Hi Formlabs,
www.addifab.com developed a new material for printing molds. The mold is not splitted, it is printed as a single part. After filling the mold on an injection molding machine, the mold is dissolved in a liquid leaving a thermoplastic part. The liquid is biodegradable. PEEK can be processed.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=utf2NBWGknY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AuyfgmsP3g8
This allows not only saving time on designing and splitting a mold, including draft angles and other complex stuff which is required for injection molding. It allows producing parts with undercuts which are simply currently not possible to produce with injection molding. The process can be compared to the wax casting.
Testing prototypes using injection molding materials without making a complex splitted mold would be more then interesting for many industries, without investing time and money in prototyping molds.
Are there any plans by FORMLABS developing a new material for “Freeform Injection Molding” FIM technology?