It isn’t just actual models and prototypes that rapid prototyping services have to make for many companies; coming up with a prototype mold is just as important and just as expensive and lengthy. Those companies who do invest a lot of time and money in making their molds may well be hoping to find something new, innovative and money and time saving at EuroMold 2011 in Frankfurt: which runs from the end of November into the start of December.
EuroMold exhibitors ZCorporation may be just what a lot of EuroMold’s visitors are looking for and many people who use Rapid Prototyping Services may have already heard of ZCorporation and their revolutionary ZPrinters, though not for creating molds necessarily.
ZCorportation’s 3d Printers are mainly used in Rapid Prototyping services for creating prototypes of products or parts: this is may be for designing and testing, marketing, market research with consumer panels and also sales.
Zprinters can equally be used to make mold’s though; this includes in the rapid prototyping services stage where Molds created with the ZPrinter are used to ensure there are no problems before a final mold is made to that design. In this stage many different molds can be made and tweaked easily through the digital design file and then printed again.
The ZPrinters can also be used to make final molds as well though. For most purposes the print out from a Z Printer is not strong enough or robust enough for long term use as a mold and will not withstand extreme heat more than once or twice. ZPrinter resin based printed molds though may be used for some products with low production runs. Usually though the mold is made by printing out the product as it should be on the ZPrinter and then creating a mold around it. Alternatively a mold will be printed out, a material such as molten metal poured into it to create a copy of the object as it will be and then many molds can be made around that solid piece.
This then is the process that ZCorporation will be mainly pushing at EuroMold 2011 but of course the important thing is that the ZCorporation can be used at different stages for rapid prototyping services and for setting up molds for use on the production line. Z Corporation hope that the versatility of their ZPrinters will impress people at EuroMold but even those only looking for mold making solutions will be impressed by the fact that Mold creation times can be cut from months to weeks using a Z Printer and costs and errors cut significantly as well.
Z Corporation will be showing off their ZPrinters at the show including the different ways they can be used and how easy they are to use: no need for separate model makers as a designer can simply click print. Z Corporation will also be presenting a session on ‘How to Chose the Right rapid Prototyping System’ led by their Vice President which will be well attended. How much they mention systems other than their own remains to be seen but with the fastest and cheapest full color 3D printing they have little to fear from rivals.