Maximizing APSX-PIM Capabilities: Unleashing Freeform Injection Molding (FIM) with Nexa3D Printers

Kubi Kara

fromAPSX LLC

16 Nov, 2023

Maximizing APSX-PIM Capabilities: Unleashing Freeform Injection Molding (FIM) with Nexa3D Printers

We invite you to explore the convergence of traditional injection molding with the cutting-edge realm of Freeform Injection Molding (FIM) using Nexa3D printers, which promises to revolutionize your production capabilities.

3D Printing

- Injection Molding

- product design

Innovation in manufacturing is a continuous journey, and as APSX-PIM owners, you stand at the forefront of this evolution. Today, we invite you to explore the convergence of traditional injection molding with the cutting-edge realm of Freeform Injection Molding (FIM) using Nexa3D printers, which promises to revolutionize your production capabilities.

APSX-PIM nexa3D FIM

Elevating Precision, Speed, and Complexity

Nexa3D printers stand out for their unparalleled precision and ability to produce intricate parts with unparalleled complexity. This technology opens doors to creating molds with finely detailed features, delicate textures, and intricate geometries, previously unattainable using conventional methods.

APSX-PIM FIM package

Case Study: Automotive Industry
Consider the automotive sector, where the demand for lightweight, intricately designed parts is ever-increasing. With FIM, APSX-PIM owners can swiftly iterate and manufacture complex molds for vehicle components, reducing lead times and enhancing design innovation.

Rapid Prototyping and Iteration: Catalyzing Innovation

One of the hallmark advantages of integrating Nexa3D printers with APSX-PIM is the ability to accelerate prototyping and iteration cycles. This synergy empowers manufacturers to swiftly test new designs, modify molds in real time, and refine prototypes iteratively.

nexa3D printed molds on the APSX-PIM

Case Study: Medical Devices
In the medical device industry, speed to market can be critical. FIM allows for rapid prototyping of intricate molds, facilitating the development of medical-grade components with precise specifications, and ensuring compliance and efficacy.

Cost-efficiency and Material Optimization

FIM with Nexa3D printers offers not just agility but also cost-efficiency. Additive manufacturing capabilities minimize material waste by utilizing only the necessary resources for each mold iteration, aligning with sustainability goals and reducing production costs.

Case Study: Consumer Electronics
In the world of consumer electronics, where design and functionality converge, FIM enables APSX-PIM owners to create molds for intricate casings, connectors, and components, optimizing material usage while ensuring high precision.

Seamless Integration: Streamlined Workflow

The integration process between Nexa3D printers and APSX-PIM machines is seamless. From designing parts using CAD software to printing molds with Nexa3D and utilizing them in APSX-PIM for injection molding, the workflow is intuitive, enabling a streamlined and efficient manufacturing process.

Visual Representation of the FIM Process

PIM-FIM Process

Embrace the Future of Manufacturing Today!

APSX-PIM owners possess the fundamental tool for precision injection molding. By harnessing the capabilities of Nexa3D printers for FIM, you are poised to expand your manufacturing horizons, unlocking unlimited design possibilities, speed, and efficiency.

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20240119-Protolabs Insight: Making Changes

As much as we’d like to think that our first ideas are always the best, that isn’t always the case. Making changes to your design is an incredibly important concept and one that is sometimes easy for us all to forget.

Jade Jones

fromProtolabs

17 May, 2021

3D Printing

- Injection Molding

- digital manufacturing

- product design

- prototyping

The Protolabs Insight video series will help you master digital manufacturing.

Every Friday we’ll post a new video – each one giving you a deeper Insight into how to design better parts. We’ll cover specific topics such as choosing the right 3D printing material, optimising your design for CNC machining, surface finishes for moulded parts, and much more besides.

Never miss an Insight by subscribing here.

Insight: Making Changes

Transcript

Hi and welcome to another Insights video.

This time around we’re going to be tackling an incredibly important concept that’s really rather easy for us all to forget – making changes to your design.

Why is this so important? Well, as much as we’d like to think that our first ideas are always the best, that isn’t always the case. In fact, now I think about it, it almost never is. There’s a very good reason why people come to us to help develop their prototypes, as over the course of testing they find that this wall is a little too thin, or that particular type of catch doesn’t work quite the way they want it to.

The whole purpose of the prototyping process is to allow yourself the option of tweaking your model before locking in a final design for production, but while this is an incredibly important stage you can see costs creep up if you approach things in the wrong way. If you’re injection-moulding plastic prototypes, for example, making what might seems like a few small tweaks can entail the creation of a whole new mould. This doesn’t have to be incredibly expensive, in fact, with the right manufacturer it can be very affordable, but if you can make the change by modifying your existing mould, the costs will be even lower still.

With this in mind, there's one critical fact you need to remember if you want to be able to modify your part by making a few changes to the original mould – namely, that

20240117-Protolabs Insight - Complex Features in Moulding

Plenty of parts we build need complex detail if they’re going to do what we want. In this video we go through some of the more complex features, including clips, pickouts, gears and internal bayonet features, to show you how to make them work with a bare minimum of fuss.

Jade Jones

fromProtolabs

24 Oct, 2022

Injection Molding

- digital manufacturing

- product design

The Protolabs Insight video series will help you master digital manufacturing, covering cover specific topics such as choosing the right 3D printing material, optimising your design for CNC machining, surface finishes for moulded parts, and much more.

Insight: Complex Features in Moulding

Transcript

Hello and welcome to this week’s Insight.

Plenty of the parts we build need complex detail if they’re going to do what we want them to, but with a small amount of forethought and some clever design ideas, the detail needn’t be a problem.

Today we’re going to run through about half a dozen of the more complex features that we run into regularly and give you an idea of how we can make them work with a bare minimum of fuss.

Let’s start with one of the most common features out there – and one featured in our last video – clips. Spring clips for holding things together.

These useful little features can be created in a handful of different ways, each with their own plusses and minuses.

If your design can accommodate a relief hole at the base of the clip and a bit of additional draft, a sliding shutoff design is a cheap and functional way to go.

However, sometimes this just won’t work – for example if there’s no room for the relief hole. In this case we can use a side-action to mould the clip, but this needs to be positioned in a way that allows access from the outer parting line.

And if all else fails, you should be able to make things work using a pickout – that’s a detachable part of the mould that we manually insert before the injection begins, and that we need to pull out again after it finishes. There’s a bit more cost than other techniques, but it can overcome almost every shape and positioning restriction going.

Next up – lots of parts need text on them. Exactly how