Toy manufacturers, toy factory and the toy industry have long held a large market share worldwide. Plastic toys have an extraordinary place in the toy category, with hundreds of millions of dollars sold every year. Still, there is an interesting question. Since plastic toys are so popular, how are plastic toys made? You can find the answer again in this article. We will show you the whole process of manufacturing plastic toys in the toy factory in detail.
The Key of Making Plastic Toys
The first step in toy factory to start producing plastic toys is to think about what to make. Usually, a good toy factory will employ many professionals who will play an important role in every process of manufacturing plastic toys. Among them, brainstorming is the most important point. That’s because divergent imagination and continuous practical research can always coexist, co-creating new plastic toys.
Here in Union Vision, we have professional personnel. Not only can we help you sort out ideas on how to develop new plastic toys, but we can also provide you with creative new ideas.
Design Toys
Toy factories are inseparable from excellent toy designers. When the customer and company employees have an initial idea of what plastic toy to design, the designer will start preparing the design sketch. These designs can be toys in shape, size, color, etc., depending on what type of toy it is, such as dolls, toy cars, etc.
When the sketch design is complete, it needs to be 3D made to get a stereoscopic effect. Toy factories usually use specialized software for sketching. The most common 3D devices are 3D printers and traditional modeling. When there is a rendering, there will be a professional machine to carve it into metal, which is the mold of plastic toys. With it, subsequent toy production can be carried out.
After the above steps are completed, the modeler will engrave the wax model, which is based on the 3D renderings of the toy. Once the model is complete, it will be used to make a model for the production of plastic toys.
Toy Factory: the Manufacturing
When the wax model is complete, the engineer decides whether to make only one or more toys. Toy factories create different silicone molds based on different parts, which makes many copies in hard plastic. The mold is made slowly, it is a metal box filled with silica gel before it cures until 12 hours.
For a toy order of several thousand, silicone molds cannot withstand such a large output. So a hard plastic copy is made and filled with some plaster. This way, when the plaster has cured, the prototype can be removed, leaving only the cavity.
After that, the inside of this cavity is filled with a mixture of metals, including copper, molten zinc, magnesium and aluminum. When it cools and solidifies, the plaster body is broken, so that the metal mold is ready. The toy factory repeats this process until the other half of the toy is molded.
After the two-part mold is formed, the next step is injection molding. The mold is installed inside the injection molding machine, and the worker pours the plastic mixture into the machine to be melted. At high temperatures, the mixture is mixed with the dye. The machine injects this mixture into the mold cavity and waits for it to cool and harden. Finally, the worker will put the toy in the water and wait for the toy to harden further.
After each toy is produced, it undergoes rigorous high-quality testing, and toys that fail the test are selected.
Different Toy-making Techniques
Different toys have different production techniques, such as pad printing technology. It refers to converting 2D drawings into 3D drawings through professional software. This technique is often used to make Lego puzzles, or a plastic car with vivid facial expressions. And the texture effect of some plastic animals is also inseparable from painting.
When introducing the manufacturing methods of different plastic toys, the most interesting thing is the manufacturing process of the dolls. Usually there are multiple spare parts on a doll, including accessories such as head, arms, body and legs. To make these parts, the toy factory pours a small amount of liquid vinyl into a mold weight and then places it in a rotary furnace until a prototype is presented.
After a few minutes, the scalding pieces were removed and the workers began assembling the dolls. Finally, the toy factory will refine the doll’s facial expressions and other details.
Toy Manufacturing: Final Details
When the complex production process is completed, the semi-finished product is hand-painted or painted with an airbrush. These are all artistic processes. When all the processes are completed, the plastic parts are sent to the assembly center for further processing. Technicians assemble the parts together by means of presses, glue, etc., and place them in the box.
Toys Everywhere
Here, we have introduced you to the manufacturing process of plastic toys in as concise a way as possible. Or what other toy do you want to know about?
You know, the toy market is very profitable. In 2018 alone, the global toy market has generated the total revenue of $90.4 billion, and the U.S. market size alone was about $25 billion!
Toys can also be sold as promotional items, which is a means of quickly attracting consumers. When you buy an item, you get a small toy giveaway, which is an excellent means of promotion. It can be seen that toys have great market prospects.
In the End
That’s all for this article, I believe you already have a preliminary understanding of how plastic toys are made. If you have any questions about the manufacturing process of plastic toys, please visit our company website https://unionvisionchart.com/. We are a professional toy manufacturer specializing in producing different types of toys. With a production area of 8,000 square meters, we have an annual production capacity of 60 million. We can efficiently meet the needs of supermarkets, retailers, and e-commerce customers.
