Perspectives in Molding: From where will the next significant innovation for molding come and what impact will this advancement have on medical device manufacturing?

Tim Thellin RedEye

Rapid prototyping/additive processes are already used for production applications. Early adopters are using this technology as a bridge to tooling and molding or in lieu of tooling and molding for short-run applications (100 to 2,000). Also, there will be utilization of additive technologies instead of traditional molding for more and more applications. The equipment for these processes will only improve over time in terms of repeatability, accuracy, reliability, and speed. Further, software is being developed to communicate with FDM systems so that the equipment can run more efficiently. In the future, these tools will automatically create the files that run on the systems, and download and optimize the capacity, all with little to no human intervention - a true "Direct Digital Manufacturing" application.

There will only be advances in the materials used in these additive processes. The properties of metal parts from additive processes are already good and often exceed casted parts. Thermoplastics are also improving and closing the gap with molded plastic part properties. Currently, materials are limited for additive technology, but will only increase as the demand for wider selection of materials increases.

Direct digital manufacturing allows companies to ramp up new product manufacturing without the delays of creating a traditional mold or through rapid tooling. As companies rush to market to stay competitive, creating short runs of parts can shave weeks or even months off manufacturing time. Additive technologies can produce complex parts and shapes without typical manufacturing constraints. With digital manufacturing, designers have the freedom to create complex devices exclusively for the desired form, fit, and function. This technology also allows for an entire assembly to be produced as one piece, which eliminates all cost, time, and quality problems that result from assembly. Because this technology is "digital" in nature, multiple iterations can be designed easily and cost effectively since there is no need to fix or create a new tool or mold. With only a change to the CAD data, new variations of products are immediately ready for production.