I wanted to create this thread for myself and others to share valuable learned lessons or projects pertaining to molds made from the 3 or 3L.
Injection molds are the reason we decided to purchase our 3L and the lower cost compared to higher end SLS / SLA printers. So far we have printed two sets of mold inserts and our parts have come out great and have withstood the test! So we are very happy and excited for what we can do with our 3L and all the projects that we can learn on.
We are currently experimenting with different thermoplastics like glass filled nylon to see how long rigid 10k will last in certain applications.
If you have any projects or tips you would like to share please do it here!
I recently bought my Form 3 for the exact purpose(printing injection molds), however, I haven’t had the time to try it out yet.
I would be very appreciated if you can share any experience you have learned down the path so far.
What injection molding machine did you use for the mold? injecting pressure used for the shot?
What polymer was it? PP? ABS? Nylon?
How’ the part lasting? Did it broke? or still working?
Hopefully, I’ll be sharing mine in the near future.
Please find attached pictures of a test project we finished up with the help of Formlabs early on in our purchase of our machine.
Resin: Rigid 10K
Thermoplastic: 20% GF PP
We ran a short test run of roughly 20-30 parts after processing the mold in. I was surprised at how well the resin held up against the abrasiveness of the glass filled polypropylene we used.
Please note that we did no post processing ie. polishing or sanding of any kind to the cavity image. This was just to see how the resin and the printer held up to the test straight out of the box.
