CASE STUDY
1.65 MILLION CYCLES AND COUNTING
Tessy Plastics runs Mantle’s metal 3D printed inserts in high volume production
HIGHLIGHTS
Mantle’s metal 3D printed H13 and P2X inserts have proven to be as accurate and durable as S7 steel machined inserts
All 3.3 million molded parts have passed Tessy’s internal quality control checks
Printed inserts produced weeks faster than conventional machined inserts
ABOUT TESSY
Founded in 1973, Tessy Plastics is a global contract manufacturer headquartered in Skaneateles, NY, specializing in injection molding and custom automated assembly solutions. All of Tessy Plastics’ facilities are FDA/GMP compliant and add up to more than 1.7 million square feet, including 147,000 square feet of ISO Class 7 & 8 clean room manufacturing.
SUMMARY
Tessy Plastics Corp. has conducted an innovative benchmark test to assess the accuracy, durability, and reliability of Mantle’s metal 3D printed mold inserts in a high-volume production injection mold that produces personal-care products. Instead of machining away material from a solid block of metal (traditional subtractive manufacturing), two test inserts were 3D printed via Mantle’s TrueShape technology.
After 1.65 million cycles, Mantle’s 3D printed inserts in H13 and P2X tool steel have proven to be as accurate and durable as inserts traditionally manufactured with S7 steel – and are performing just as well. All 3.3 million molded parts have passed Tessy’s internal quality control checks and have been shipped to their customer. Tessy also calculated that the printed inserts could be produced weeks faster than conventionally machined inserts.
THE CHALLENGE
While Tessy’s moldmaking team is interested in the benefits that 3D printing brings—including the ability to produce unique geometry for highly complex conformal cooling lines—their primary focus is the accuracy and durability of 3D printed tooling components and whether they can be produced faster and at lower cost than conventionally machined mold components.
For its test program, Tessy selected an existing 32-cavity plastic injection mold used to manufacture thousands of thumb-screw wheels per day in a highly nucleated grade of polypropylene. The thumb screws are components in deodorant packaging and must meet stringent aesthetic and performance requirements.
“While it’s great to be able to print geometry that you can’t achieve in conventional manufacturing and incorporate conformal cooling to reduce cycle times, we considered those nice side benefits that we’d take advantage of only if we were convinced the technology would meet our needs. Our primary concern was how well 3D printed inserts would hold up over time and how they’d compare with conventionally machined inserts in terms of wear, durability, and accuracy after hundreds of thousands of manufacturing cycles.”
-RICH SMITH, TESSY ENGINEERING MANAGER
THE SOLUTION
Three of the mold’s 32 inserts were replaced with new inserts: one printed with Mantle’s H13 material, one printed with Mantle’s P2X material (P20 comparable material), and one newly-machined S7 insert to match the other 29 inserts in the tool. Since Tessy was especially interested in understanding the advantages of metal 3D printing, Tessy and Mantle kept track of the time required to produce both the metal 3D printed inserts and the conventionally machined insert.
Each Mantle insert took 54 hours to print and 24 hours to sinter over 4 days, compared with 150 hours over three weeks for the machined insert. Tessy did minor finishing on the 3D printed inserts that totaled an extra 6 hours.
Mantle’s metal 3D printed insert and the parts molded with the Mantle insert
THE RESULT
The two printed inserts and the new machined insert have been running in the tool since February 2021. By January 2023, the tool had been cycled over 1.65 million times. All 3.3 million molded parts have passed Tessy’s internal quality control checks and are being shipped to the customer. Mantle’s inserts show no signs of wear, including at shutoff surfaces.
