Stuff I Learned about Injection Molding with 3D Printed Tooling

3DPrinting-Injection-Molding-Pic-Stauber

Making injection molding tools using 3D Printing has been a long term goal for the industry.  I knew the technology had advanced recently, but was really not aware how far it had come until I attended two seminars in Utah on the subject. In this post I’ll share what I learned, and share some content that goes into greater detail.

Here is a video they made showing the process. He was able to get 950 shots out of the tool.

The Seminars

The reason for my update on this subject was a visit to PADT’s Utah office.  Our two people there, Anthony Wagoner (sales) and James Barker (engineering), told me they were doing a seminar on injection molding and I should go. I figured why not, I’m in town. Maybe I’ll meet a couple of customers.  Almost 30 people showed up to the Salt Lake Community College Injection Molding lab for the event.  Gil Robinson from Stratasys presented a fantastic overview (included in the download package) on where the technology is, how to apply it, and gave some great real world examples.  There were some fantastic questions as well which allowed us to really explore the technology

IMG_8229

Then the best part happened when we walked into the shop and saw parts being made right there on the machine. They had recently printed a tool and were shooting polypropylene parts while we were in the classroom next door. During the hour long presentation, Richard Savage from ICU Medical was able to fine-tune the injection molding machine and good parts were popping out. As you can imagine, what followed next was they type of discussion would expect with  a room full of injection molding people. “What material? How hot? What pressure? What is the cooling time? Do you use compressed air to cool it? Not a lot of flash, how hard are you clamping it? These features here, what draft did you need?”  Good stuff.  I got caught up in everything and forgot to grab some pictures.

I learned so much at that event that I decided to head north along the Wasatch Range to Clearfield and the Davis Applied Technology College.  About the same number of people were able to make it from medical, aerospace, and consumer products companies in Northern Utah.  Gil presented the same material, but this time we got some different questions so I learned a bit more about material options and some other lessons learned.

Then we visited their lab where I did remember to take some pictures:

FullSizeRender

Here is a shot of different shots that Jonathan George from DATC did to dial in the parameters.  It took him about an hour, not bad for the first time using a 3D Printed tool.

3DPrinting-Injection-Molding-parts1
IMG_8235

The part is actually a clam shell assembly for Christmas lights, in the shape of a snow flake. Here is what they look like on the tree itself. 

In talking to attendees at both events I learned of several great applications that they were going to try, varying from medical devices for clinical trials to making rubber masking tools for surface treatments. The injection molding community in Utah is very sophisticated and forward thinking.

Stratasys-PolyJet-based-3D-printed-mold-tools

What I Learned

I’ll spare you the details on what we had for dinner Monday night for the Utah office holiday celebration and jump right in to what I learned.

  1. For  the right applications, you can get some very nice parts from 3D Printed tools
  2. You do need to take the process in to account and oriented the tools facing upward in the machine, add a bit more draft than usual, and keep your pressures and temperature down when compared to metal tools.
  3. For some parts, you can get over 1,000 shots from a tool, but most poeple are getting a couple of hundred parts.
  4. As with any injection molding, the magic is in the tool design and setting up the right parameters on the injection molding press.
  5. Tricky parts can be made by using metal inserts
  6. Some machining may be required on your 3D printed tool to get it just right, but that is mostly reaming holes for ejector pins and metal inserts
  7. Plastic is an insulator (duh) so plastic tools have to be cooled more slowly and with air.
  8. Conformal cooling is a great idea, but some work still needs to be done to get it to work.
  9. The mold usually fails during part ejection, so using mold release, good draft, and proper design can reduce the loading during ejection and get more parts from the tool.
  10. The material of choice for this is DigitalABS on Stratasys Connex Machines.

There was a ton more, and you can find most of it in the download package.

The big take-away from both events was that this technology works and it really does allow you to create an injection molding tool in a couple of hours on a 3D Printer. In the time it normally takes to just get the order figured out for a machined tool (RFQ, Quote, Iterate, PO, etc…) you can have your parts.

