When there are demands for more than 100 or 200 parts for plastic parts, then you need consider build rapid prototyping injection mold and run rapid injection molding. The cavity and core for rapid tooling could be made of aluminum or S50C, P20 mould steel. Rapid tooling is still the result of an additive manufacturing driven by CAM. The machining process is no difference with production tooling. It need CNC machining, EDM machining, wire-cut machining, grinding, polishing and fitting. The rapid tooling will be design as simple as possible but on the condition of the that the ultimate parts will meet appearance, finish and dimension tolerance requirements. But the speed of the rapid prototyping mould will be much quicker than production or pre-production tooling. The typical lead time from kick-off the tooling building to first mould trial is from 20 days to 40 days, while the lead time for running rapid injection molding is from 3 days to 10days. It is up to how many parts you need from the rapid prototyping tooling.
The most important factor for rapid tooling certainly is rapid. But it is not just rapid. Rapid tooling also means to be more cost-effective to save significant tooling cost. For sure, the requirements for the rapid tooling itself are much lower than conventional tooling. The rapid prototyping tooling will be with wider tolerance, short mold life. Nowadays, there are more and more demands for rapid tooling. Not all products will have a massive volume demands and, more and more products have very limited budget and now the time required for the products put on the market are becoming less and less. In most cases, time means money, means the popularity of the products, means the sales prospect on the market, also may means the destiny of the products. So rapid prototyping tooling and rapid injection molding become more and more important in the new century. Any mould maker who could not get themselves adapt this trend. They will be dumped by the customers by the whole tooling industry. So in the further a good mold maker must be a good rapid tooling and rapid injection molding manufacturer.
Uidea not only can make rapid tooling also we can make high quality starndard export mould, run mass production and mechanical assembly. If you want to learn more information about Uidea, please do not hesitate to contact us or email our sales team at sales@uidearp.com.