3D printing solutions
Tooling
3D printing tooling, rather than using machined metal tooling, has two main advantages – it’s much faster and it’s lower cost. The problems have been that large, printed tools don’t mate well, the operating conditions must be adjusted to accommodate their thermal properties and the tools don’t generally last.
All that has changed with the release of HighTemp DL401 resin. It’s specially designed for printing tooling and combined with Photocentric’s print optimisation software, it gives you remarkable high temperature resistance in highly accurate large parts. They have the necessary hardness under compression with enough elongation to seal.
- Prototype and iterate new designs faster
- Get product in the hands of key customers and influencers quickly
- Makes short runs economically viable, opening up greater choice of designs and sizes
1/10th of the cost and 50 times faster
Founded in 1977, Grisport is one of the leading companies in direct injection and shoemaking worldwide. They wanted to improve their margins and go to market quicker by 3D printing their tooling.
They chose the Liquid Crystal Magna because it is one of the largest printers of its kind, it’s cost effective and very fast.
“3D printing with Magna with the help of QI factory is going to change fundamentally the way we bring moulds and products to the market.”
Giovanni Grigolato
Head of R&D at Grisport
Silicone Breast Form Moulds
Boost’s breast form revolution started by listening to the experiences of women who had treatment for breast cancer. When Sam Jackman’s mum had a mastectomy, she found the traditional silicone gel prosthesis was hot, sweaty, uncomfortable and unsuitable due to inhibition when using the platinum catalyzed silicone.
After a frustrating search for an alternative, Sam, and her co-founder Rosie Brave, decided to solve the problem themselves using HighTemp DL401 and Liquid Crystal Magna.
“3D printing enabled us to test and perfect our designs faster and much more cost effectively than using traditional manufacturing methods. We’re already thinking about what else we can do, now the technology has been proven.”
Sam Jackman.
Co-Founder, Boost Innovations
Fast-track mould making with additive manufacturing
Providing quality moulds to advanced manufacturers in the metalworking industry for a variety of applications is the core business of Tetralogia’s customer. They were looking for a solution that could shorten lead times and save manufacturing costs as competition was fierce. Turnaround and cost per mould are key to the client’s business and often the deciding factor between getting the job or not.
Tetralogia helped them become more competitive through the implementation of Photocentric’s technology.
“We could not believe the huge savings brought by 3D printing. The cost of Photocentric’s technology was 80-90% cheaper, a far cry from expensive Injection Moulding costs, even for larger injection series where savings will still be around the 60-70% mark. Equally astonishing was the shorter life cycles, we saved 30% on lead times”
Carlos
Tetralogia
Our 3D Printing Solution
Liquid Crystal Magna and HighTemp DL401 are transforming the way moulds are being made. HighTemp DL401 is specially made for printing tooling, giving you remarkable high temperature resistance and the highest accuracy in large parts, hardness under compression and enough elongation to mate and seal, characteristics necessary to enable the injection of molten plastic.
The large build volume of Liquid Crystal Magna and its fast print speeds, allow for full size moulds to be printed efficiently.
“HighTemp DL401 is very good for us because it reaches the higher temperatures necessary for PU injection and keeps them stable.”
Giovanni Grigolato
Head of R&D at Grisport
Silicone Breast Form Moulds
Silicone forms restore a realistic body shape following a mastectomy. They are required to be comfortable, practical to wear, lightweight, breathable, easy to clean, and flexible enough to be worn in wet environments and when used in energetic physical activity.
Having established an off the shelf product range, Boost embarked on an Innovate UK research project to explore the process of the production of custom prosthesis. The development stage required multiple design variations each tailored to customers’ individual sizes, then for them to be tested by those users. Customer feedback and experience was reviewed and the product was optimised.
Challenge
Boost needed multiple bespoke tools tailored to individual customers’ requirements. Metal moulds were not appropriate with each one costing £2,500 and taking two weeks to CNC.
The forces when demoulding were significant and a printed tool would need to be strong enough to withstand them.
3D printed parts for low-cost resins had been explored before, but were unsuitable because the resin inhibited the platinum curing the silicone In addition any trace residue of uncured resin would prevent the silicone from curing fully.
A solution was needed that would enable high quality injection moulding tools to be created, rapidly at an acceptable cost to the customer.
