Mould Making with FFF 3D Printed CFR PEEK Parts

Company

LIM Technics is specialized in injection moulding of 1 or 2 or multi-component parts (silicone / thermoplastic / metal) and focused in fast prototyping, followed  by   serial   production.   As   a previous owner and founder of Silcotech AG Switzerland (1984) and later Silcotech Bulgaria (2008), they bring along over 30-years of technical knowledge and experience in Plastic/ LSR injection moulding and tool making. LIM Technics has the goal to equip their production facility with a fully functional tool and injection shop with brand new high level machinery.

Challenge

Production of low-cost moulding tools in pre- and small-series production. Using AM, one is able to print test tools and parts within a short time.

Facts in Numbers

Solution

The production of complex injection moulding tools (mould block and inserts) using conventional manufacturing methods can be a very cost-intensive process. This is because machining of complex mould tools requires highly advanced procedures and machine tools with accompanying tool wear as well as other material losses.

Besides it may take several months of development for the moulds and tools due to iterations on design with no guarantee that a working design can be fabricated. For this reason, the process technology may not attain a break-even point in production especially for batches of small to medium sizes.

Material Extrusion 3D printing technology addresses these challenges in mould tool manufacture making it possible for users to design and fabricate tools that are more efficient under production conditions. So did LIM Technics and together with Apium’s 3D printing technology they could achieve enormous time and cost savings.

Conclusion

• Fast and independent production with short delivery times
• No additional cost resulting from intensive post-processing of complex component design
• Virtually no material loss or tool wear due to milling

By using the Apium P Series 3D Printer in the example of LIM Technics, the total production costs can be reduced by up to 86% while saving on the total time required can be up to 66%.

As a result of time and cost efficient production, the risk of failing design iterations can be reduced to a minimum and, at the same time, rapid amortization may be ensured for production of small to medium batch sizes.