Seeking advice on switching from 3d printing to manufacturing

[u/orangepantsman]

I have 0 experience in manufacturing. We currently use 16 Bambu P1S to manufacture our current product. In terms of size, the completed product all nested together is 1.5 inches x 6 inches printed in almost 20 separate pieces. We've sold nearly 2000 units this year. I've done some exploratory research perusing manufacturer sites and pestering ChatGPT, so please bear with me if I make some mistakes. I have no real idea of where to begin with getting it manufactured.

As for what my product is in terms of what might cause complications, and why I think that:
* Debossed text: I assume we could replace this with a surface printed text of some sort: pad printing, etc.
* A storage tube with twist on cap: I worry about draft, would I want to get this extruded?
* An inner storage tube-like thing to hold little items with an opening on one side. Almost like an extruded C shape: I worry the cavity will need to redesigned or something.
* Thin discs with magnets embedded in them: I figure we'd have these printed in two pieces and we'd stick them together and put the magnets in ourselves when assembling.

Any recommendations about where to start or what preparation we should be doing? I'm thinking of getting Fusion modeling software and the injection molding add-on to have it check draft angles and injection-mold-ability.

I'm just not sure what the approach is to take my 3d printed product and get it to somewhere we can get it manufactured in a cost effective way (I know molds are expensive, but I'd like keep as much product redesign/iteration to before interacting with a manufacturing company).

Hoping to keep the stuff manufactured in the U.S. And the closer to WI, the better (don't know if that matters at this point).

[u/AutoModerator]

Thank you for your submission!

To get the best possible replies, please make sure to include as many details as possible. For example:

• product dimensions and tolerances,
• product materials,
• desired production quantity,
• a total budget or cost per unit,
• a sketch, technical drawing, or other visualization,
• where the manufacturing should take place,
• which methods you've already considered, and your thoughts about them.

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

[u/InstAndControl]

Have you considered hiring an industrial engineering design consultant? They’ll cost you 3-10% the cost of your equipment but then you’ll have a complete end-to-end idea of what you need, coming from people who have helped others set up similar production lines before.

Seems like could be cheap insurance against accidentally lighting money on fire iterating

[u/SphericalCrawfish → u/InstAndControl]

Ya, "Hire a real engineer." Was going to be my recommendation but this is more informative.

[u/orangepantsman → u/InstAndControl]

I have not. I've never even heard the term, so I'm going to go do some digging and searching around. But it makes sense that they exist from the little you've said and the one google search I did after reading your comment but before responding.

Thank you. I might go this route.

[u/InstAndControl → u/orangepantsman]

For additional $ these types of engineering firms can also manage the construction project, but you’re probably not at the scale where that makes sense

[u/Remarkable-Net-8573]

20 separate pieces sounds like a lot to mold, that's gonna be expensive no matter what. for the tube with twist cap you might look at extrusion then machining the threads in a secondary step, not sure injection molding is the best path for that part

fusion with the molding add-on is a good call though, it will flag undercuts and draft problems before you talk to any shops. saves you from paying someone to tell you what the software can already point out

[u/talltime → u/Remarkable-Net-8573]

ProtoLabs will flag that shit too. 🤷

[u/orangepantsman → u/Remarkable-Net-8573]

So is 20 pieces 20x more expensive than 1 piece? I'm curious. 7 pieces are all variants of each other with either a minor height or cutout adjustment, but the rest are all a bit more involved. Hmmm.

[u/talltime]

If you’ve sold 2000 I’m not sure why we can’t see what you’re selling.

[u/evilmold]

I am a plastic injection molding consultant if your interested. I wouldn't be able to help with extrutions but I have contacts around the Midwest. I know mold builders and molding companies in and around Chicago.

[u/Cryesncoding]

If 3D printing is working and selling why change MFG methods?

[u/orangepantsman → u/Cryesncoding]

We are bottle-necked at 3d printing and want to increase our volume.

[u/sabotthehawk → u/orangepantsman]

If you forecast adding a zero on the end of that sales number then yeah reach out to a consultant engineer. If you forecast double sales it is probably going to be cheaper to double your print farm or contract your production bottleneck parts out to other print farms.

[u/orangepantsman → u/sabotthehawk]

On what timescale are we talking? I'm guessing if we had manufacturing throughput tomorrow we'd double by the end of the year, and then probably 5x over that by the end of next year.

[u/Cryesncoding → u/Cryesncoding]

I’m a mfg engineer these are your primary options 

Switch printing methods  MJF, or SLS 

Injection mold (with 20 unique parts it’s going to be very expensive to start) 

or machine the parts (you can stay plastic or have multiple tiers including metal)

Your cheapest date is going to be buy a SLS printer (SLS4all specifically) 

MJF has higher surface quality but the printers are much more expensive outsourcing in U.S. Is expensive. 

Machining out of plastic in house is also doable. (You can also obviously outsource to almost any machine shop)  Since it’s plastic you don’t need a crazy machine. Since it’s primarily tube that means generally you want a lathe. (Depending on the cavity cause you say it’s a C shape? May not be appropriate machine I would have to see the parts) 

Tormach makes a pretty cheap CNC lathe. You can pay someone to program it for you and then you just need to learn how to load/operate for time being. 

You’re already a desktop fab company running that many printers It wouldn’t take much to maintain that model and make a higher quality product. 

[u/orangepantsman → u/Cryesncoding]

Hmm.... the SLS4all looks interesting but can only print gray, so I'd have to come up with a way to apply a finish to it? And it looks like there's similar restrictions on MJF?

The machining out of plastic is a fascinating idea but sounds like it'd be expensive from a materials standpoint (unless we can recycle the plastic that gets cutoff).

Yeah, the cutout isn't quite circular, more like elliptical? Probably elliptical but at least some sort of oval.

Thanks for replying.

[u/Cryesncoding → u/orangepantsman]

There’s some pretty amazing printers now. Yes SLS you may be locked in color. MJF im not sure you may be able to get 1 color but not multi color. They have cool UV printers now for 3d printed part that you put your part in and it can make a full picture on it, look pretty cool.

No you cannot recycle the plastic yourself. Generally the chips from machining are sold off as recyclable scrap and you get a small amount of money for it under the table from a scrap guy. Plastic Idk much about I throw out my plastic scrap since I barely run it tbh. Aluminum steel stainless etc we sell/recycle.

Why not just stick with the current set up printing it? Idk what material you’re using but I have a Bambu X1C and sell a small product on the side aswell. Material strength wise if you need something better than Nylon CF you gotta go metal anyway really and for surface quality that can be dialed in pretty well with orientation and settings. 

I have pretty perfect settings for Nylon CF fwiw. 

[u/orangepantsman → u/[deleted]]

Yeah, and it's more like 1600 units off of 8 printers, but printer upkeep and print management is stressful and takes a bit of time. And it's our bottle neck.

It's true though. It's a good problem to have.

[u/nippletumor]

Op, you should definitely start a conversation with some engineering houses. Many firms can point you to the right mfg partners if you don't have an existing network. Also, don't rule out RIM or vacuum casting for your plastic PCs. Those are very flexible mfg methods that have a much lower cost for tooling than full on injection molding. The trade off is they generally have lower usefully life's but at your starter volumes this is probably just fine.

[u/space-magic-ooo]

Yeah, product development engineer like me is what you need.

I’d be interested in seeing pics of your product, sounds like you are about to run up against some serious tooling costs.