The Virtual Foundry and Ledwell Plastics Explore Uses For Metal 3D Printing In Injection Molding
How does metal 3D printing Filametâ„¢ fit in to plastic injection molding?
STOUGHTON, Wis., Feb. 6, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Can 3D printed metal impact the plastic injection molding industry? The Virtual Foundry and Ledwell Plastics are working together to find out. Benn Simms of Ledwell Plastics writes, "After finding an article on The Virtual Foundry's Filametâ„¢ I immediately saw the potential for this exciting product and wanted to be involved. After contacting Tricia and Brad I'm very excited to have the opportunity to work with them and explore the possibilities for this product in the injection moulding industry....Injection mould tooling is a very expensive and time consuming process. This has the potential to massively de skill it for minimum outlay and hugely improve production times."
Simms is currently printing with Copper Filametâ„¢ and learning the sintering process. He'll move on to Stainless Steel 316L Filametâ„¢ next and begin making shapes to fit into the molding process.
Tooling is just one option, though. Simms also has Filametâ„¢ pegged for printing spark erosion electrodes. Simply print any size or shape electrode needed. No expensive equipment is necessary since Filametâ„¢works on any FDM 3D printer. But wait, there's more! What if Filametâ„¢ pellets could be used in standard plastic injection molding machines to create metal objects? There is more to come from this technology.
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