Manufacturing the insert for injection moulding of thermoplastics takes up to 3 months and requires significant investment (about USD 15k). The process may require changes in the geometry of the insert, resulting in even more investment and time. Also, traditional methods (milling) limit the efficiency of the cooling channels of the insert. 2 stages of production are introduced. Stage (I) Printing of a insert via DLP from a heat-resistant photopolymer. Trial injection moulding on a photopolymer insert allowed evaluation of the quality of moulded parts (such an insert is suitable for up to 100 cycles). After that, the necessary modifications were implemented to the model. Stage (II) Printing of an insert via LPBF process in metal (23 hours) and post-processing of the operating surfaces (7 hours). Such a metal 3D printed insert is suitable for serial production. Furthermore, the improved cooling system reduced the moulding cycle time by 25%.
