manufacturing applications
Injection Mold Parts With 3D Printed Molds
Injection Mold Parts With 3D Printed Molds
Injection Mold Parts With 3D Printed Molds
The majority of plastic products in the world today are manufactured by injection molding. However, fabricating molds can be prohibitively expensive and time-consuming. Fortunately, molds don’t always need to be machined out of metal—they can be 3D printed. Stereolithography (SLA) 3D printing provides a cost-effective alternative to machining aluminum molds. SLA 3D printed parts are fully solid and isotropic, and materials are available with a heat deflection temperature of up to 238°C @ 0.45 MPa, meaning that they can withstand the heat and pressure of the injection molding process. The complexity of the injection molding process is mostly driven by the complexity of the part and the mold structure. A broad range of thermoplastics can be injected with 3D printed molds such as PP, PE, TPE, TPU, POM, or PA. A low viscosity material will help reduce the pressure and extend the lifetime of the mold. Polypropylene and TPEs plastics are easy to process at a high amount of cycles. In contrast, more technical plastics like PA will allow a lower number of runs. The handling of a release agent helps to separate the part from the mold, in particular for flexible materials such as TPUs or TPEs.
Production Tools
Injection Mold Parts With 3D Printed Molds
Injection Mold Parts With 3D Printed Molds
Bring rapid, cost-effective production of jigs, fixtures, and tooling in-house to save days or weeks of lead time, improve operational agility, and dramatically reduce costs versus outsourcing parts to an external vendor to machine from solid billet of plastic or metal. Reduce costs and increase agility by bringing jig and fixture production in-house with no minimum order quantities, no toolpath programming, wide material selection, and low capital equipment costs. Continuously improve products and respond quickly and effectively to issues on your manufacturing line with jigs and fixtures that improve assembly or QA processes.
End-Use Parts
End-Use Parts
End-Use Parts
From a local foundry to a Fortune 500 company, 3D printed parts are reducing time- and resource-intensive steps in production processes and opening new business opportunities with the flexibility of cost-effective customization. Short run production with 3D printing provides flexibility to change designs without sinking high costs into tooling, and a cost-effective manufacturing alternative for producing end-use parts in the tens and hundreds.
Metal Casting
End-Use Parts
End-Use Parts
High precision, polymer-based 3D prints are well-suited for casting workflows to produce metal parts at a lower cost, with greater design freedom, and in less time than traditional methods. Foundries around the world use 3D printing for directly investable printed patterns, molds for wax injection, and sand casting patterns.