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Rapid injection molding is fast becoming a preferred alternative to rapid prototyping for a number of applications. How many times have you wished you could quickly mold a sample test part for your design? You can make an SLA or a casting, but you have to deal with the limitations of the materials (drop test, anyone?). With advances in CAD and their own proprietary software, Protomold has developed a way to quickly and inexpensively build injection molds that produce fully functional parts.

This article was writen by Brad Cleveland, president and CEO of Protomold and was published by ConnectPress, LTD., at proe.com. It describes how the process works, the advantages as welll as the limitations. The price and time benefits to these tools really pays off for smaller, simpler parts, but it's a nice option when you need it.

Protomold's web site is pretty cool, too. In addition to the free part tester that will review your part to determine if it will work in this rapid tooling process, there's "Ask Professor Plastic" which offers design guidelines, tips and help with material selection. It's definitely worth a look, even if you never use their service.