Liked the article https://formlabs.com/blog/3d-printing-for-injection-molding/
What is the longivity of the inserts? Lets say i print them with a high temp resin and use the ABS material.
Thanks!
This is very hard to answer because there are so many variables that effect how long the mold will last.
The part design, injection pressure, closing force, and support around the mold will all have a drastic effect on how long the mold will last.
I’ve had molds go over 50 parts and I’ve had molds fail on the first part.
50 parts is too few. Makes it too expensive. I am interested in getting at least 1000 pcs of simple parts. Assuming the high temp resin cost will be around $50 per one set of molds it makes the cost of one part reasonable.
But I thought that the clamping forces can be disregarded as I plan to use aluminum shells. Not sure if you use these at all.
Clamping frames will help the molds last longer but there still needs to be some closing force on the printed cavity. The frame just limits and controls this closing distance. With a small machine and simple parts you may have a chance.
The injection temp of ABS is near the limit of the high temp resin. If you want the cavity to last it’s very important to keep the temperature in check (might need slower cycle times).
If you want a lot of parts from the mold I would switch to Polypropylene. The lower melt point, better material flow, and release from the cavity make it a much better material for small parts. It’s not quite as stiff but it’s pretty good. (remember that ABS and PP don’t like to mix at all)
You can probably find some one here to print off a trial mold to see how long they would last with your set up.
If you get in touch with our sales team, they’ll print a sample mold for you and might have more insight into the lifetime of the material. I don’t believe we’ve stress tested High Temp Injection Molds so you should post your results on the forums!
Maybe my experiment with normal grey resin can provide a bit more detail for you regarding costs and longevity of the resin.
I have found that the most critical part of the 3d printed mold is the sprue area where most of the heat from the machine and the plastic hits the mold. With an aluminum frame this should bring significant relief (as the heat is absorbed from the aluminium) and even enable normal resin to work as a mold because the cavities in my example have not suffered any deformations at all in the details.
The flash I have in my example is from too high temperature I have learned recently.
But 1.000 parts is 500 shots on a two cavity mold - I am normally positive but I doubt you will get more than 150 shots (which is good in my opinion) out of the printed mold
Try to print more 2-3 molds from the same parts put them in the aluminum shell, inject plastic, let it cool while you take the next mold and fill it with plastic. After cooling take mold 1 and repeat - this should increase the life of the significantly as well.