By Eric Doremus | Applications Engineer

During the design, production and testing of water-tight parts used to hold electronic components, Arad, a world leader in the field of water measurement solutions, was outsourcing their molds to be produced causing a major delay in their process. By bringing a Stratasys 3D printer in-house, specifically the Connex2, Arad was able to cut the total project time from two or three months to less than one week!

The molds that Arad created were 3D printed using Stratasys Digital ABS material and were done in four parts with a total printing time of just ten hours. The four sections included the core, cavity and two inserts used to create the negative draft needed to remove the injection molded part after each run. The male and female parts were added to an Arburg injection molding machine and injected with two different materials, Grilamid TR90 (amorphous Nylon) and ABS 757. The different injection molding parameters are listed below:

GRILAMID TR90 (amorphous Nylon)

Temperature Profile: 250 - 255- 260 - 265 - 260

Injection Pressure: 880 bar (12,700 psi)

Shot Size: 38 cm 3

Packing Pressure: 200 bar (2,900 psi)

Cooling Time: 140 seconds

ABS 757

Temperature Profile: 190 - 220 - 220 - 230 - 240

Injection Pressure: 640 bar (12,700 psi)

Shot Size: 38 cm 3

Packing Pressure: 200 bar (9,282 psi)

Cooling Time: 60 seconds



Once the parts were finished and removed from the 3D printed molds, they were fused together using a ultrasonic welding technique to create the water-tight fit needed for their electronics application. By using 3D printed injection molds to produce their functional prototypes, Arad reduced their total time to market by five weeks and reduced productions costs by 80%.

Metal Mold for Prototype Testing

Cost: $10,000

Time: 6 Weeks (1,000 hours)

3D Printed Mold for Prototype Testing

Cost: $2,000

Time: 10 hours