INtroduction
Marcy Krosch, VP of Sales and Marketing at General Pattern, recently sat down with Paul DiLaura, Chief Commercial Officer of Mantle, to discuss how they are using Mantle’s metal 3D printing technology for toolmaking. Marcy covers the history of General Patterns, their capabilities, the challenges of toolmaking, and how they are incorporating Mantle’s metal 3D printing technology to solve these challenges and win new business.
About general pattern
General Pattern Co. was founded in 1922, and after four generations of family ownership, it has grown to nearly 100 employees across six locations and over 130,000 square feet of manufacturing space. With 40-plus injection mold presses, 20-plus CNC milling machines, and extensive plastic and metal 3D printing capabilities, including Mantle, General Pattern has the capability to manufacture a wide range of metal and plastic components across their three main divisions: rapid prototyping, rapid tooling, and rapid manufacturing.
One of General Pattern’s molding floors
The Challenges of Toolmaking
“I’m sure a lot of the folks in this webinar can attest to my bullet points on this slide of the challenges that we face today with toolmaking. And the primary one is skilled labor.”
– Marcy Krosch, VP of Sales and Marketing at General Pattern
WINNING NEW BUSINESS WITH MANTLE
Mantle has enabled General Pattern to reduce lead times and costs on existing tooling projects, but what is even more exciting for Marcy is how they use Mantle’s capabilities to engage new customers and ultimately win new businesses.
USE CASE 1:
Medical device component
A large medical OEM wanted to move the program to the US as quickly as possible. They estimated that 5,500 units would be needed per year.
The challenge:
- Customer could not transfer existing tool
- Very tight timeline and minimal budget
The solution:
- Use Mantle metal 3D printer to print the replacement tool in H13 tool steel
- Print time: 5 days – printer ran over the weekend
- Required only 4 hours of active labor from General Pattern’s toolmakers
- Saved 3.5 weeks of lead-time
USE CASE 2:
injection mold slide for automotive trim tool
The challenge:
- Four-week timeline
- 31 hand picks
- Required four toolmakers for core and cavity plus the inserts
- Complexity of the hand picks would have consumed 400 toolmaking hours
The solution:
- Used Mantle metal 3D printer to print the handpicks in H13 tool steel while two toolmakers focused on the core and cavity
Key metrics:
- Required only 4 hours of active labor from General Pattern’s toolmakers
- Saved 200 hours of active toolmaker time x 2 people
- Included knife-edge features without secondary machining operation
- No polishing required
Want to learn more?
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