Medical vial injection mould manufacturer
The hard part of a vial is not the first one. It is that the hundred thousandth weighs the same and the neck is in the same place. So this page starts with the weight tolerance and the neck.
- ProcessInjection and injection blow
- PartsEye drop bottles, oral liquid and square pharmacy bottles
- On the drawings15 ml, PP, 3.4 ± 0.3 g; 120 ml square bottle
- NeckCut to the closure you already use
Why small vials are usually injection blow moulded
This page is about plastic vials and the tooling for them. We make plastic vials and their moulds, not glass ampoules.
Most small vials are made by injection blow rather than by injection alone, for three reasons a buyer can see on the part: the neck is injected, so it is accurate enough to seal on the closure you already buy; there is no parting line across the base; and there is no flash to trim, which means nothing has to be cut off the part by hand afterwards.
Two of our own drawings set the level this tooling works at. One is a 15 ml bottle in PP at 3.4 ± 0.3 g, the other a 120 ml square pharmacy bottle. The bottles in the footage on this page are 10 ml eye drop bottles and 15 ml bottles coming off the tool. Send your vial, its capacity, its weight with the tolerance you hold, and the neck, and the tooling is quoted against those.
Vials coming off the tool
Our own tryout footage, not a rendering.
Seven questions about the tool itself
The seven that decide whether you order, answered for this tooling. Where a figure is on the drawing we print it; where it depends on your part we say which numbers we will ask you for.
Hot runner or cold runner?
On an injection blow set the neck and the preform are injected, and at higher cavitation that station normally takes a hot runner; the blow station has no runner at all. A vial moulded by straight injection is decided on its own weight and cavity count. The quotation says which arrangement yours uses.
Cycle time and output
Preform and bottle are made in one cycle, so the limit is the cooling on the thicker section. Tell us the vials per hour you need and the cavity count is worked back from it.
How the part is ejected
On injection blow the bottle is stripped off the core rod rather than pushed off by pins, so there is no ejector mark on the vial. On a straight injection vial the ejection is drawn to keep the marks off the wall the label goes on.
Tryout report and acceptance
The tooling is run here and the vials it produced ship with it. The acceptance points on a vial are the weight and its tolerance, the neck dimensions and the wall distribution; tell us what you measure and those go on the list.
Spare parts
Core rods, neck inserts and cavity halves are cut from the same drawings. Core rods are the usual wear part on injection blow tooling; say how many spare sets to pack.
Warranty
Warranty terms are written into the quotation for that tooling: what is covered, for how long, and how a replacement part is shipped.
Will it fit your machine?
This tooling is machine specific. Tell us the make and model of your injection blow or injection machine, the station spacing and the platen, and the set is cut to it.
What we will ask you for: the capacity, the vial weight and the tolerance you hold it to, the neck and the closure it takes, the material, the vials per hour, and the machine.
How many vials an hour do you need?
On a vial programme the output sets the cavity count, and the cavity count is most of the tool price. Tell us the figure you are planning around.
Tell us your output target
Frequently asked questions
More from the same workshop: all injection blow moulds · small cosmetic bottle IBM moulds · eye dropper outer cap moulds.
Machines for these moulds: the injection blow molding machine this mould runs on.
Send us your vial drawing
The vial, a drawing or a photo, with the capacity, the weight and the neck. Attach it straight to this form.
- ✓A drawing, a 3D file or clear photos of the vial
- ✓Capacity, weight and the tolerance you hold
- ✓The neck and the closure it has to take
- ✓The material you fill with
- ✓The make and model of your machine