A medical fastener used in a surgical process achieves a tolerance of ±0.0005 in. using the Micro Molding process. “With conventional molding and multiple cavity tooling, cavity-to-cavity and process variability would already push us out of part tolerance,” comments a mold maker at Phillips Plastics, Hudson, WI. “With our Micro Molding technology, we felt comfortable we could hit the tolerances that were required for this part.”
Given the low volumes required for the part and the high cost of materials, Micro Molding offered a low-cost solution. Phillips Plastics’ proprietary process yields a higher percentage of useable parts versus runner compared to conventional molding, tilting economics toward Micro Molding when materials’ prices are high.For that reason, it’s often an ideal candidate for highly demanding medical molding. Another advantage of Micro Molding is that investment in tooling can be substantially less than conventional tooling. In most cases, prototype tooling can also be used for production tooling, assuming there are no design changes. Typical lead-time to sample parts is three to five weeks, depending on part geometry, tolerances and other specials requirements. Minimum sizes for Micro Molding in plastic are 0.002 gram to 0.06 grams and 0.0001 cubic inches to 0.003 cubic inches. In metal, minimum sizes are 0.013 grams to 0.375 grams and 0.0001 cubic inches to 0.003 cubic inches.
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A quick look into the merger of two powerhouse 3D printing OEMs and the new leader in rapid prototyping solutions, Stratasys. The industrial revolution is now led by 3D printing and engineers are given the opportunity to fully maximize their design capabilities, reduce their time-to-market and functionally test prototypes cheaper, faster and easier. Bruce Bradshaw, Director of Marketing in North America, will explore the large product offering and variety of materials that will help CAD designers articulate their product design with actual, physical prototypes. This broadcast will dive deep into technical information including application specific stories from real world customers and their experiences with 3D printing. 3D Printing is
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