Injection Mold Tooling
Injection Molding Tooling
Increasingly, time to market has become the key differentiator for success in the consumer product marketplace. Metal injection mold tooling is often the most time-consuming costly part of the design process. The SLS (Selective Laser Sintering) rapid prototyping process has been adapted to produce metal-based prototypes that can be used in rapid tooling applications.
The SLS process fuses, or sinters, the powder to form the mold geometry, which is then filled with bronze to form a metal matrix. Conventional injection molds tend to be created by using time-consuming subtractive processes.
The combination of modular molds with rapid tooling offers a fast alternative to traditional methods, allowing the development of tool inserts within a relatively short time frame. Rapid injection mold tooling enables the production of beta prototype parts of sufficient quality to fully test both the product and the marketplace, providing stimulation of the market, enabling valuable feedback for the company on a new product’s market potential and customer requirements.
Making multiple parts out of alternative materials with shorter lead times is the primary advantage of rapid tooling. In addition, some of these processes allow for making parts out of production intent materials. SLA, SLS and FDM produced prototype patterns can be used for rapid tooling processes such as:
- composite injection
- kirksite injection
- silicone vacuum cast
- zinc and aluminum plaster cast
- spray metal injection
- sand cast
Dinsmore & Associates makes prototype molds and low-volume production molds using high-speed milling, automated software and a proprietory fixture system. We create hundreds of open and closed molds each year.
We surpass our competitors at producing complex molds capturing undercuts with manual slides and hand pickouts. These molds are textured, polished, modified and welded to make the most out of your rapid tool.
Learn more about the various types of tooling:
