When the appearance of a component is important,
finishing and decorating visible plastics parts is often necessary.
Some of these operations, such as in-mold
decorating, can be carried out during the molding step itself and so
are extremely fast while others may be more elaborate such as in
painting or metallization
.
Machining of plastics parts, such as sheets,
and stock shapes is often required.
Annealing may be essential to relieve
post molding stresses and also stresses created during other secondary
operations.
