Additive Manufacturing for Tooling

whitePaper | November 12, 2019

Today’s economies are changing dramatically, driven by developing and emerging markets, innovative products and business models, and the accelerated rise of advanced technologies, such as machine learning and artificial intelligence. Globally, the automotive and manufacturing segments have seen record-setting profits over the past decade-and also transformative change.

whitePaper | September 21, 2022

In its early days, 3D Printing reinvented the prototyping process by allowing a faster and more cost-efficient way to create new products. The effortless experimentation with CAD designs and the production of proof-of-concepts with almost no design limitations or material waste, revolutionized the prototyping world.

whitePaper | November 28, 2022

Smart manufacturing is driving the manufacturing industry to modernize its software infrastructure. Whether you call it Industry 4.0 or the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), manufacturing is in the midst of a significant transformation. A key motivation in this push to modernize is that realtime data and dynamic decision making yield meaningful performance improvements for businesses.

whitePaper | January 9, 2023

Silicone rubber has many applications, from hearing aids to handles and grips on consumer goods. This report provides an overview of 3D printed tooling for silicone part production, including two part injection molds, overmolds, compression molds, and eggshell molds. These methods can be employed for the prototyping of soft silicone products, small-batch production of customer beta units, or production of custom end-use goods. A step-by-step guide is provided for producing a silicone keychain with an encapsulated Apple AirTag, employing mold design best practices from several Formlabs product design customers. We also present information about successful material workflows from Formlabs users, including silicone-resin compatibility and recommended mold releases for both tin and platinum cure silicones.

whitePaper | December 5, 2022

The global semiconductor industry is poised for a decade of growth and is projected to become a trillion-dollar industry by 2030.The semiconductor industry, which makes vital components for the technologies we all depend on, hit the headlines over the past year.

whitePaper | September 30, 2022

Until 2020, progress towards digital transformation for most manufacturers was slow. But the urgency for manufacturers to make successful digital transformations escalated during the first 8-12 months of the global pandemic. As COVID-19 reshaped consumer buying behaviors, the pace jumped from a crawl to a sprint: According to one study, 85% of organizations accelerated their digital transformation initiatives in 2020.[1] Some industry observers believe we witnessed 6.5 years of digital progress in the last eight months of 2020 alone.[2] The pandemic was largely responsible for worldwide supply chain disruptions that slowed down goods production and delivery. As a result, manufacturers justifiably focused on managing and fixing the supply chain problems first. But as the pandemic continued, it became clear that the supply chain issues were a symptom of something deeper than the short-term disruptions.