Rapid tooling, rubber grommet

“Yes, but I need parts NOW!!!”

A last-minute cable design change required a different grommet to protect a cable as it passed out of an enclosure.  Nothing was available off-the-shelf that had the shape characteristics we needed.  In this case, we needed the durability, heat resistance, and strength and there were no rapid prototyped material available on the market with matching characteristics. We had to come up with a different solution, and we only had a few days to figure it out.

Traditionally, it was necessary to cut expensive injection molding tooling which  takes a few weeks. With small production runs, this approach does not make economic sense for a few parts only worth a couple of dollars. Traditional solutions were not good options.

We solved the problem using rapid prototyping but not in the way most folks would expect.

With a few hours to design and print, we made several sets of tools in the Objet 3D printer.  We then molded the parts we needed using a polyurethane resin.  Polyurethane resins come in different hardness values, physical properties,  and can be color pigmented to match almost any color.

Our mold design uses four interlocking parts.  The unique design allowed the grommet to be molded without any visible mold flash lines on the cosmetic surfaces.  One feature of the Objet 3D printer is that it has the ability to print parts with glossy surfaces, so our molded part would also have glossy surfaces.  The rapid prototyped mold we created required no post-processing as it was ready for use as soon as it came out of the printer.  We put it to use that day.

This same technique can be used to generate other molds for other applications.  Let us put this technology to work for you.

Contact us to learn more: www.phi2.com or +1.904.646.5666