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The 3D printing of injection molds for low-volume manufacturing is emerging as an attractive application of additive manufacturing. New generations of high-performance printer resins, featuring sacrificial mold features and ceramic enforcements, are enabling the molding of increasingly complex parts in increasingly challenging materials.
3D printing has helped manufacturers speed up prototyping and enabled the rapid exploration of product concepts. When we started 3D printing injection molds, the objective was to bridge the gap between prototyping and production by enabling rapid manufacturing of injection-molded parts in prototype molds. To ensure that we can quickly dial in process parameters and achieve a high, consistent yield, even in situations where molds are used only once, we need printer systems that provide a high degree of precision and repeatability over many manufacturing cycles.
– Lasse Staal, CEO
3DPMolds is a Danish company fully dedicated to the use of 3D printed molds in the development workstream of injection molders. More than a decade of hands-on experience has provided 3DPMolds an in-depth understanding of the factors that determine successful manufacturing outcomes.
As 3DPMolds expanded its mold production capability, maintaining consistent quality and process control across multiple iterations became a challenge.
In early 2025, 3DPMolds adopted the Raise3D DF2 solution, a complete resin printing workflow that includes printing, cleaning, and post-curing systems. Optimized for high precision and repeatability, the DF2 features several elements particularly valuable for 3D printed mold manufacturing:
The DF2 system is optimized for industrial applications requiring precision and repeatability, providing:
With his background in the medical device industry, Lasse Staal was particularly drawn to the DF2’s focus on process control and traceability.
“I look for flexible manufacturing systems that help me drive down variation and ensure compliance with protocols. The DF2 solution is an open system that provides me with the flexibility to select the materials I want to work with as I develop a new mold manufacturing protocol. At the same time, it supports my compliance with manufacturing protocols by providing an integrated end-to-end data workflow that allows me to ensure that the process parameters defined in my protocol are applied at every manufacturing cycle, eliminating the risk that I inadvertently skip a step when I start a job. Also when I have to do a new round of manufacturing six months after the first job I did”.
The workflow that Lasse Staal refers to is built around the RFID-tagged build plate of the DF2 printer:
Using ideaMaker, parameters for printing, cleaning, and curing, such as chamber temperature, drying times, and curing intensity, are defined and stored on the plate. When the plate moves from printer to washer and then to the curing station, each machine automatically loads the correct parameters with a simple swipe over the RFID reader. This touch-free, traceable process not only improves consistency but also results in a much cleaner resin printing experience.
Dedicated to staying at the forefront, 3DPMolds has taken full advantage of the DF2 features.
“The first thing we started exploiting was the open-materials capability of the DF2” says Lasse Staal. “While it comes with a set of pre-installed resins, we needed to set up profiles for the xMOLD and 3DPmolds IM 2.0 resins we routinely use in our manufacturing of complex molds. The off-the-shelf Idea-maker slicer that comes with the DF2 turned the set-up into a walk-in-the-park, providing us with all the handles we needed to dial in exposure times, light intensities, print speeds and chamber heating profiles.Note: Access to the full ideaMaker DLP slicing settings requires prior approval.
The second thing noticed by 3DPMolds was the reliability and repeatability of the DF2 printer. “It took us a couple of weeks to realize what was missing” recalls Lasse Staal. “Normally, when I start up the run-in of my resins on a new printer, I expect to see a couple of failed prints at some point. But the DF2 started working straight out of the box, took everything I threw at it without missing a build”.
Reliability is of particular importance in the manufacturing of 3D printed molds. For one, applications are typically close to the domain of manufacturing, and printer downtime is not an option. Another complication is the extreme range of materials and designs, which makes it critical for 3DPMolds to be quickly able to establish a baseline. “We run in a lot of new materials – in mold designs that may change several times over the course of a one-week design cycle. The nature of 3D printed molds means that we are often down to one or a few shots per mold, and I therefore need to know that each mold I use is identical to the others, in order to build my molding parameters”.
On average, 3DMolds reports in a study conducted by Deloitte on average:
A recent project in the 3DPMolds lab highlights the DF2’s performance. In collaboration with Lehmann Compounds and Arburg, the team explored the use of a 30% carbon-reinforced liquid crystalline polymer (LCP) for drone propeller prototypes, which dampens the noise on drone propellers.
“We completed two mold iterations and had the first molded parts in less than a week,” recalls Staal, highlighting the speed and ease of iterations enabled by 3D printed molds. “A similar project, carried out with conventional metal molds, would easily take 6 to 8 weeks from mold design kick-off to first molded parts, and each mold iteration might then take a couple of weeks to complete. With 3D printed molds, we are often able to do several mold iterations in a day, to quickly catch flaws and evaluate alternatives”.
This rapid turnaround validated both the feasibility of 3D printed molds for highly reinforced materials and the consistency of DF2-produced molds.
CEO of 3DPMolds said:
“The only way to reliably produce complex injection mold parts in small batches is by using 3D printing molds by resin printing”
After six months of using the DF2, 3DPMolds reports greater confidence in their mold-making process:
“I would fully recommend the DF2 solution to anyone interested in 3D printed mold manufacturing. It gets the job done, with precision and repeatability, and it allows me to meet customer requests with the certainty that I can count on my printed molds to be as designed. The rest is really up to me and my team.”
