A plastic injection mold is any tool made in whole or in part of a plastics material (excluding industrial thermosetting laminates), and in which the plastic contributes substantially to the utility of the tool. Such tools range all the way from those made entirely of plastics to metal tools to which a plastics working surface has been applied.
There is only one proper approach to evaluating the suitability of plastics for a tool. That is to consider plastics as an independent family of engineering materials with unique combinations of engineering properties, which indicate how the materials will behave under specific service conditions. Under some conditions plastics provide outstanding benefits in terms of lower cost, more rapid plastic injection mold making, etc.; under other conditions, they should not be used at all.