Components of an Injection Mold

So you've designed a product. You've gone through the RFQ process, sharing your CAD drawings with engineers who probably made even more tweaks. The part is going to be made of plastic using the injection molding process. But you've never made a plastic injected part before. There are a lot of new words and phrases being tossed around and you don't really know what they all mean. 

Runner Sprue? Water Baffle? Ejector Pin?

Is a tool the same thing as a mold? Why is mold spelled two ways (mold vs. mould)?

And how does the whole thing actually work?

No one would blame you for looking for a glossary of terms right about now. Fear not. Below, we break down the components of an injection mold in simple, easy-to-understand language. It even includes labeled cutaway drawings. I promise, if you didn't understand how an injection mold worked before, you will after reading this.