Solution
The availability of new rigid HighTemp DL401 daylight resin proved ideal and viable moulds were created on the Photocentric Liquid Crystal Magna 3D printer. This gave a consistent quality of silicone form, with no surface inhibition, proving that customisation was possible.
The moulds could be printed in less than twelve hours for just €83 each, orders of magnitude cost and time improvements on conventional tooling. Boost then used 3D printing to design, prototype and test off the shelf designs more quickly, expediting their path to market. This de-risked the scale up to production hard tooling, enabling a much more flexible approach to design.
Photocentric’s Print Support Team supported Boost throughout their validation. Using 3D printed moulds was proven to be a cost effective, quick solution for manufacturing custom breast forms. It allowed Boost to serve their community of users, giving women with more complex issues like partial mastectomies a cost effective functional solution.
Price shown for each mould half
Material Breakdown – Resin €54.87, resin cleaner €3.06
Electricty Breakdown – €4.48 to print, €0.57 to cure, €0.28/kwh
3D printing solutions
Tooling
3D printing tooling, rather than using machined metal tooling, has two main advantages – it’s much faster and it’s lower cost. The problems have been that large, printed tools don’t mate well, the operating conditions must be adjusted to accommodate their thermal properties and the tools don’t generally last.
All that has changed with the release of HighTemp DL401 resin. It’s specially designed for printing tooling and combined with Photocentric’s print optimisation software, it gives you remarkable high temperature resistance in highly accurate large parts. They have the necessary hardness under compression with enough elongation to seal.
- Prototype and iterate new designs faster
- Get product in the hands of key customers and influencers quickly
- Makes short runs economically viable, opening up greater choice of designs and sizes
1/10th of the cost and 50 times faster
Founded in 1977, Grisport is one of the leading companies in direct injection and shoemaking worldwide. They wanted to improve their margins and go to market quicker by printing their tooling.
They chose the Liquid Crystal Magna because it is one of the largest printers of its kind, it’s cost effective and very fast.
“3D printing with Magna with the help of QI factory is going to change fundamentally the way we bring moulds and products to the market.”
Giovanni Grigolato
Head of R&D at Grisport
Silicone Breast Form Moulds
Boost’s breast form revolution started by listening to the experiences of women who had treatment for breast cancer. When Sam Jackman’s mum had a mastectomy, she found the traditional silicone gel prosthesis was hot, sweaty, uncomfortable and unsuitable due to inhibition when using the platinum catalyzed silicone.
After a frustrating search for an alternative, Sam, and her co-founder Rosie Brave, decided to solve the problem themselves using High Temp DL401 and Liquid Crystal Magna.
“3D printing enabled us to test and perfect our designs faster and much more cost effectively than using traditional manufacturing methods. We’re already thinking about what else we can do, now the technology has been proven.”
Sam Jackman.
Co-Founder, Boost Innovations
Fast-track mould making with additive manufacturing
Providing quality moulds to advanced manufacturers in the metalworking industry for a variety of applications is the core business of Tetralogia’s customer. They were looking for a solution that could shorten lead times and save manufacturing costs as competition was fierce. Turnaround and cost per mould are key to the client’s business and often the deciding factor between getting the job or not.
Tetralogia helped them become more competitive through the implementation of Photocentric’s technology.
“We could not believe the huge savings brought by 3D printing. The cost of Photocentric’s technology was 80-90% cheaper, a far cry from expensive Injection Moulding costs, even for larger injection series where savings will still be around the 60-70% mark. Equally astonishing was the shorter life cycles, we saved 30% on lead times”
Carlos
Tetralogia
Our 3D Printing Solution
Liquid Crystal Magna and HighTemp DL401 are transforming the way moulds are being made. HighTemp DL401 is specially made for printing tooling, giving you remarkable high temperature resistance and the highest accuracy in large parts, hardness under compression and enough elongation to mate and seal, characteristics necessary to enable the injection of molten plastic.
The large build volume of Liquid Crystal Magna and its fast print speeds, allow for full size moulds to be printed efficiently.
“HighTemp DL401 is very good for us because it reaches the higher temperatures necessary for PU injection and keeps them stable.”
Giovanni Grigolato
Head of R&D at Grisport