Cut Costs & Improve Design: Convert Metal Parts to Plastic with Additive Manufacturing

Have you ever stopped to ask if your metal parts really need to be metal? You could be over-engineering without realizing it. This 60-second video to explains the benefits of converting your metal parts to plastic with additive manufacturing.

Transcript:

Have you ever stopped to ask if your metal parts really need to be metal? You could be over-engineering without realizing it.

While some parts need to be made of metal to meet performance requirements, today’s plastics can do much more than you might think. And making the swap can save you time, money, and material.

Check out this robot arm housing. If it had been made out of metal, we would have had to perform additional machining and finishing operations, adding both time and cost.  Since we 3D printed it in plastic, we were able to make it as one seamless part and digitally apply a texture to enhance its appearance.

Here’s another example. This plastic pump impeller was printed to replace this metal one. It meets the strength, heat deflection, and stiffness requirements, but it’s much lighter.

And unlike its metal counterpart, the plastic impeller resists cavitation and corrosion.

Just because something works doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try to make it work better. Think you have a metal part that could be plastic? Reach out to our team today.

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