We offer molds and castings in silicones, urethanes, foams, waxes, aluminums and more.
Silicone molding is our primary mold and casting process. It is a unique way to mold prototyped parts which virtually eliminates technical risks. Cast prototypes made from silicone molds accurately replicate injection molded production parts in all aspects, at a reduced cost, with a quicker turnaround time. The cast part simulates all the physical and dimensional characteristics of an injection molded production part for accurate form and fit verification, testing, and evaluation.
Cast prototypes in all types of materials provide a critical function in the product development process as they typically act as the first manufactured parts in hand after the engineer's initial design and evaluation process. Keypads, gaskets and seals are also easily prototyped providing you with a reliable representation of your final product.
Typically, cast prototypes and parts are used for:
- Aesthetic evaluations by all design groups.
- Providing samples to marketing for customer feedback, target market evaluations, and customer testing.
- Eliminating additional production tooling required for low volume production runs.
- Testing the operational theory of a product.
- Evaluating the human engineering factors of a design.
- Simulating production parts for photographic sessions and trade show demonstrations before production tools are complete.
- Tactile feel and user testing of keypads and dome sheets.
A typical mold can accurately cast 15-25 parts before it looses it's casting accuracy. Urethanes in durometers from Shore 10A to Shore 90D and silicones ranging from 20 to 70 ShoreA are available for most casting and mold applications.
Along with silicone and urethane castings and molds, we also offer:
Quickcast Patterns
QuickCast technology creates foundry patterns built directly on the SLA from epoxy resins leaving a pattern which is 80% hollow. Quickcast patterns can provide foundries with very high yield mold (more than 95%), and parts whose accuracy exceed all industry standards. Quickcast materials provide clean burn outs with minimal ash residue, excellent dimensional stability with tight tolerances, and superior pattern strength and durability.
Turnkey Investment Castings
While more expensive than die casting and sand casting, investment castings have lower equipment costs and require very little surface finishing and minor machining of cast parts.
Aluminum Molds
Aluminum molds can provide you with quick turnaround times, fast cycles, lower costs, and high quality molded plastic parts. Molds are precisely machined by our expert artists to provide you with the highest quality castings from your molds.
Sand Casting
Sand castings are molds used for creating cast parts from molten liquid metals. The mold is created from a sand mixture which withstands the heat of the molten metal until it cools and can be removed from the mold.
Injection Molds and Injection Molding
Generally utilized after a silicone mold and SLA part have been printed, cast and evaluated, injection molds are precision machined molds made from any type of metal (typically steel or aluminum) which then have heated liquid polymers injected into the mold cavities to create the cast part.
We have multiple finish levels available for our molds and cast molded parts. Learn more about our finish levels here.
Molds can be created for any size project, nothing is too big to mold or cast!
Overmolding and inserts are often integrated into mold design. We can insert carbon pucks into cast keypads for stability, and cast handles and supports right into your structure to increase rigidity and functionality.
Aluminum and injection molds are quickly created direct from your CAD files for quick and accurate cast prototypes and parts.