The process of rapid tooling involves building molds faster compared to traditional methods. Molds through rapid tooling are an idea for parts prototyping before high volume production begins. An insert is built through rapid tooling with the core, cavity, and side actions. And, you might want to get thousands of cycles from that particular tool. However, this depends on the tooling method. Here’re 3 methods to consider when creating prototypes through rapid tooling.

This is where metal is used during rapid tooling to create plastic injection molds. This happens through fusing metal particles together to create a solvent through a sintering process. For rapid tooling, sintering happens by spraying a powdered metal cloud onto a laser beam. This allows drawing the shape of the mold using the laser. Various metals are used for this process including titanium, stainless steel, and cobalt chromium. The finished mold is out of metal to handle heat transfer and ejection capabilities.

The best thing about metal sintering is printing in conformal cooling lines. This cools plastic parts more rapidly. It’s very helpful when creating items such as a deodorant cap mold with unique shapes on both sides. It’s necessary to contour the thin walls and lid. It’s important to cool the plastic immediately it enters the mold to prevent deforming. Luckily, conformal cooling makes this possible because cooling lines are buried in the steel. Sintering is fast but it doesn’t give an accurate tolerance from the machine. 

This requires additive manufacturing machines to print plastic injection mold. There are various benefits of 3D plastic rapid injection molding. Here, the molds are created in a few hours, are cheaper to make compared to metal printing, and it seamlessly prints any geometry. A reliable service provider can make you a larger volume of prototype runs out of your 3D plastic rapid injection mold. 

This requires machining aluminum or steel at an increased speed to compete with other modern processes. The molds are finished in a few days unlike before. However, rapid traditional machining is limited by geometry. Companies face a problem of cutters to cut shape cavity. It’s impossible to cut square corners using a round cutter. Addressing this issue requires burning in the corner through electrical discharge machining. This would make molds with high complex geometry too expensive through rapid traditional machining.

It’s very important to understand the right tooling method for your needs. This is the trick to significantly save a great deal of time and money to create your prototype. Therefore, speed is one of the benchmarks when choosing the right tooling method. Luckily, rapid tooling is obviously faster than traditional steel or aluminum machining. However, it requires dining the product a finishing touch without having to low down the process after creation. 

Rapid tooling is a handy process when creating prototypes. Ensure to choose the most appropriate method from the 3 options above. This should allow a faster process with a chance to handle complex geometry and larger cycles. Luckily, 3D injection molding fits this criterion and it’s so easy to find a company offering this service.