Toy manufacturing: the bamboo flute

Most people already know that China leads the world in toy manufacturing with 95% of all toys sold in the United States made there. Nowadays, Pacific Rim manufacturers are busy making remote control and other electronic wonder toys for today's children.

What toys were popular in China in the past and are still found everywhere? The bamboo flute is one of China's all-time favorite musical toys. It can be blown vertically or horizontally and still produce beautiful soft sounds. Other favorites are movable toys, with shadow puppets enjoying a long run in popularity. Clay 'roly-poly' figures that have round pedestals under them, so they can never fall down are another Chinese favorite.

Toy manufacturing has come a long way since the days of Tinker toys- a building toy that was created by Charles H.Pajeau. He got the idea of poking holes along the rim of a wooden sewing spool and the world-famous building joint was created. Barbie continues to hold popular with the girls and let's not forget the craze that was created by cute little beanbag animals that came with cute little names. Collectors think nothing about paying $5,000 dollars for a rare Beanie Baby.

Look around you and you'll see plenty of things made by electrical conduit fittings and plastic injection moldings. Your keyboard was likely made from the process. So what is the process? Basically, melted plastic is forced into a mold cavity. Then, once the plastic has cooled, the part can be removed.

One of the advantages of this process is that a lot of parts can be made at once. There are basically six steps: clamping (the unit that holds the mold together), injection, dwelling, cooling, mold opening and ejection. With plastic injection moldings there isn't much to do in the way of finishing after molding and there is very little waste.