![]() Moldmaking is a laborious and expensive process that can take several weeks, creating long lead times. The plastic injection molding process is essentially divided into two distinct processes: making the metal mold, then using the mold to make plastic parts. Because the material can be injected quickly at high pressure, and because the cooling process is also very fast, injection molding is one of the fastest production methods, hence its suitability for mass production. The mold is then opened up, and the finished product is ejected from it. It is the most widely used manufacturing process for polymers, with the ability to make final parts for a range of industries.Īn injection molding machine uses a reciprocating screw or ram to force a precise quantity of molten plastic into the cavity of a metal mold - typically consisting of two halves clamped together - where the plastic material quickly cools and solidifies. Injection molding is a traditional manufacturing method used for the high-volume production of plastic parts. Printhead draws next layers until part is finished Printhead moves up (or print bed moves down) one step along Z axis Printhead moves along X and Y axes to draw 2D layer using molten filament And some forms of 3D printing, including direct metal laser sintering (DMLS), are used to make production-grade metal parts rather than plastic ones.Įxtruder gears move filament towards hotend ![]() Stereolithography (SLA), for example, works in a completely different way, using a laser to cure successive 2D layers in a vat of photopolymerizable liquid resin. However, FDM is just one type of 3D printing technology. ![]() This article focuses on FDM because it has important parallels with injection molding for instance, both processes are primarily used with thermoplastic polymers. A 3D model designed using CAD software is converted into machine-readable instructions, so the 3D printer can fabricate the design without any manual supervision. In this way, a 3D shape is created.ģD printing is an extremely precise and repeatable process because it is a form of digital manufacturing. ![]() Once the first layer has been deposited, the next layer can be deposited on top of it, with each layer fusing to the next. During the FDM process, the 3D printer melts and extrudes the filament and deposits it onto the print bed, where the material cools and hardens. The most common plastic 3D printing process is fused deposition modeling (FDM) - also known as fused filament fabrication (FFF) - which uses spools of plastic filament as feedstock. What is 3D printing?ģD printing is an additive manufacturing process that uses raw material and a computer-controlled print head to build up parts in a layer-by-layer fashion. This article looks at FDM 3D printing vs injection molding in terms of process characteristics, product design constraints, materials, cost, applications, and other factors. In other words, calling 3D printing a “prototyping” process and injection molding a “mass production” process is less accurate than it once was. Advances in low-cost tooling are making short-run injection molding more cost-effective than ever, while new and improved additive manufacturing technology makes it possible to quickly 3D print large production runs of high-quality parts. For example, a small to medium-size batch of simple parts might have roughly the same production costs with either process.įurthermore, the disparity between the two processes in terms of production scale is actually getting smaller. For instance, while 3D printing can fabricate parts with a wide range of geometries - including complex internal cavities - injection molding is generally restricted to simple, thin-walled parts.īut there are some scenarios in which 3D printing and injection molding present themselves as equally viable production processes. 3D printing is primarily a rapid prototyping process for making one-off parts and very small batches, while injection molding is a mass manufacturing process regularly used to make batches numbering millions of units.Īnd the differences don’t end there. 3D printing, otherwise known as additive manufacturing, doesn’t appear to have much in common with injection molding.
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