Wall Thickness
Wall thickness refers to how thick the cross section of the plastic part is.
Wall thickness in molded parts
Below are examples of wall thickness in actual molded samples.
Why uniform wall thickness?
Non-uniform thickness will cause molding defect of sink marks. So when creating a injection molded part, the designer is supposed to keep the uniform thickness in mind. However, this could be a challenge job sometimes, as geometric and cosmetics maybe conflict.
How thick is better?
Below a list of requirement of wall thickness as injection molding, which is based on different plastic materials.
| MATERIAL | UNIT: INCH | UNIT: MM |
| ABS | 0.045 – 0.140 | 1.143 – 3.556 |
| POM (Acetal) | 0.030 – 0.120 | 0.762 – 3.048 |
| PMMA (Acrylic) | 0.025 – 0.500 | 0.635 – 12.7 |
| LCP | 0.030 – 0.120 | 0.762 – 3.048 |
| PA (Nylon) | 0.030 – 0.115 | 0.762 – 2.921 |
| PC | 0.040 – 0.150 | 1.016 – 3.81 |
| PE | 0.030 – 0.200 | 0.762 – 5.08 |
| PP | 0.025 – 0.150 | 0.635 – 3.81 |
| PS | 0.035 – 0.150 | 0.889 – 3.81 |
| PU | 0.080 – 0.750 | 2.032 – 19.05 |
!Except:
thickness could be different depending on areas of the part, such as bosses, ribs.
Wall thickness analysis in DFM Report
At Plastopia, we provide wall thickness analysis on our DFM report, which will tell you if the wall is design at uniform thickness. The analysis is usually processed by software of UG. It will show the thickness range. You can modify your parts based on the diagrams.
!Except:
the wall thickness analysis just shows the sink marks in theory. In actual molding production, there are solutions like adjusting injection conditions to eliminate the issue.