While manufacturing encompasses a wide variety of techniques, three of the most fundamental and widely utilized methods for shaping plastics and composites include injection molding, blow molding, and compression molding. Injection molding forces molten material into a closed cavity under high pressure to create precise, complex parts at high volumes. Blow molding inflates heated plastic tubes inside a mold to form hollow containers and parts, whereas compression molding uses heat and high pressure to cure solid charges into durable structural shapes.