Page 37 - Plastics News October 2023

FEATURE

Pellet extrusion is best for medium- to mize mold distortion to achieve a a porous surface of the printed part,
large-scale parts, up to approximately high-quality finished part. Duo Form allowing a vacuum to pass through a
4 x 6 feet in size, he said. For larger has validated glass-filled polycarbon- mold without having to use special
parts, multi-piece molds can be cre- ate pellet as a proven material for tools to make the vacuum holes (as
ated and assembled into a larger final those applications, along with carbon- is typically done). Duo Form said that
production mold. This allows vacuum fiber-filled ABS pellets and even some the inherent porosity of 3D-printed
and thermoforming companies to use nylon pellet feedstock as viable mold molds is a key advantage to using pel-
pellet extrusion 3D-printing technol- materials. let-extrusion 3D printing in its mold-
ogy to reduce lead times, lower the When identifying and selecting a pellet making process. Depending on the
cost of mold production, and increase feedstock for additively manufactured desired final thermoformed part, it
flexibility for a range of large product molds, several factors need to be con- may be necessary to prioritize vacu-
sizes. um flow through the mold to certain
sidered, such as the gauge of the final
Thermoplastic pellets are considered sheet being formed and the tempera- zones, such as deep cavity features, to
the lowest-cost feedstock for additive ture requirements of the final mate- make sure that the forming process
manufacturing — up to 10 times less rial, as well as the availability and cost delivers the part as required. This can
than other printing materials, such as of the pellet feedstocks. When a thin- be achieved by adjusting tool-path
thermoplastic filament, Guillory said. ner gauge is used as the final formed parameters prior to printing, Guillory
Pellet extrusion 3D printers also of- sheet, lower temperature mold mate- said. Higher resolution printing results
fer significant speed advantages, with rials are acceptable, such as CF-ABS in a better surface finish and require-
the ability to print molds up to 1270 x pellets, Guillory said. For applications ments are determined by the starting
1270 x 1820 mm (50 x 50 x 72 inch- that require a thicker gauge or high- gauge of material formed.
es) using high-performance and high- er temperature final sheet material, “We have gained a lot of business with
temperature materials at speeds up to high-temperature pellet feedstocks, our Titan 3D printer,” said Rheinhe-
a half meter per second. such as GF-PC or filled nylon material, imer. “The turnaround time for parts,

How to minimize mold distortion should be used for printing the mold. molds, and formed parts has put us
Another benefit additive manufactur- leaps and bounds above our competi-
When 3D printing production molds tion.”
for thermoforming and vacuum form- ing brings to the creation of thermo-
ing processes, it’s important to mini- forming molds is the ability to create

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Economy At Fakuma 2023

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MAAG Group is represented at the
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from October 17 – 21, 2023 (hall A6,
booth 6202). You will have the chance
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dustry:
Find out more about our AMN die

PLASTICS NEWS 3737
October 2023 PLASTICS NEWS