Massivit 10,000 Additive Tooling System for Composites Manufacturing

Massivit 3D’s 10,000 additive tooling system is designed to overcome bottlenecks in composite materials manufacturing. Based on the company’s Cast In Motion (CIM) technology, the system is said to enable direct printing of complex molds using high-performance casting materials. The technology is said to shorten tooling production time by 80%, reduce costs and decrease material waste associated with traditional tooling methods.

In addition to facilitating direct printing of molds, the enables fast production of complex prototypes, mandrels and plugs, the company says. The system is also said to empower composite fabricators to digitally produce complex, custom molds within a matter of days, instead of weeks. The CIM technology is said to combine ultrafast, additive manufacturing (AM) with high-performance, thermoset casting materials to enable automated tooling for composites.

It is said large tools and molds traditionally used for producing fiber-reinforced composite parts can be expensive, slow-to-build, wasteful and require extensive manual skilled labor. The 10,000 is said to offer market time- and cost-saving benefits for the manufacturing of large tooling, including simplified production and higher yield, simplified  supply chain and reduced required stocks, and reduced waste of expensive materials.

The system process begins with an outer, sacrificial shell 3D printed with a water-breakable gel using Massivit 3D’s Gel Dispensing Printing Technology (GDP). A thermoset epoxy material (which is said to have high mechanical and thermal properties) is cast into that shell, forming an isotropic mold. Once the 3D printed tool is immersed in plain water, the sacrificial shell crumbles away, leaving the desired mold, ready to use.

Technical advantages are said to include design freedom which enables allows mold production of function-oriented, intricate geometries. The system is said to enable better and faster tool design cycles, including many features to reduce iterations. The CAD part to CAD mold design is said to enable improved accuracy, consistency and higher reliability. Users are also said to achieve true isotropy as well as high mechanical and thermal properties at elevated temperatures.