Advantages of Metal 3D Printing for Manufacturing

"Moldmakers are a finite resource," says Denny Reiland, president of plastics specialists General Pattern Company. 👉That's why this century-old company decided to adopt 3D printing: as a way to augment its toolmaking expertise with a process that can run unattended to produce the most complicated inserts while the human moldmakers focus on machining the cavity and larger mold components. General Pattern's toolmakers have taken to this new technology, particularly the company's metal 3D printer from Mantle, using it for everything from quick-turn prototype tools to inserts for production molds. Delegating some mold making tasks to the 3D printer has made mold production more efficient, in some cases even cutting the work of the toolmakers in half on a particular tool. With both metal 3D printing and Nexa3D's Freeform Injection Molding (FIM) technology, the company now provides 16 different tooling categories to support injection molding at nearly any scale. 👇 Much more about this unique business in today's story on Additive Manufacturing Media, linked in the comments below. #AdditiveManufacturing #3DPrinting #Moldmaking

🤓 An independent study from the Fraunhofer Institute for Additive Production Technologies (IAPT) demonstrates Cold Metal Fusion to be a serious alternative to Laser Powder Bed Fusion (L-PBF) for complex, hard-to-weld metals. ✅ The study demonstrated that CMF reduced production time by over 50% compared to L-PBF. ✅ Green part processing holds significant economic potential, especially for tool- and hard metals, as post-processing is faster and tool wear is considerably lower due to the softer material state. ✅ CMF offers a high build-up rate and support structure-free printing, thereby eliminating the need for support removal that involves significant additional effort required with L-PBF. ✅ Study results convey the economic opportunities for series production using Cold Metal Fusion. #coldmetalfusion #metal #3dprinting