# Manufacturing plastic coat hangers? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 2, 2013, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/manufacturing-plastic-coat-hangers/651845 "2013-03-02T19:56:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Altivu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a8b319/32.png) [@Altivu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Altivu)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2013, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/manufacturing-plastic-coat-hangers/651845/1 "2013-03-02T19:56:52Z")
I’d hate to turn this into a homework help site, but I am having some trouble finding some good information how coat hangers are manufactured, specifically plastic coat hangers. I’ve found some videos highlighting wire and wooden, but none on plastic. If anyone has the knowledge or google-fu to point me in the right direction, it’d help a lot. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![AndrewL](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@AndrewL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AndrewL)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2013, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/manufacturing-plastic-coat-hangers/651845/2 "2013-03-02T19:59:32Z")
[![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/Ibiw0CwTXIc/hqdefault.jpg "Side entry robotic de-mould of injection moulded coat hangers.") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ibiw0CwTXIc) ---
**Author:** ![DCnDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dcndc/32/2842_2.png) [@DCnDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DCnDC)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2013, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/manufacturing-plastic-coat-hangers/651845/3 "2013-03-02T21:13:40Z")
Obviously they’re hand-crafted by skilled European artisans using age-old techniques passed down from generation to generation. My grandfather once tried to break into the business, but he just didn’t have the connections to gain an apprenticeship. ---
**Author:** ![dstarfire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dstarfire/32/5762_2.png) [@dstarfire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dstarfire)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2013, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/manufacturing-plastic-coat-hangers/651845/4 "2013-03-02T21:50:47Z")
They’re injection molded like most plastic items. It’s basically like a waffle iron with the objects shape, rather than a square or round grid. Check out some of the “how it’s made” videos here [http://science.discovery.com/tv-shows/how-its-made](http://science.discovery.com/tv-shows/how-its-made) for a better understanding. ---
**Author:** ![Nawth\_Chucka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/c57346/32.png) [@Nawth\_Chucka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nawth_Chucka)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2013, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/manufacturing-plastic-coat-hangers/651845/5 "2013-03-02T21:54:29Z")
Actually, they’re the mature branches of the spaghetti tree, left after the harvest in order to strengthen over the mild Italian winters. ---
**Author:** ![Altivu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a8b319/32.png) [@Altivu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Altivu)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2013, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/manufacturing-plastic-coat-hangers/651845/6 "2013-03-02T22:18:43Z")
> [@AndrewL](#): > > [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ibiw0CwTXIc](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ibiw0CwTXIc) Fascinating, but given my limited knowledge, I really don’t know what’s going on in that video beyond the “side entry robotic de-mould of injection moulded coat hangers.” > [@dstarfire](#): > > They’re injection molded like most plastic items. It’s basically like a waffle iron with the objects shape, rather than a square or round grid. > > Check out some of the “how it’s made” videos here [http://science.discovery.com/tv-shows/how-its-made](http://science.discovery.com/tv-shows/how-its-made) for a better understanding. That’s actually one of the first places I went to check. It highlights wooden coat hangers though…I guess, when I have time, I’ll go check out some of the plastic items they showcase and try to get a feel for how these things are made in general. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2013, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/manufacturing-plastic-coat-hangers/651845/7 "2013-03-02T23:29:48Z")
We did injection molding in shop class in middle school and made screwdrivers. It’s not complicated. Basically, you have a 2 piece mold like **dstarfire** describes as a ‘waffle iron’. Plastic pellets are melted, and the mold is moved adjacent to a nozzle, and the melted plastic is “injected” into the mold, where it cools. The two halves of the mold are separated, the plastic pieces are removed, and any flash or sprue is removed. That’s all there is to it. ---
**Author:** ![jz78817](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jz78817/32/1028_2.png) [@jz78817](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jz78817)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2013, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/manufacturing-plastic-coat-hangers/651845/8 "2013-03-03T00:04:59Z")
> [@Altivu](#): > > Fascinating, but given my limited knowledge, I really don’t know what’s going on in that video beyond the “side entry robotic de-mould of injection moulded coat hangers.” > > That’s actually one of the first places I went to check. It highlights wooden coat hangers though…I guess, when I have time, I’ll go check out some of the plastic items they showcase and try to get a feel for how these things are made in general. > **[Injection moulding](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Injection_molding)** > > Injection moulding (U.S. spelling: injection molding) is a manufacturing process for producing parts by injecting molten material into a mould, or mold. Injection moulding can be performed with a host of materials mainly including metals (for which the process is called die-casting), glasses, elastomers, confections, and most commonly thermoplastic and thermosetting polymers. Material for the part is fed into a heated barrel, mixed (using a helical screw), and injected into a mould cavity, whe... ---
**Author:** ![lazybratsche](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ba8739/32.png) [@lazybratsche](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lazybratsche)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2014, 12:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/manufacturing-plastic-coat-hangers/651845/10 "2014-11-12T12:29:46Z")
> [@valeh](#): > > I understand completely because I also hate shoddy Plastic hangers Spam reported.