I find vacuum assisted casting to have better surface finish and
less porosity. Of course melting technique along with the alloys
used will always impact the quality of the castings. 

Jeffrey, I have to agree on the melting technique and alloy but by
vacuum assist, do you mean vacuum assist as like in setting a solid
walled flask on a silicon pad and having the vacuum drawing on the
end of the flask? Or are you referring to using perforated flasks, I
never could get decent results with what I was told was vacuum
assist, (using a conventional flask and sitting it on a silicon pad)I
tried straws, wax web, all sorts of (remedies) however, I swear by
perforated flask vacuum casting.

Want more information on vacuum casting services? Feel free to contact us.

Was there any mention by Rio as to what system was used? I would
imagine it was a Neutec system or some exotic shielded system, I wish
I could afford one. I have been using the Neutec flask bases and
tapered sprue wax though, very good concept I like the idea of being
able to gently remove the base, and the sprue holder is easy to fit
in a swivel vise. Makes sprueing so easy, Also the material has a
very fast dwell time, so you don&#;t have to hold the piece in place
while the sticky wax sets. Just for an experiment, I cut part of the
bottom off one of the sprues and used sticky wax to attach it on a
conventional sprue base and cast some Brass findings today on my
large centrifugal, very nice castings. The taper helps keep the mass
and weight down, so think I&#;ll cut the ball shape down on some bases
and use the Neutec sprue wax for everything just glue it down with
sticky wax. I would like to see or find out about some of the
equipment coming out of Germany and Israel; I have heard some
incredible stories of how thin they can cast pieces. I&#;ve heard down
to 28 to 30 Ga. Over a 1.5 to 2 sq in. area. I&#;m sure that will be
the next criteria customers will be looking for before heading for a
developing nation!!

Do you recall in which issue of the Symposium the article was
published?. I certainly miss many technical issues being out in the
middle of the swamps of the Natchez Trace. Of course, I suppose I
could just buy the Symposium books each year (DUH) but then I could
be intelligent and that would scare my friends and family. Not to
mention the few customers I have left (the ones not learning
2nd or 3rd languages) !

Do any Orchidians do &#;flask less or Paper Flask casting&#;?. I&#;m
curious if this is a viable alternative for small, as in very small
shops?

Is Orchidians actually a suitable term or would Orchidites be more
acceptable.

Kenneth Ferrell
Enjoying not having any Tornado warnings today.
(but wait till tomorrow)

Low Volume, Cost-Effective Alternatives to Injection Molding

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Injection molding is a commonly used process for manufacturing plastic parts, but the high upfront costs of the molds makes it viable only at high volumes.

A startup developing a new product from scratch faces high uncertainty of whether their product will be successful in the market or not. Therefore, it is hard for them to invest several thousand dollars for injection molding of an unproven product idea.

Below are some alternatives to injection molding that allow manufacturing low volume parts(10s or 100s of), cost effectively so that you can test your product&#;s market, receive feedback from users, present your product to investors, run promotions and more.

1) Urethane Casting

(RTV Casting/ Resin Casting/ Vacuum Casting/ Silicone Molding)

Urethane Casting is an excellent alternative to injection molding, but without the high upfront costs or long lead times of injection molding.

For more information, please visit aluminum extrusion prototype design.

A &#;master pattern&#; of the product is created using CNC Machining or high-resolution 3D Printing with the required surface finish. This pattern is then used to create a urethane or silicone mold into which a suitable resin can be poured in order to create multiple copies of the product. The mold typically lasts for around 20 runs.

This method provides a wide range of resins that can mimic production-grade materials from soft elastomers like silicone rubber to hard plastics like ABS, along with &#;production-grade&#; quality.

This process is great for cost-effective production runs upto 200&#;300 parts to test the market, gather feedback from early adopters and test the engineering and design requirements.

2) 3D Printing

3D Printing is suitable as a prototyping process and for very low volume production runs. It requires no upfront costs and provides lead-times as short as a few hours. This makes 3D Printing a preferred choice for quick iterations during the development of plastic products, and sometimes for metal and composite materials too.

3D printed parts inherently have a &#;layered&#; surface due to the way 3D printing works. But this surface can be sanded and painted to achieve the desired surface finish.

The resulting parts can be used as &#;looks-like&#; prototypes, for marketing and promotional shots, presented to investors or potential customers.

There are several different types of 3D Printing technologies both for plastics and metals with their own pros and cons. FDM (Fused Deposition Modeling), SLA (Stereolithography) and SLS (Selective Laser Sintering) are the ones that are most commonly used in product development.

At Outdesign, we usually use FDM printing for prototypes during initial development phases and then slowly progress to SLA and SLS technologies for tighter tolerances and better finishing.

3) Thermoforming

Thermoforming involves creating a mold of your product over which a thin sheet of plastic is heated and formed using vacuum, pressure or mechanical force. The plastic sheet takes the shape of the mold and extra material is then trimmed off.

Since this process involves very low pressure and temperatures, the mold can be made from inexpensive materials like plastic or wood. Surface finish is important as the formed product picks up small details on the mold.

Thermoforming, however, cannot be used to produce highly complex parts which the other processes can. It is therefore limited to &#;relatively&#; simple products like packaging trays, large panels of appliances, vehicle door panels, dashboards, simple product housings etc.

4) CNC Machining

CNC machining is a highly reliable process and it is as relevant today as it was when first conceived in the s. It is one of the most versatile manufacturing process in terms of the number of materials that can be processed in a CNC machine &#; plastics, wood, metals, ceramics and many more.

Due to the high tolerance, fast turnaround and wide range of materials available for CNC machining, it is used to create accurate molds, dies or patterns for other manufacturing processes involving molding, casting, forming or extruding.

Setup costs involved in CNC machining, especially for complex geometry, are higher than that of 3D Printing. It is therefore more suited for low to mid-volume production (upto a few hundred parts depending on part geometry) with fast turnaround times as opposed to one-off production.

In some cases, CNC machining is also used as a secondary operation in combination with another manufacturing processes. For example, CNC machining can be used as a secondary operation on 3D printed parts to achieve tighter tolerances.

5) 3D Printed Molds

Using 3D printed molds as an alternative to metal molds in injection molding is a fairly new process. As the quality and surface finish of 3D Printing continuously improves, 3D Printed molds for low volume injection molding are being pioneered by companies like Stratasys with their Polyjet printing and Formlabs using their SLA printers.

3D Printed molds can prove to be a low cost way for testing production-grade materials and processes at low quantities but it is currently limited to small parts and yet to be adopted by the industry at large.

It should be noted that the cost-effectiveness of manufacturing process at a certain volume is highly dependent on the part geometry. For quantities approaching 300&#;500 parts, injection molding with lower quality steel or aluminum molds can be considered depending on the part geometry. It is a good idea to involve a suitable manufacturer as soon as you have a design that won&#;t undergo drastic changes later on.

About Outdesign.Co &#; We are a (physical) Product Development company based in India, specializing in Industrial Design /Product Design, Mechanical Engineering & Prototyping of wearable devices, IOT products, home automation devices and consumer electronics in general.

Located across 6 Continents, our clients range from new upcoming Hardware Startups who have a functional prototype of their electronics and are now looking for a sleek design for their product, to Global Manufacturing Brands looking to refresh existing product lines or enter new markets.

We help startups and entrepreneurs with Industrial Design, Mechanical Engineering and Prototyping of their product along with developing their Branding & Identity, Packaging Design and all the support they need in order to bring their product to market, fast. Learn More.

For more cnc machining precision aluminum partsinformation, please contact us. We will provide professional answers.