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- [Instructor] Most traditional manufacturing processes
require custom tooling to create end-use parts.
However, tooling comes with high upfront costs
and weeks or months-long lead times from service providers,
slowing down product development and extending the time
it takes to get a product to market.
Incorporating in-house rapid tooling,
such as 3D printed molds, patterns, and dies,
into the product development process,
empowers businesses to validate
the design and material choice with functional prototypes
before transitioning to mass production,
and provides an affordable means
to produce custom or limited series of end-use parts.
In this video, we'll cover the fundamentals
of rapid tooling, its applications,
and how 3D printing can help you develop tooling
to scale low to medium production.
How Rapid Tooling with 3D Printing Works.
Stereolithography, or SLA, 3D printing technology
is a great choice for quickly and cost-effectively
producing 3D printed rapid tooling.
Molds, patterns or dies produced with SLA 3D printers
are accurate and have a smooth surface finish,
which will be transferred to the final part
with high precision.
Formlabs' ecosystem of accessible 3D printers
and high-performance materials can be easily integrated
into industrial workflows to fabricate strong,
smooth, and highly-detailed molds and patterns
capable of producing hundreds to thousands of parts.
Here's an example of a rapid tooling workﬂow
with 3D printing.
First, design the tool in CAD.
Then, choose the right resin
from our expansive materials library and 3D-print the part
on a Formlabs SLA 3D printer.
Next, insert the 3D printed rapid tool in your machine
and use it in your normal workflow.
Finally, post-process the end part as needed.
Rapid Tooling Applications with 3D Printing.
3D printing can be used to support
a variety of traditional manufacturing processes
to produce plastics
silicone or rubber parts
composites
and even metal parts.
Use 3D printed molds for manufacturing processes
such as injection molding
overmolding
compression molding
thermoforming
casting
or sheet metal forming.
Let's see some examples of how innovative companies
have been using Formlabs 3D printers for rapid tooling.
Injection molding is one of the most popular
manufacturing processes for thermoplastic, silicone,
or rubber parts.
Due to the excessively high costs
of traditional metal tooling,
it is also the process that can benefit the most
from 3D printed rapid tooling.
Shenzhen-based contract manufacturer, Multiplus,
uses 3D printed injection molds with the strong, stiff,
and heat resistant Rigid 10K Resin
on Form 3 SLA 3D printers,
shortening lead times for small batches
of around 100 injection molded parts,
from four weeks to only three days.
Additional examples include emergency mask straps
by petrochemical company, Braskem,
and prototype and pre-production parts for the clients
of manual injection molding machine manufacturer HoliMaker.
Product development ﬁrm, Glassboard,
leverages the printing speed of Draft Resin
to quickly produce molds
and thermoform polycarbonate prototypes
such as helmet shells or packaging.
They can achieve complicated mold shapes
that would be diﬃcult to manufacture traditionally,
including small features and holes
for an even better vacuum distribution across the surface.
Cosmetics manufacturer, Lush, used to craft the master molds
for their hugely popular products by hand.
But recently, they turned to 3D printing
to create vacuum forming molds for detailed
and textured designs, which allows them to take ideas
from concept to reality in under 24 hours,
and test more than a thousand design ideas each year.
3D printed rapid tooling is also ideal
for cost-effectively manufacturing custom
or customized end-use parts.
For example, vacuum forming over 3D printed models
is the go-to method for producing clear aligners
in orthodontics.
High-performance composite materials, such as carbon fiber,
can also be molded on 3D printed tools,
due to the smooth surface finish of SLA printers,
which is essential for layup molds.
The Formula Student team of TU Berlin,
hand laminates carbon ﬁber parts on 3D printed molds
for racing cars.
Printed with Tough 1500 resin, the mold is not only strong
and supportive during the layup
but also sufficiently flexible to separate the part
from the mold after curing, unlocking design possibilities.
3D printed molds can also be employed
for molding silicone or rubber parts
and overmolding inserts or internal hardware.
Piece-picking robot manufacturer, RightHand Robotics,
brought the production
of adaptive flexible fingers in-house,
with 3D printed molds and overmolding.
There is an internal wire channel
through the core of the fingers that is only made possible
with 3D printing technology.
Product developers at kitchen appliance manufacturer OXO
use 3D printing for prototyping rubbery components,
such as gaskets, by compression molding two-part silicone
using 3D printed molds.
3D printing also empowers you to create castable patterns
in hours, cutting down on manual labor.
It allows jewelers to move directly
from design to production,
while engineers can leverage the speed and flexibility
of 3D printing in combination with casting workflows
to produce metal parts at a lower cost,
with greater design freedom,
and in less time than traditional methods.
Casting is also a popular method for producing silicone
and plastic parts for medical devices,
such as patient-specific pessaries, or custom earmolds
for hearing aids, noise protection,
and custom fit earphones.
SLA 3D printing technology
presents some interesting properties
for sheet metal forming as well.
SLA printers can fabricate tools
with excellent registration features
for better repeatability.
Resins are isotropic and fairly stable under load
compared to other 3D printing materials.
Combine 3D printing
with traditional manufacturing processes
and bring your production to the next level
with in-house 3D printing, powered by Formlabs.