3DPrinting-Injection-Molding-Pic-Diversified

Next Steps

Interested in trying this out yourself or learning more?  We have put together an injection molding package with the following content:

  • Polyjet Injection Molding Application Brief
  • 18 Page Polyjet Injection Molding Technical Guide
  • 12 Page White Paper: Precision Prototyping – The Role of 3D Printed Molds in the Injection Molding Industry
  • 3D Printed Injection Molding Application Guide from PADT and Stratasys
  • Presentation from Seminars
  • List of Relevant Videos
  • Four Real World Case Studies
  • Link List for Other Resources  on the Web

We have spent some time putting all this information in one place and put it into one convenient ZIP file.  Please click here to download this very useful content.

injection_molded_fan
Categories

Get Your Ansys Products & Support from the Engineers who Contribute to this Blog.

Technical Expertise to Enable your Addictive Manufacturing Success.

PADT Pulse Newsletter Screen Grab from March 2023

PADT’s Pulse Newsletter

Keep up to date on what is going on at PADT by subscribing to our newsletter.


By submitting this form, you are consenting to receive marketing emails from: . You can revoke your consent to receive emails at any time by using the SafeUnsubscribe® link, found at the bottom of every email. Emails are serviced by Constant Contact

Share this post:

Upcoming Events

05/31/2023

Driving Automotive Innovation with Additive - Webinar

05/24/2023

Hill Air Force Base Tech Expo

05/24/2023

Structural Updates in Ansys 2023 R1 (3) – Structural Optimization & Ex

05/23/2023

CROSSTALK 2023: Emerging Opportunities for Advanced Manufacturing Smal

05/10/2023

Signal & Power Integrity Updates in Ansys 2023 R1 - Webinar

04/26/2023

Additive Manufacturing Updates in Ansys 2023 R1 - Webinar

04/20/2023

38th Space Symposium Arizona Space Industry

More Info

04/19/2023

38th Space Symposium
Arizona Space Industry

04/19/2023

Additive Aids for Manufacturing - Webinar

04/18/2023

38th Space Symposium
Arizona Space Industry

04/17/2023

38th Space Symposium

04/13/2023

Venture Madness 2023

04/12/2023

Fluid Meshing & GPU-Solver Updates in Ansys 2023 R1 - Webinar

03/29/2023

8th Thermal and Fluids Engineering Conference

03/29/2023

Structural Updates in Ansys 2023 R1 - Composites, Fracture & MAPDL

03/28/2023

8th Thermal and Fluids Engineering Conference

03/27/2023

8th Thermal and Fluids Engineering Conference

03/26/2023

8TH Thermal and Fluids Engineering Conference

03/24/2023

Arizona BioPreneur Conference | Spring 2023

03/22/2023

2023 Arizona MedTech Conference

03/22/2023

Optimize Jigs & Fixtures with Additive - Webinar

03/15/2023

3D Design Updates in Ansys 2023 R1 - Webinar

03/08/2023

Competitive Advantages of 1D/3D Coupled Simulation - Webinar

03/01/2023

High Frequency Updates in Ansys 2023 R1 - Webinar

02/22/2023

Additive Advantages in Aerospace - Webinar

02/15/2023

Structural Updates in Ansys 2023 R1 (1) - Webinar

02/09/2023

IME 2023: MD&M | WestPack | ATX | D&M | Plastek

02/08/2023

IME 2023 MD&M | WestPack | ATX | D&M | Plastek

02/07/2023

IME 2023 MD&M | WestPack | ATX | D&M | Plastek

01/27/2023

Arizona Photonics Days, 2023

01/26/2023

Arizona Photonics Days, 2023

01/26/2023

TIPE 3D Printing | 2023

01/26/2023

Venture Cafe Phoenix Talent Night - Job Fari

01/26/2023

VFS 2023 Autonomous/Electric VTOL Symposium

01/25/2023

Arizona Photonics Days, 2023

01/25/2023

Building A.M.- Utah: Kickoff!

