Supercharge Your Manufacturing Tools With 3D Printed Rapid Tooling
Speed up your product development cycle, iterate swiftly, and bring high-quality products to market faster by integrating 3D printed rapid tooling into your workflow. This technique lets you test and confirm design choices and materials before scaling to full production or cost-effectively produce limited batches of custom end-use parts.
Rapid Tooling for Low Volume Production With Traditional Manufacturing Processes
Merge the benefits of 3D printed rapid tooling with classic manufacturing techniques to fabricate small batches of parts using plastics, silicones, rubbers, composites, or metals. This streamlined approach offers flexibility, scalability, and cost-efficiency in your tooling operations.
3D printed tooling can facilitate the small-scale production of components made from a wide range of materials, including
01
Plastics
Create Thermoplastic Parts Economically In-House
Traditional plastic production methods often demand costly industrial setups and skilled labor. 3D printed tools make it feasible for teams to produce prototype and end-use thermoplastic parts in-house at reduced costs.
By using 3D printed molds or patterns, you can easily produce parts with the following manufacturing methods:
✔ Injection molding
✔ Thermoforming
✔ Compression molding
✔ Overmolding and insert molding
✔ Blow molding
✔ Casting
02
Silicones & Rubbers
Quickly Create Intricate Silicone Components
Producing small batches of flexible or soft parts often presents technical hurdles, can be expensive, and takes time. Many engineers turn to 3D printed tooling to mold or cast silicone components. 3D printing offers key advantages, such as CAD-based design freedom, precise detailing, fast prototyping, and shorter lead times.
You can use 3D printed molds or templates to manufacture silicone and rubber parts through:
✔️ Injection molding
✔️ Casting
✔️ Compression molding
✔️ Overmolding and insert molding
03
Composites
Make High-Precision Composite Parts In-House
Fabricating composite parts—like carbon fiber components—is often complex and time-consuming, especially for custom or small-scale runs. 3D printing is a cost-effective way to create molds and forms rapidly. Stereolithography (SLA) 3D printing delivers ultra-smooth surfaces, ideal for use in composite tooling. Durable, heat- and pressure-resistant materials can endure autoclave conditions and are well-suited for prepreg lamination.
Use 3D printed molds to manufacture composite components using these methods:
✔️ Thermoforming
✔️ Compression molding
✔️ Forming
04
Metals
Innovatively Shape Metal Parts With 3D Printing
Although 3D printing is often linked to plastic production, its accuracy and wide material selection make it an excellent choice for metal casting and sheet forming as well. Utilize 3D printing to make metal components faster, cheaper, and with enhanced design versatility compared to conventional methods.
Apply 3D printed molds, dies, or patterns for metal part production using:
✔️ Casting
✔️ Sheet Metal Forming
From Design to Finished Parts in Just 24 Hours
No more waiting weeks for tooling deliveries. With our 3D printer partners streamlined, user-friendly ecosystem, you can easily integrate rapid tooling into traditional production setups. Save costs and speed up timelines for limited-run manufacturing by using 3D printed molds and patterns to quickly produce hundreds—or thousands—of plastic or metal components.
Step 1
Design
Model your mold or tooling pattern using CAD software.
Step 2
3D Print
Select an appropriate resin from our comprehensive material library and 3D print your part on a 3D printer
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Step 3
Manufacture
Place the printed tool into your machine or incorporate the printed pattern into your production flow to create your parts.
Step 4
Post-Process
Remove the finished part and perform any required post-processing steps.
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