What Type of Products are Produced with Blow Molding

Blow molding is a process that goes back —way back— if you include the pre-plastics history behind the modern version of plastics today. Really, it’s the application of various crucial improvements on that age-old technique with plastic as the medium, that serves as the manufacturing process behind countless everyday products.

Bolstered by cutting-edge innovations in plastic extrusion, injection and more, the results of this technology are everywhere. In addition to products in the manufacturing and pharmaceutical industry, here are three notable categories of products made possible by custom blow molding.

Traffic Safety Implements

Hardly a day goes by where drivers don’t see some kind of traffic safety implement. And the majority of these products are made possible by blow molding. The familiar road cones and drums, in particular, are hollow products pieced together by a two-piece extrusion method.
These crucial safety products need to be easy to organize on the fly, by hand, by road workers and police officers looking to redirect traffic. And they have to hold steady to the elements at the same time.

The benefits of blow molding include a balance between lightness and rugged durability. Without blow molding, these objects would be much heavier, making them much less flexible to work with. And the materials choice might not be quite so apt to holding up to the drastic variations in weather that any road implements are necessarily exposed to.

Gardening Products

There are few places where you will be more surrounded by blow molded products in various sizes and shapes than your local department store’s gardening department.

Here, you will find:

• Watering pots with increasingly unique spouts and handles.
• Nursery pots and planters, often with water-sifting designs that couldn’t be made without blow molding.
• Garden decorations, often in statue-esque styles without the heavy weight and even heftier price tag of actual stone.
• Gardening seats, most often a fully blow molded plastic design.

And even the products that use other materials for the main body are often paired with blow molded components to arrive at fully efficient functionality. Wheelbarrows, seed rollers, and portable potting benches are all propped up on blow molded plastic wheels. Blow molded plastics are perfect for the high demands of gardening work, without the need for maintenance or replacement that small rubber tire alternatives often bring.

Rugged Carrying Cases

For heavy-duty products of all kinds, custom blow molded cases are by far the dominant choice for long-lasting packaging and storage. From cases filled with mounting points for power tools, to less specified models meant to protect valuables of any kind, the blow-molded plastic case is an instantly recognizable look: a thick, rugged injection blow molded plastic case with rounded edges, a large movable handle, and one or two thick clips that hold both halves together with a satisfying thunk.

Blow molded carrying cases serve to protect the products inside just as often as they insulate other objects from them. After all, some of the best-made tools in the world could be jostled around any which way without affecting them at all — you’ll need a rugged case to protect the other stuff you’re transporting from it!

Blow molded products are extremely open to highly specialized designs, which makes the massive variation in the styles of these cases possible. Instead of settling for generic cases and using additional materials cut to shape, blow molding allows for limitless possibilities for securely mounting objects inside.

As these examples demonstrate, we’re surrounded by the results of blow molding innovation every single day. Looking for top-flight blow molders in Southern California to help realize the potential of your products? Don’t hesitate to contact the regional leaders of the field at Valencia Plastics and receive a quote for your blow molded project.