Diversified Plastics Inc.

Custom Injection Molder Embraces 3D Printing

Minneapolis-based Diversified Plastics was founded in 1977 and specializes in custom injection for molding for customers in the medical, aerospace, defense, and medical industries. As a technology-driven company, Diversified Plastics prides themselves on meeting the ever-changing demands of their customers using advanced, state-of-the-art mold making and production equipment which led them to invest in an Objet260 Connex 3D Printer from Stratasys.

“Being able to print the mold components, we can supply our customers with prototypes in a matter of days rather than weeks- and it’s actually less expensive”- Annette Lund, VP, Diversified Plastics Inc.

Getting to Market Faster

According to Annette Lund, VP of Diversified Plastics, many of their customers look to build prototype tooling using aluminum and P20 steel, both of which are commonly used to make injection molds. Unfortunately, these materials are both expensive and time-consuming, often taking weeks to create a prototype using a metal mold.

“By being able to print the mold components, we can supply our customers with prototypes in a matter of days rather than weeks – and it’s actually less expensive,” Lund says. “They are able to use these parts to test out their design concept early in the product development process and determine if the design is going to work.”

Serving the Medical Industry

The medical industry is one of the mainstays of Diversified Plastics’ customer base. Recently the company has been working with a long-time customer, Coloplast, a medical OEM that makes products for the urology market.

Joni Davis, sales engineer for Diversified Plastics recalls, “Coloplast came to us with a situation where their marketing department wanted to launch a new product, but needed to test out the design before it actually went into a production tool build.”

Davis says that speed to market was very important to Coloplast. Prior to installing the Objet260 Connex, the process to make a mold from aluminum or soft steel would have taken about 5 weeks. But by using 3D printing, the prototype mold took only five days.

Diversified Plastics then injection molded prototypes for testing that were made from the same material planned for use in the finished products. This allowed Coloplast ‘s R&D and marketing personnel to quickly evaluate shape, texture, look and feel of a finished part before a production mold was made.

Finally, Davis noted the substantial difference in cost between creating an injection mold with P20 tool steel and 3D printing one. She estimates that the metal mold cost the company around $13,000, whereas the equivalent 3D printed mold was created for about $1,500 — a cost savings of 88% and time savings of 80%.

“By making the Objet260 Connex part of our equipment lineup, we now have the ability to help our customers bring
products to market very quickly and cost-effectively,” concludes Lund.