Shenzhen Alu Rapid Prototype Precision Co., Ltd.

The speed of injection molding for producing parts is measured by the cycle time — the total time required to complete one full production cycle and eject one (or more) finished part(s). 

This determines how many parts can be produced per hour.

Cycle times vary significantly depending on factors like:

1.Part wall thickness (cooling time scales roughly with the square of thickness)

2.Part size and complexity

3.Material (e.g., high-flow resins cool/fill faster)

4.Mold design (cooling efficiency, number of cavities, conformal cooling)

5.Machine type (high-speed/electric machines are faster)

6.Application (e.g., thin-wall packaging vs. thick technical/automotive parts)

Typical Cycle Time Ranges

1.Thin-wall packaging (e.g., cups, lids, containers with ~0.4–1.0 mm walls): Often 8–20 seconds, with high-speed setups achieving 5–12 seconds or even lower in optimized production.

2.General consumer/medium-sized parts (typical wall ~1.5–3 mm): Usually 20–60 seconds.

3.Thick-walled or complex/technical parts (e.g., automotive components, >3–4 mm walls): Commonly 45–120+ seconds, sometimes several minutes for very large/heavy parts.

In high-performance thin-wall applications (especially packaging on specialized high-speed machines), cycle times can drop below 5 seconds in world-class production, with some extreme cases under 2–3 seconds dry cycle (though full production cycles are longer).

For most standard injection molding jobs, expect 15–60 seconds per cycle as a realistic range.

Production Rate Examples

To illustrate output speed:

1.10-second cycle → 360 parts/hour (single-cavity mold)

2.20-second cycle → 180 parts/hour

3.45-second cycle → 80 parts/hour

4.5-second ultra-fast cycle (multi-cavity thin-wall) → 720+ parts/hour possible

Multi-cavity molds (e.g., 8, 16, 32+ cavities) multiply output dramatically — a 16-cavity mold at 12 seconds/cycle can produce over 4,800 parts/hour.

Breakdown of a Typical Cycle

1.Injection/fill time: Very fast, usually 1–4 seconds

2.Pack/hold time: 1–10 seconds

3.Cooling time: Dominates (60–80%+ of total cycle), often 10–60+ seconds

4.Mold open/close + ejection: 2–10 seconds (faster on modern electric machines)

5.Cooling is almost always the bottleneck, so thin, uniform walls + excellent mold cooling = fastest production.