2 Shot

2-Shot molding is a mature and well understood process that remains a viable process for cost effective and repeatable production of MIDs. These benefits have been further realized due to new enhancements made at Tyco Electronics, such as unique tooling and processing techniques. The basic process combines injection molding of two distinct thermoplastic polymers with the electroless plating process to produce a selectively plated component. In order to achieve the selectivity during plating, a catalyzed "plateable" resin is molded in conjunction with a standard non-plateable resin to define the desired area to be plated. This area is metallized initially with copper, followed by nickel and, optionally, gold plating. The plated area has the benefit of accurate tolerance and registration due to the fact that it is created by mold steel. Another benefit of this process is the potential to produce complex 3D geometries that cannot be easily produced using alternative technologies.