This could be the question if you’re thinking of making many copies of an object: Should you 3D print or injection mold.
There are advantages and disadvantages to each process. Traditional injection molding offers cheap cost at high volume with very nicely finished objects. 3D printing, on the other hand, is expensive at scale, but can print any geometric shape.
It’s possible that 3D printing could make financial sense, if the number of required items is sufficiently low. There’s a minimum cost required to get into injection molding, because that process requires creation of an expensive set of molds before production can start.
There are many questions to answer before a sound decision can be made. Fortunately, Sculpteo has produced a guide that can assist making this decision. It’s available at their site and takes into consideration these factors:
- The number of units produced
- The volume of the object
- The complexity of the object’s design.
Check it out at the link below.
Via Sculpteo
