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You can reduce upfront costs for plastic injection mold making to zero by 3d printing parts at scale, but does anyone know a scalable low-cost way to polish/san

by 55555 3y ago

You can reduce upfront costs for plastic injection mold making to zero by 3d printing parts at scale, but does anyone know a scalable low-cost way to polish/sand these pieces so they are nicely finished?

stephen_g 3y ago
You’d have to come up with some way of doing that with machine tools, and in the process of spending all that time, money and difficulty you’d work out why people tend not to do that at any decent volumes! Excepting of course where there are very specific reasons to, such as some of the metal printing done in jet and rocket engines where the geometry would be impossible to do in single parts with casting and machining. But again that’s not exactly low cost, volume manufacture.
lvl102 3y ago
3D print -> Silicone mold or salt method -> Bake You might be better off printing MJF.
Mengkudulangsat 3y ago
You don't. It's part of the charm. Example: https://www.azeron.eu/ https://www.azeron.eu/
- turnsout 3y ago
  Yep, embrace the material. Otherwise it becomes so expensive you may as well make an injection mold.
fragmede 3y ago
the right concentration of acetone vapor will melt them slightly, giving them a polished look. Also, resin printers don't have that problem and some can print in color.
siriaan 3y ago
Parts printed in ABS can be smoothed with acetone vapor - https://all3dp.com/2/abs-acetone-smoothing-3d-print-vapor-smoothing/ https://all3dp.com/2/abs-acetone-smoothing-3d-print-vapor-sm...
- 542458 3y ago
  Does anybody do this at scale though? Also vapor smoothing can mess with your tolerances (I.e., small edges will unevenly “pull back”, making split enclosures no longer mate properly), so I’m not sure it’s a great idea for enclosure parts.
  - amelius 3y ago
    Perhaps you can compensate for it?
kennywinker 3y ago
I've heard about painting as a way to smooth over 3d printed parts, but I'm not sure how well that'd scale.
iancmceachern 3y ago
Yes, vapor smoothing, Fictiv offers it as a finishing option on their prints. Also shapeways has some good bulk finishing, dying, etc. options

by 55555 3y ago

stephen_g 3y ago

You’d have to come up with some way of doing that with machine tools, and in the process of spending all that time, money and difficulty you’d work out why people tend not to do that at any decent volumes! Excepting of course where there are very specific reasons to, such as some of the metal printing done in jet and rocket engines where the geometry would be impossible to do in single parts with casting and machining. But again that’s not exactly low cost, volume manufacture.

lvl102 3y ago

3D print -> Silicone mold or salt method -> Bake You might be better off printing MJF.

Mengkudulangsat 3y ago

You don't. It's part of the charm. Example: https://www.azeron.eu/ https://www.azeron.eu/

turnsout 3y ago
Yep, embrace the material. Otherwise it becomes so expensive you may as well make an injection mold.

fragmede 3y ago

the right concentration of acetone vapor will melt them slightly, giving them a polished look. Also, resin printers don't have that problem and some can print in color.

siriaan 3y ago

Parts printed in ABS can be smoothed with acetone vapor - https://all3dp.com/2/abs-acetone-smoothing-3d-print-vapor-smoothing/ https://all3dp.com/2/abs-acetone-smoothing-3d-print-vapor-sm...

542458 3y ago
Does anybody do this at scale though? Also vapor smoothing can mess with your tolerances (I.e., small edges will unevenly “pull back”, making split enclosures no longer mate properly), so I’m not sure it’s a great idea for enclosure parts.
- amelius 3y ago
  Perhaps you can compensate for it?

kennywinker 3y ago

I've heard about painting as a way to smooth over 3d printed parts, but I'm not sure how well that'd scale.

iancmceachern 3y ago

Yes, vapor smoothing, Fictiv offers it as a finishing option on their prints. Also shapeways has some good bulk finishing, dying, etc. options