If you’ve never heard of freeform injection moulding (FIM), it’s surely only a matter of time until you do! This technology, created by Danish 3D-printing pioneers, AddiFab, is unlocking some fantastic new opportunities for PMMA.
The mission here is a “best of both worlds” combination – taking injection moulding and giving it the design freedom, low cost and quick lead-times of 3D-printing. By 3D-printing moulds into which polymer can be injection moulded, you get a level of design freedom that’s previously been unachievable with traditional injection moulding technology. One of the materials being given a chance to shine in this process is Diakon® ST25G8 impact modified PMMA compound.
How does F.I.M. work?
The process is actually quite simple to explain.
1: A mould or “tool” is 3D printed.
2: The 3D printed mould is then fitted into a bolster tool and PMMA is injected into the mould utilising an injection moulding machine, filling whatever intricate shape or design has been created.The filled mould is removed, dipped and dissolved away to reveal the final PMMA design below! AddiFab’s FIM technology is the only platform capable of doing this – bringing 3D printing design freedom to injection moulding. By removing traditional constraints, it’s fuelling their drive to make even more impressive products possible. Recent explorations of micro injection moulding have taken PMMA into a sub-millimetre world of microscopically intricate detail.
Lasse Staal, AddiFab’s CEO, says:
“When taking first steps into micro injection moulding, AddiFab chose Lucite International’s Diakon® PMMA for the initial testing. The Diakon® range of materials combine excellent moldability with high levels of transparency – the ideal combination for testing process capabilities.”
Pictured: so small, you’d barely believe it! A new world of sub-millimetre detail can now be achieved with Diakon® PMMA
It’s solving one of 3D printing’s common challenges, too. The first object moulded this way was an optical lens with a slight curvature. As anyone in additive manufacturing will tell you, the difficulty with curves is that they’ll ruthlessly expose the layers built up during the process which affects transparency. However, going down to 10-micrometer resolution, these layers are barely perceptible and the result is near total transparency.
Pictured: the transparency of these optical lenses relies on micro injection moulding.
The progress made so far has made Lasse and the AddiFab team extremely happy as they continue to drive change in the industry:
“What we have learned over the last couple of years is that we are filling a very important gap between prototyping and high-volume production. Most injection moulders have learned to use 3D-printing for their prototyping – and most injection moulders have struggled from time to time with bringing products out of the sandbox. “With FIM, it’s possible to launch an injection-moulded product into the market without investing in a single tool, and this is very appealing to an industry that is used to waiting weeks or months for high-cost tools to arrive. Now we have shown that even intricate PMMA components with demanding surfaces may be prototyped with freeform injection moulding.”
To see Addifab’s processing Diakon ST25G8 PMMA with their FIM technology in conjunction with Boys Machine Inc, visit stand 1231 at MDM, Minneapolis on November 3rd to the 4th, 2021.
For details on Diakon ST25G8 and other polymer types in our grade range click here.