There are more benefits of reducing resin in your injection molded automotive parts than we can possibly list here, but we’ll try to cover at least most of the bases. Here are the top 6 benefits of material reduction:

1. Cost savings

It’s pretty obvious that less material means less cost to the business, right? It can mean less cost in a lot of other ways too. There is less machine downtime, less cost involved with each scrapped part, and less damage to the mold and machine due to improper shot sizes or flash (and we all know how costly mold damage can be). Not to mention the time saved by managers on figuring out problems, so they can spend that valuable time doing more important things to improve the organization. And let’s not forget the cost of shipping bad parts to customers.

2. Faster cycle times

Faster cycle time means making more parts faster. And more parts means what? More money. More satisfied customers means even more repeating and new customers. It’s a snowball effect of revenue.

3. Less scrap in our landfills

Less scrap means less money thrown out, yes. But it also means less time digging through piles of parts wondering where it all went wrong. Less time fixing processes to try to get a good part again. And, most importantly, less plastic waste in our landfills. Our planet is swimming in plastic waste, and every single pellet we can save from our landfills is a win for all of us and our future generations.

4. Lower shipping costs

Lighter weight parts mean you pay less to ship them. With shipping costs at a peak right now, this can be a huge savings that hasn’t been taken into consideration when calculating whether the investment is worthwhile. How many parts do you ship a day? What if each part was 5% lighter? It may seem minuscule, but it adds up in the long run.

5. Less gasoline consumption

Lighter weight automotive parts means less weight on the vehicle, which leads to less gas consumption. We’re all suffering from the astronomical gas prices right now. And it’s a fact that lighter weight cars use less gas. Imagine if every single injection molded part on a car contained 5% less materials—that weight adds up quickly, especially on large parts. It not only lowers the gas required to power the vehicle, but it also puts less strain on the frame and tires of the car, potentially increasing their life span as well. For every 100 pounds of reduced weight, fuel economy is increased by 10%. For electric cars, a 10% reduction in weight is a 6-8% increase in range.

6. Longer lasting EV batteries

Going along with number 5, lighter automotive components put less load on the battery systems resulting in longer range for the vehicle. This saves the final user money and frustration, increasing car sales, increasing your customer’s faith in you, which (you guessed it) leads to long-term partnerships and more continuous revenue.

Conclusion

Learn more and discover how to reduce materials in automotive parts with our latest white paper.