Best practice – 5 good reasons why rapid tooling saves time and money in product development

What is Rapid Tooling?

Rapid Tooling refers to the rapid production of injection molds for the production of prototypes, pre-series or small series based on 3D CAD data. It combines the quality of traditional toolmaking with the speed of rapid prototyping and, unlike 3D printing, allows the free selection from all available thermoplastics.

Comparison of manufacturing methods for plastic parts

In contrast to traditional toolmaking, which requires high initial investments and long lead times, and 3D printing, which can be limited in terms of unit costs and material selection, rapid tooling offers high speed at low cost by using modular tools and mold inserts. It enables quick design changes and produces parts in a quality that matches series production.

5 good reasons for rapid tooling

1. Insert moulding instead of complete tools:

inserts enable fast and cost-effective production of prototypes or small series, minimize material costs and processing times, and allow quick adaptation to design changes.

2. Aluminum instead of steel:

aluminum tools are faster and less expensive to produce because aluminum is easier to machine and requires less effort for tempering.

3. Manual demoulding

avoids complex mechanisms such as sliders or core pulls, reduces toolmaking costs and allows quick adjustments in the prototyping process.

4. Short lead times

allow agile product development, with only a few days passing between design and finished prototype, in contrast to the weeks or months required by traditional methods.

5. Injection molding for knowledge acquisition:

Enables the production of samples that are materially and mechanically equivalent to subsequent series products, thereby optimizing material behavior and process parameters for series production.

Additional advantages of protosys® Rapid Tooling from BARLOG Plastics

protosys® offers specific advantages such as the availability of standard materials from stock, agile adaptation to customer-specific material developments and the integration of prototype to small series production. It also allows the change to steel tools for even more production-like prototypes and the processing of high-performance plastics.

On request, we also offer a series transfer to make use of all the experience gained for a faster start to series production.

protosys® is just one of a wide range of development services, all aimed at accelerating and improving the development process, e.g. computer aided design, injection molding simulations, structural analyses and the creation of digital twins of the materials in the test laboratory.

Summary

Rapid tooling is a crucial factor for efficient product development, enabling companies to respond faster to market demands and launch products more quickly. With additional services such as protosys® from BARLOG Plastics, the innovation cycle is further accelerated, providing a significant competitive advantage.