Mass produce your 3D printed parts in record time and at the lowest cost using desktop plastic injection moulding.
Hi, my name is Lafras and I am a maker. I have started a campaign on Indiegogo to enable makers like myself to mass produce their 3D printed parts using Injection moulding.
In a recent poll the response from the 3D printing community showed most of the community loves the idea and would like to help, and see the campaign succeed, but only a few have invested due to the high cost of the machines and risk involved in crowd funding.
So I have just introduced new support perks, so even if you can’t afford a machine at the moment you can still help me succeed and bring injection moulding technology from the distant factory onto your desk.
Please have a look at https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/go-from-3d-printing-to-desktop-injection-moulding/x/11729630#/ , support and spread the news.
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/go-from-3d-printing-to-desktop-injection-moulding/x/11729630
pretty cool, I wonder if not being a vacuum may cause air bubbles. Plus the mold looks somewhat small in wxh- so that would rule out larger objects. But I think this shows that low cost plastic injection molding using 3D printed molds is going to be here very soon. Nice use of what looks to be a tire jack- very smart- as me grandmum used to say ‘just wow and my word!’
@Ted_Huntington No vacuum needed, the high pressure of the injection squeezes out any bubbles.
It seems really slow in the lower video. I think just still images with more end products would look impressive. Just my two cents. Looks like a great project.
It is not a fast machine, but is still 10x faster than 3D printing multiple copies. Speed is the first compromise we have to make to scale an industrial machine down to desktop size. As the development advances it will get optimized, but it will never be as fast as a full size machine.
The pressure in the mold ‘crushes’ the bubbles, its how big injection molders work.
It’s not clear to me why the motor needs to push the plastic in so slowly- is there a problem with gearing it to more quickly push in the melted plastic?
I would think the biggest problem is how janky it looks, and perhaps replacing the car jack with a linear actuator would reduce the size as well.
@Daniel_Joyce this is a prototype the production unit will have a smaller custom toggle clamp.
@Ted_Huntington the pressure vessel generates upto 3000psi . It takes a 120 watt servo 12 seconds i.e. 1440 joules to deliver this. Imagine forcing 3 meter of filament through your 3d printer’s hot end in only 12 seconds.
@Lafras_Henning oh ok I see, so the motor has to push against the very high pressure.
@Ted_Huntington a.k.a. Back pressure
Ted: Yep, the pressure ‘crushes’ bubbles into non-existence.
the pressure is just from compressed air in the vessel
Nice work @Lafras_Henning , what kind of screw and heater are you using?
I like it. Hopefully it will do for IM what Reprap did for FDM. It’s similar to a small format machine like a Morgan or a desktop but a bit more affordable.
@Lafras_Henning it’s a great project.
And it seems as you make a really good work.
Thx for sharing and good luck with your campaign.
@Ted_Huntington No the air is expelled first, before the melt is compressed, think of a nurse prepping a hypodermic injection.
@Jonathan_Lussier The design uses a separate RAM and SCREW, so to keep costs down the base models do not have the SCREW as standard. Rather it is an add-on as “Color mixing screw attachment”. In lieu of a screw the base models use a small servo driven hopper. The Color mixing screw attachment has not started development yet, but I’ll draw heavily on the filament extruder projects already out there.
The heater is 2 x 150W cartridge heaters,
@dstevens_lv Indeed that is my dream, to be the reprap of IM, for that reason I am foregoing any patent-able IP, I will open source the firmware and later I will open source the hardware.