Benefits: 

• Up to 80% cheaper than steel materials
• Up to 70% faster than manufacturing conventional tooling
• Fast and simple production of prototypes
• Choose between 55 low-wear iglide® materials
• Maintenance-free components with special properties, such as conductivity, underwater use, KTW conformity, high temperature, etc.

Our 3D-printed injection molds are ideal for processing parts with special properties, such as conductivity, underwater use, KTW conformity, or high temperature resistance, since those properties cannot be processed in a 3D printer. Printed molds are also up to 80% cheaper than steel materials, and the 3D printing process is 70% faster than manufacturing conventional tooling.

3D printing your components directly is a better option if you need them delivered between 24 hours and three days or if they have a complex design. There is no additional charge for complexity since 3D printing is a tool-less manufacturing process. Directly printing small parts under 5g, whether simple or complex, could also be more cost-effective than injection molding. igus® offers an online 3D printing service so you can easily order custom-made parts and receive them quickly. Our high-performance iglide® materials are also available as filaments for 3D-printing and are well-suited for moving applications due to their high abrasion resistance and excellent coefficients of friction.

3D-printing materials test lab

Our 3D-printed injection molds produce parts with similar material properties as components from conventional serial molds. That’s because we extensively test the tribological properties of our iglide® plastics inside our 41,000-square foot lab in Cologne, Germany. This ensures that each part made from our materials will offer a longer service life than standard 3D-printing materials.