Is it possible to produce a working plastic injection mold using 3D printing?
3D Printed Injection Molds Help Whale Reduce Risk and Re-Engineering
Sintermask 3D Printing
When you’ve been around as long as Whale has, you get to know a thing or two about technological innovation. The Belfast-based company can trace its origins back to 1810. Today, Whale exports in-house designed and manufactured goods to more than 48 countries around the world
Whale recently began investigating the possibility of using 3D printing for injection molds. At the beginning they were skeptical – how could a mold 3D printed with a photopolymer plastic, injected with a hot liquid plastic, not melt in the process?
To their sheer delight, the 3D printed injection molds delivered and proved a major breakthrough for producing prototype parts in final materials for functional testing. Jim Sargent, 3D Technical Services at Whale, discovered the PolyJet-based Objet Connex 3D Printers from Stratasys, and the rest of Whale’s management agreed that Objet Connex technology was the way to go.