RTV molding

Nearly all products created today have one or more plastic parts. Typically, the parts are manufactured by a process called Injection Molding. While the individual plastic parts made in high volumes from this process can be very inexpensive, the molds (also known as tooling) to produce them can cost from $5,000 up to more than $100,000 in some cases. They are also very time consuming to make, so it is typical for it to take 4-6 weeks or more, just to make the molds! Many injection molding manufacturers will not even work with an individual inventor until they have a proven prototype design and a set of drawings.

Fortunately for us inventors, and product developers, there is an alternative. Known as RTV molding and casting, this rapid prototyping technique is a cost effective way to give your product the look and feel of an injection molded part at a fraction of the cost and time to produce the tooling. We use urethane resins to simulate the look, feel, and is some cases, material properties of the injection molded plastic you would use in your final product. Using the RTV molding and casting process, we can produce rigid plastic as well as rubber parts in a variety of hardness and flexibility ranges.

Down side is, individual RTV parts tend to be up to 10 or 15 times more costly than the similar injection molded part. This is fine when we are producing limited numbers for design and development purposes or deploying a few units for marketing and customer demos however.

RTV casting is also a viable production manufacturing process for low to medium volume parts where the tooling costs for injection molding would make those parts very expensive.

At TouchStone 3D, we have the capability to produce RTV cast parts in house. We have been known to go from idea to a urethane plastic or rubber part within one day in some cases. We will be happy to help you determine the most cost effective approach to getting your product’s plastic components made. Contact us to learn more…