Both processes with advantages and disadvantages

Plastic injection molding or 3D printing? Manufacturing companies are faced with this question frequently. Both processes have their advantages and disadvantages. Therefore, it is often certain criteria that speak for or against one method.

Injection molding, for example, is particularly suitable for high volumes, often starting at 500 parts. In some cases, plastic injection molding is already worthwhile for smaller quantities. It also offers users a very high surface finish and an almost endless choice of plastics. 3D printing, on the other hand, is ideal for complex prototypes, customizations, and individual plastic parts. And even if you need a part that can withstand mechanical stress within three days, 3D printing is usually the better choice.

Automation through combination

priomold now combines the two manufacturing processes into one effective application. For a self-developed automation solution, the handling system of the injection molding machine removes the still-warm injection molded parts from the injection mold and places them in a part fixture. For parallelization and cycle time optimization, a linear robot takes the components out of the holder and transfers them to an inspection station. Here, the quality of the parts is visually inspected before they are automatically packed into trays by a jointed-arm robot.

Parts pick-up, trays, and gripper were developed in-house at priomold. The fixture and gripper were 3D-printed from PA12 SLS in in-house additive manufacturing. To ensure that the grippers work precisely and do not damage the injection molded parts, both grippers and part receptacles were chemically smoothed afterward. The trays, which are made specifically for certain parts, are required in large quantities of 2,000 pieces and are therefore injection molded. These trays are used by the end customer in automation to enable further processing of the components. priomold has cleverly exploited the advantages of both processes and used them specifically for the respective area of application.

„Automation has allowed us to reduce cycle time by 50%, perform manufacturing and part inspection without human intervention, and run the operation automatically in three shifts. This increases the efficiency of this process chain enormously. A win not only for us but especially for our customers!" explains CTO and company founder Moritz Zumdick.