In simple terms, rapid tooling involves creating a mold quickly. Rapid tooling began as injection molding engineers sought to build molds in an hour or two rather than weeks or months. A few hundred plastic parts can be molded in rapid prototyping plastic injection molding before full-scale, high-volume production begins. The insert is built during the fast tooling process, including the core, cavity, and side actions. It is possible for rapid tooling to be used thousands of times (or even tens or hundreds of thousands).

Depending on the materials, technology, accuracy, consistency, and size required, different kinds of rapid tooling are available. Keep these three limitations in mind when considering rapid tooling for your prototype:

Injection molding requires a strong mold. Rapid prototyping plastic injection molding machines are measured by clamped pounds per square inch—so a soft mold material might not last. Moreover, the mold must be able to withstand injections of hot plastic.

Plastic parts must eject cleanly from the mold if the mold is smooth enough. When the material is built up in layers during some rapid tooling processes, it could be smoother since traditional steel machined molds are polished or smoothed to facilitate ejection. Rapid tooling molds may need additional work after they are created to ensure they are soft enough for rapid injection molding prototyping.

1. Plastic 3D printing

In plastic injection molding, 3D printing plays various roles, and some additive manufacturing machines are now capable of printing plastic injection molds. Three benefits of 3D printing in plastic can be seen: Molds can be created quickly (within hours in many cases), molds are less expensive than metal molds, and machines can make virtually any geometry. However, today's 3D printing technology can't offer exceptional part tolerances. Using injection molding prototyping, you may be able to produce a prototype from a 3D plastic injection mold, but you will need help to create volume from it.

2. Laser sintering of direct metal

Through traditional machining (as discussed in #3), metal can be used to create rapid tooling and plastic injection molds by fusing together metal particles to form a solvent called sintering. In rapid tooling, powdered metal is sprayed with a laser beam to draw a mold's shape. Cobalt-chromium, steel, and titanium can all be used in this process. The metal mold is better able to handle heat transfer, pressure, and ejection because it is made of metal.

Sintering is unique in that it allows you to print conformal cooling lines to accelerate the cooling of the plastic part. Consider creating a mold for a deodorant cap with a unique shape on both sides. Since the lid has a contoured shape and the wall is thin, you need to be able to cool the plastic as quickly as possible once it enters the mold to prevent it from deforming. The conformal cooling process uses buried cooling lines to achieve this cooling process.

3. Machining traditional tools for rapid tooling

Molds built using traditional methods (such as machining aluminum or steel) began to be made more quickly as rapid tooling processes became available. "Rapid tooling" refers to constructing tools as rapidly as possible. Some companies can turn around metal molds within a week or two.

One of the limitations of rapid prototyping injection molding is its geometry. The company's cutter limits the shape of a cavity—you can't cut a square corner with a round knife. EDM would be necessary to address that issue. Rapid tooling in traditional machining may be more expensive when your mold has a highly complex geometry.

DO YOU NEED RAPID TOOLING FOR YOUR PRODUCT?

It is important to remember that rapid tooling may mean you will save a little bit of time when creating a mold. While quick tooling mold creation is typically faster than traditional machining of steel or aluminum, it often requires extra finishing touches after the mold is created that can stall your process.

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