Course Title

Course Title: Plastic Parts Finishing Methods

8 Professional Development Hours/0.8 CEUs

Course Description: The Plastic Part Finishing Methods course reviews a variety of methods used in the decorating and finishing of plastic parts. Discussed is in-mold decorating, and how using inserts or films provides a means of producing a finished part without post molding operations. Transfer pad printing and heat stamping are reviewed as well. Other examples covered are laser decorating of plastics, metallizing technologies, and vacuum metallizing. Functional decorating is also discussed, referring to post molding finishing operations, such as flocking, hard-coating and part identification.

Overall Course Objectives:

Become familiar with the different technologies used for finishing plastic parts.
Understand the basics of in-mold decorating, pad printing, hot stamping, and laser marking.
Gain knowledge on metallizing, part ID, hard coating, and flocking.

Course Content:

Lesson 1 - Introduction, In-Mold Decorating, Screen Printing

Objectives:

Describe the in-mold decorating process, and list the two categories into which the process is divided based on the surface that has the graphic images.

Understand the factors to consider during design for in mold decorating & recognize interior & exterior auto applications that use this process.

List & describe the steps involved in the screen printing process.

Lesson 2 - Transfer Pad Printing, Hot Stamping, Laser Marking

Objectives:

Develop an understanding of the functions of pad printing systems components.

Gain knowledge about the hot stamping process, and indicate the advantages of this
method.

Recognize materials which are suitable for laser marking, and list advantages of this
method of finishing.

Lesson 3 - Metallizing, Functional Decorating

Objectives:

Understand the vacuum metallizing process.

Evaluate the step- by- step chrome plating process and its result.

Describe the post-molding finishing operations of hardcoating, flocking, and data matrix.

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