01/25/2023

TIPE 3D Printing | 2023

01/25/2023

VFS 2023 Autonomous/Electric VTOL Symposium

01/24/2023

VFS 2023 Autonomous/Electric VTOL Symposium

01/24/2023

TIPE 3D Printing | 2023

01/18/2023

2023 AZ Tech Council Golf Tournament

12/21/2022

Simulation Best Practices for 5G Technology - Webinar

12/14/2022

Digital Twins Updates in Ansys 2022 R2 - Webinar

12/08/2022

Tech the Halls - AZ Tech Council Holiday Mixer

12/07/2022

Electric Vehicle and Other Infrastructure Update Panel

11/30/2022

SPEOS Updates in Ansys 2022 R2 - Webinar

11/23/2022

Simulation Best Practices for Electronics Reliability - Webinar

11/16/2022

Discovery Updates in Ansys 2022 R2

11/10/2022

VentureCafe Phoenix Panel: Venture Capital in AZ

11/08/2022

2022 GOVERNOR’S CELEBRATION OF INNOVATION AWARDS + TECH SHOWCASE

11/03/2022

VentureCafe Phoenix Panel: Angel Investment in AZ

11/02/2022

High & Low Frequency Electromagnetics Updates in Ansys 2022 R2

10/26/2022

Simulation Best Practices For Chip-Package-System Design & Development

10/20/2022

Nerdtoberfest 2022

10/19/2022

2022 Southern Arizona Tech + Business Expo

10/19/2022

LS-DYNA Updates in Ansys 2022 R2 - Webinar

10/17/2022

Experience Stratasys Truck Tour - Clearfield Utah

10/14/2022

ASU School of Manufacturing Systems and Networks - Formal Opening Cele

10/14/2022

Experience Stratasys Truck Tour - Midvale Utah

10/12/2022

Experience Stratasys Truck Tour - Littleton Colorado

10/06/2022

Fluids Updates in Ansys 2022 R2 - Webinar

10/05/2022

Experience Stratasys Truck Tour - Colorado Springs

09/29/2022

White Hat Life Science Investor Conference - 2022

09/28/2022

2022 AZBio Awards

09/28/2022

Simulation Best Practices for Rotating Machinery Design & Development

09/21/2022

ExperienceIT NM 2022

09/21/2022

Additive Updates in Ansys 2022 R2 - Webinar

09/14/2022

Rocky Mountain Life Sciences Investor & Partnering Conference

09/08/2022

Ansys Optics Simulation User Group Meeting - Virtual

09/08/2022

Ansys Optics Simulation User Group Meeting

09/07/2022

SI & PI Updates in Ansys 2022 R2 - Webinar

08/31/2022

Simulation Best Practices for Developing Medical Devices - Webinar

08/24/2022

Mechanical Updates in Ansys 2022 R2 - Webinar

08/10/2022

Tucson after5 Tech Mixer: Ruda-Cardinal

08/05/2022

Flagstaff Tech Tour, 2022

08/02/2022

2022 CEO Leadership Retreat

08/01/2022

2022 CEO Leadership Retreat

07/27/2022

Thermal Integrity Updates in Ansys 2022 R1 - Webinar

07/20/2022

Simulation Best Practices for the Pharmaceutical Industry - Webinar

07/14/2022

NCMS Technology Showcase: Corpus Christi Army Depot

07/13/2022

NCMS Technology Showcase: Corpus Christi Army Depot

07/13/2022

Additive & Structural Optimization Updates in Ansys 2022 R1 - Webinar

07/07/2022

Arizona AADM Conference, 2022

06/29/2022

LS-DYNA Updates & Advancements in Ansys 2022 R1 - Webinar

06/23/2022

Simulation Best Practices for Wind Turbine Design - Webinar

06/15/2022

MAPDL Updates & Advancements in Ansys 2022 R1 - Webinar

06/01/2022

Mechanical Updates in Ansys 2022 R1 - pt. 2 Webinar

05/26/2022

Modelling liquid cryogenic rocket engines in Flownex - Webinar

05/25/2022

SMR & Advanced Reactor 2022

05/25/2022

05/24/2022

SMR & Advanced Reactor 2022

05/19/2022

RAPID + tct 2022

05/19/2022

Venture Cafe Roundtable: AI & Healthcare

05/18/2022

Tucson after5 Tech Mixer: World View

05/18/2022

RAPID + tct 2022

More Info

05/18/2022

Signal & Power Integrity Updates in Ansys 2022 R1 - Webinar

05/18/2022

Simulation World 2022

05/17/2022

RAPID + tct 2022

05/11/2022

Experience Stratasys Manufacturing Virtual Event

Search in PADT site

Contact Us

Most of our customers receive their support over the phone or via email. Customers who are close by can also set up a face-to-face appointment with one of our engineers.

For most locations, simply contact us: