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Question:

can you make plastic stuff without a factory?

Is it possible to fabricate plastic without using an industrial manufacturing plant? eg you want to make a prototype of a product that contains plastic.

Answer:

You can obtain just the plastic pellets and then use them in your prototype. Most industrial plants that use plastics don't manufacture it themselves, they purchase pellets from a supplier.
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There are a number of plastic fabrication methods. Each method is suited for a limited range of parts. For examples, there are injection-molded, blow-molded, and vacuum-formed. I am going to assume you are talking about injection molded parts since this is what many people think of as plastic parts. Injection molded parts are made by heating plastic pellets and forcing them into a machined mold under high pressure. This takes expensive molds and special machinery. You can get cheaper limited run molds, but they are still rather expensive. The molds range from $5000 made by China for a small part, to $200,000 made in the USA for a basketball sized part. These costs are for simple two piece molds. If you need special slides or inserts, the cost climbs even more. It is not easy to make prototype parts, but there is a few ways: 1. Machine or carve a big piece of plastic. 2. Use a 3-D printer to make your part. You can make a medium sized part for a few 100 dollars. These parts are rather brittle and fragile. 3. Use vinyl, acrylic, or epoxy castings. You pour the plastic into a rubber mold and let it harden. There are many number of casting materials available. The downside is that you have to fabricate a rough model to make the original cast from.
Yes. They make rapid prototype machines that'll do this. They also make kits that you can use to make a mold that you can cast low-pressure, low-temperature stuff in.

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