Tested: Sean's latest shop tip is a path to learning some of the nuances of injection molding for manufacturing using Protolabs' design aids. These parts samples help you learn about materials, surface finishes, and other design elements that go into injection molding--they're great learning tools!
5 comments:
I have always been a huge fan of Tested. I learned about and started watching Tested because I had been watching a lot of videos and reading a lot of articles by Adam Savage who is a regular on Tested. Sean did a great job talking about injection molding which was super interesting for me as I have never really worked with injection molding before. Injection molding is something that is super useful but is not the easiest thing to do in a small home shop. This is primarily why I have yet to work with it. Injection molding, however, is able to give you really quick prototypes with a high level of detail and accuracy. This is something, especially when it comes to detail, that is much harder to get from 3D printing. Maybe one day I will be able to have and Injection Molding machine in my shop at home.
I think ProtoLabs is doing some great things in terms of accessibility. Injection Molding is not as easy for the average person to get their hands on as 3D Printing is nowadays, so many people probably are not even aware of the qualities and potential benefits it could bring to their projects. I do not consider myself to be someone who knows much about any of this kind of “computer craftsmanship” that has developed in the past decade or two, but Sean did a very good job of not alienating audience members like myself, who want to learn, but are not already well versed. And ProtoLabs is a great company to introduce to audiences who are interested in dabbling with this kind of thing, he mentioned that the samples he ordered as well as “Injection Molding for Dummies” were free, and you can’t get any more accessible than that if you ask me.
Theatre is always looking for new way to create and develop and I think injection molding is in a similar boat with 3D printing when it comes to theatrical application. I definitely see use for this type of technology in props and even costumes when it comes to embellishment and accessories, but I do still question the applicability to scenery and other larger formats that we need in theatre. I wonder if this technology could be scaled to the size and strength needed for most theatrical scenery, or if this is more for prototyping smaller things like those shown in the video. I did appreciate that the video is trying to distribute the knowledge of this process and get more people interested in the uses and processes of injection molding and all of the various uses it has, especially with dynamic things, but I think it will be awhile before the technology makes its way into theatre.
Like many things in this world, injection molding has quite a large range of production size from a small one-person the way up to full-scale manufacturing lines. The ability to injection mold has been around for decades and it has made large-scale production possible.
I, however, have almost no experience with injection mold making. If I had to guess this is because 3d printing technology has become so readily available making this the go-to for small prototyping jobs.
Overall, I think Sean has done a fantastic job giving an overview of the concepts of injection molding in the Tested video and I enjoyed learning more about this manufacturing technique. Although I don’t know if I will ever get to experience injection molding first hand I hope to learn more about in the future and how the technology continues to develop increasing the capabilities in future applications.
Tested always comes out with such interesting and informative videos, showcasing things from costume making, 3D printing, prop making, etc. I especially love Adam Savage’s One Day Builds videos where he just makes something like an entire totoro costume in one day. As for this video, I’ve never working with injection mold making before. I’ve only heard little bits about it here are there. I have done a very slim amount of 3D modeling and printing, but by no means do I really know anything about it. But from what the video told me about in the few minutes made injection molding seem really interesting, and I liked the texture cube example he had. Coming from someone who really doesn’t have knowledge on the topic, I think it was also explained very well. I’ll add this to the ever-growing list of things I’d like to try doing in the future, perhaps see if I can apply it to the projects or other work I do.
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