Mold in a Day Technology Slashes Tool Production, Eliminates Supply Chain Headache

Next Chapter Manufacturing highlights its transformative “Mold in a Day” (MIAD) technology to accelerate the injection molding process, meeting the challenge of supply chain disruptions.

Currently, the company says, it can take weeks or even months for production tooling to be completed so that it can be used to produce parts. However, with MIAD which employs the additive manufacturing (AM) process, Next Chapter is said to be able to slash that timeline from weeks or months to hours, while maintaining the same high quality and tolerance standards of conventional molds.

According to owner Jason Murphy, MIAD is made with an exceptionally durable, reinforced photopolymer. Like some other molds, MIAD is 3D-printed. Unlike other molds, MIAD is treated with a proprietary coating that reportedly offers up to 10 times the durability and longevity of other 3D-printed molds. As a result, difficult-to-use resins like filled resins, PBT, POM, PEEK, Ultem and engineered resins can be used to produce an average of 2,000 parts off one set of inserts. In addition to using it for short-run production cycles, Murphy adds that these attributes can help U.S. molders compete effectively with offshore manufacturers.

MIAD technology can be applied to molds both simple and complex. It fits both standard mold bases and common MUD unit frames. Molders can use multiple iterations simultaneously, without the need for excessive engineering tweaks.