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Ahhh… the curse of injection mold polishing: it is usually the last thing to be done, the job is usually behind schedule, polishing eats up precious hours of labor, and the finish is what the end user actually sees!
It is ironic that the plastic injection mold making is a sophisticated, high-tech process; but, in the end, it gets down to somebody rubbing abrasive stones and diamond compound by hand on the finished cavities.
If you’re lucky, you can make use of things like ultrasonic polishers and hand grinders; but most of the time it gets down to hand work by a very skilled polisher. So far, there is just no way around it in the mold making process.
There are basically three ways to manage mold polishing: Do it in-house, send it out, or a combination of these two options. Most companies seem to do the quick and easy polishing in-house and send the complicated or mirror finish work outside. Each approach has it’s merits and drawbacks.