Impression 3D et injection plastique : Comment réaliser des moules d'injection fonctionnels dans une imprimante 3D

Article by Luis Doval updated October 16, 2012

Article

Stratasys are continuously developing new materials. One of the materials that they recently launched was the Digital ABS Plus. A unique digital material that combines the best of its components: toughness, heat resistance and flexibility. If you add those great features to a 3D printer able to deliver smooth surfaces and high detail, you are in front of a new world of applications.

Digital mold in place in the support plates.

A great example of the new available applications is injection molds. Instead of machining metal tooling, you can 3D print the mold. Thanks to the exceptional thermal and mechanical properties of the ABS like material, along with the detail and surface quality provided by the Objet 3D printers, the digital mold can be very useful in certain applications:

Short productions.
Drop test with real materials.
Fit test with real materials.
Functional validation for metal molds.

In conjunction with Ross + Doell (http://www.rossdoell.com/) and Amerjy Tool and Mold (http://www.amerjy.ca/) we tried this amazing application, with promising results. After 3D printing a prototype of a real part, Ross and Doell designed the mold, then we 3D printed it with ABS like material and went to Amerjy’s facilities to field test it. The pictures speak for themselves.

Stay tuned for the update on the details of the project.