Jan 20, 2015
Professional 3D printer manufacturer Stratasys is a global leader of additive manufacturing solutions. Today the company announced that consumer goods specialist, Unilever, has cut lead times for prototype parts by a staggering 40% since introducing Stratasys' PolyJet 3D printing technology into its manufacturing process.
Stratasys 3D Printed injection mold for Domestos rim block / Image: Stratasys
Unilever owns key household brands such as Surf, Comfort, Hellmanns and Domestos. Their Italian division is using Stratasys Objet500 Connex Multi-material 3D Production System to produce injection mold tools for its household care and laundry goods divisions, which produces a run of around 50 units for a wide variety of prototype parts such as bottle caps and closures and toilet rim blocks.
Utilizing 3D printed injection molding tools, Unilever is now able to produce prototype parts in the final material for functional and consumer tests significantly faster than traditional tooling methods.
"Before, we would have to wait several weeks to receive prototype parts using our traditional tooling process; not only would this lengthen lead times, it would also increase costs if iterations were required," explains Stefano Cademartiri, R&D, CAD and Prototyping Specialist at Unilever. "With 3D printing we're now able to apply design iterations to the mould within a matter of hours, enabling us to produce prototype parts in final materials such as polypropylene, 40% faster than before."
Unilever 3D prints its injection mold tools in Digital ABS, a material renowned for its high temperature resistance and toughness. They also produce thermoforming mold prototypes on its FDM-based Fortus 360mc 3D Production System, using ABS-M30 production-grade plastic. This enables the company to produce realistic molds with flexible strength that can also endure functional testing, crucial in developing the final thermoforming mold.
Fortus 360mc 3D
Cademartiri commented, "Since 3D printing these parts ourselves, we've reduced lead times in the conceptual phase by approximately 35%. The technology has enhanced our overall manufacturing process, allowing us to evaluate our designs quickly and eliminate those that are not suitable, before committing significant investment towards mass production."
Nadav Sella, Senior Manager Manufacturing Tools at Stratasys, adds: "We are seeing a growing trend among our customers to leverage our additive manufacturing systems as a manufacturing tool for a wide range of applications, in addition to direct prototyping. With the development of some of our recent, more durable materials, our customers can now enjoy flexibility in their choice of methods to create their manufacturing tools and test designs in their final production materials, before investing in costly metal tools."
Posted in 3D Printing Technology
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The statasys website seems to indicate it actually is meant for some kind of injection molding: "Digital ABS 3D printing material is strong enough to hold up to short injection molding runs of about 10 to 100 parts. You can install the 3D printed mold directly onto your injection molding machine. ...PolyJet 3D printed molds are not production tools." http://www.stratasys.com/solutions-applications/digital-manufacturing/injection-molding
Jon S wrote at 1/20/2015 9:29:42 PM:
This appears to be used with thermoforming molding, a process in which a sheet is heated and pressed in to its final shape (a little like vacuforming). It is not used with injection molding, which is a much more difficult problem. Injection molding, which is a much more flexible process, but requires high pressures that I don't see any organic 3D printed mold surviving.