Quality of 3D printing versus injection molding
Quality of 3D printing versus injection molding
Are consumer level 3D printers able to print plastic objects of similar quality to ones produced using injection molding? Or is 3D printing useful mostly for the prototyping stage before a design is finalized and a steel mold is produced for injection molding?
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It depends on how you define quality.
- If you define it by general shape and tolerances, 3d printing can(!) achieve a comparable quality.
- if you define it by it's surface finish, SLA prints can but it's nearly impossible with FDM (at least currently).
- and if you define it, by its tensile strength or mechanical properties injection molded pieces wil probably always have an edge over 3d prints because of their anisotropic behaviour (meaning the piece can endure forces differently depending on the direction)
And of course as already mentioned injection molding is a much better fit for mass production.
And on the commercial side you have SLS. It can make parts that are accurate like SLA but made out of nylon so they are also really strong - that's for example how most parts by bondtech are made.
Not quite in the consumer pricepoint yet, but maybe in a few years.
This is very good information.
To add another point, a few other differences: -Additive manufacturing (3d printing) can produce some shapes which are not possible using injection molding -Injection molding currently has access to a wider variety of materials due to its maturity (pelletized raw material)
Additive manufacturing (3d printing) can produce some shapes which are not possible using injection molding
Agree. I was just thinking about this last night. The model I'm currently making would have to be multiple sub-components without 3D printing. Having everything as one piece, but still with a lot of air gaps, makes the finished product stronger.
Injection molding currently has access to a wider variety of materials due to its maturity (pelletized raw material)
There are pellet extruders, but generally agree that there's a wider material selection available for injection molding.
nearly impossible with FDM
I'm not in the space, but what's your opinion of acetone vapor treatments to get a bit higher polish for fdm?
I haven't tried it myself yet but from the results I've seen online it seems like a good way to decrease roughness. But you still you have to print with a low layer height since larger layers result in deeper crevices which can't be mitigated by the vapor. And its nothing I would try without proper safety measures. Of course you can also sand and polish your surfaces by hand but especially larger surfaces get really tedious really quick :D
I finally have a pretty well tuned ASA and ABS capable printer and am excited to give vapor smoothing a shot. That said, I am very curious how repeatable it will be in terms of part tolerance. Most of my parts are functional. Nicer surfaces would be cool, but not if it results in some variability in tolerance.