If your part volumes don’t stretch into the millions, if you need on-demand production parts within days, and if you’re looking to avoid risky tooling investments before your part design is truly validated, low-volume injection molding with an aluminum tool might be good option.

Get machined parts anodized and chromate plated with our quick-turn finishing option. Eligible materials include aluminum 6061/6082 and 7075.

Tough Black (Loctite Henkel 3843) and Ceramic-Filled (BASF 3280) are two new advanced photopolymer materials now available for 3D printing.

Available in sheet and rod, it is easily machined with standard metal working equipment. Tolerances of +/-.0005 can be achieved with experience. The glass can lead to some premature wear of tooling, so care should be taken to avoid excessive tool speeds.

At Protolabs, we include a free interactive design for manufacturability (DFM) review within a few hours in every injection molding quote. In the time it takes to get the initial quote from a high-volume production molder, you can have several design reviews and a mold already in production.

Our team uses high performance thermoplastics to design and manufacture solutions — whether injection molded, machined, stamped, fabricated, or assembled — that exceed the demands of your specific applications so you can focus on product and market development.

If you have any further questions about rapid manufacturing at Protolabs, check out protolabs.com or contact one of our application engineers at 877.479.3680 or [email protected].

Our digital factories create prototypes and low-volume parts fast, while our manufacturing network, offers advanced capabilities and volume pricing.

Our helpful design aid demonstrates part features that are too thin or too thick, bad bosses, right and wrong ribs, and other considerations to be mindful of while designing parts for injection molding.

Proto Labs, Inc. 5540 Pioneer Creek Dr. Maple Plain, MN 55359 United States P: 877-479-3680 F: 763-479-2679 E: [email protected]

Delrin 570is a 20% glass filled acetal homopolymer blend. DuPont Delrin® is a popular acetal homopolymer brand name, and the most commonly used acetal homopolymer. The combination of glass in Delrin® acetal resin gives this material excellent stiffness, strength, and stability. This combination offers higher mechanical properties at elevated temperatures.

It is commonly utilized in spools, fixtures, and electrical components where dimensional stability and enhanced mechanical and insulating properties are required.

Conventional injection molding typically uses steel tooling capable of producing millions of parts, however, it often takes months to manufacture a mold and a capital investment of $50,000 or more. But what if production demands call for smaller quantities? That’s where aluminum tooling is ideal. Here’s a quick look at the differences between steel and aluminum tooling.