonly used for them in the literature now follows.
