Video: Mold Base for Product Development With 3D Printed Molds

Alba Enterprises LLC developed the mold base seen below and in the video above specifically with 3D printed mold tooling in mind. That is, steel mold tooling made additively, perhaps through laser powder bed fusion or through the Mantle TrueShape metal paste process. The chief benefit of making this tooling additively is in product development, Alba says. Tools that are capable of production molding can be made in lead times short enough for rapid iteration of the mold design and molding process. This video shows a mold base Alba created specifically for this mode of product development.

The mold base is essentially the frame that contains the 3D printed mold core and cavity and connects them to the injection molding machine (in Alba’s case, a Babyplast machine). Various features of this mold base suit it to iterative, additive mold tooling, Alba says, including the base’s size. The company has learned that at this size — a 2-inch square mold — the cooling of the base itself is sufficient for cooling the mold. A thermocouple is placed in the mold within 1 mm of the molded part, and the base is cooled to meet a target temperature measured by this sensor. That means the extra complexity of cooling lines is not needed. The base and the iterative use of 3D printed tooling together are part of a system the company calls Scientific Additive Injection Molding, or SAIM. I filmed this video during a visit to Alba Enterprises’ facility in Loveland, Colorado.

Video Transcript

How can the injection molding process adapt to help better realize the promise of 3D printed mold tooling? Look at this. This is a mold base set designed by Alba Enterprises. I'm here at their facility. This mold base is tailored to a mold sized to be two inches square. Why that size? Because Alba has discovered that at that size, the cooling of this mold base alone is sufficient to maintain the required temperature of the mold. That means no cooling lines are needed for the mold itself. That brings real freedom to the mold design. It allows 3D printed mold making, already a fast way to obtain a mold, to proceed even faster. That means: iterate quickly. Check the design. Check the process. Change the design. Change the process. Keep doing that within tight, fast, iterative loops, all using tooling and a process that can become, will become, the production process when the final solution is realized. This is the Babyplast miniature, precise injection molding machine that Alba Enterprises provides. Ten-ton mold clamping force. Alba has used this system to run 3D printed mold tooling made of laser powder bed fusion, made using the Mantle True Shape process, even polymer 3D printed molds in some cases. Another feature of this mold set this array of injector pin holes, always ensuring that there is a pin at the right location for these small injection molded parts made with 3D printed tooling.