Rapidly manufactured plastic parts
Attractive and practicalFlexoptix , a company based in Darmstadt, was looking for a suitable plastics manufacturer to produce an attractive plastic casing for a modern universal transceiver. The casing, which was to be available in various colours, required several cut-outs for various connections and needed to be able to house an electronic component.
One option would have been additive manufacturing using 3D printing. However, it soon became clear that this would have required too many compromises.
Ultimately, we were able to convince our client of the benefits of the rapid tooling process – the perfect solution for producing plastic parts very quickly in small batches.
What does Flexoptix do?
With its FLEXBOX series, Flexoptix came up with a brilliant product idea. The combination of a programming interface for fibre-optic internet with every conceivable optical transceiver module from various manufacturers has been a resounding success since 2008. It enables the connection of almost all existing industry standards, allowing end devices in networks to communicate with one another seamlessly.
The Universal Transceiver supports all 100G pluggables. The FLEXBOX can be configured in a matter of seconds using the manufacturer’s own app.
Since 2021, the FLEXSOX add-on has been available, supporting new transceiver form factors as well as the configuration of 200G and 400G. The existing FLEXBOX is inserted into the plastic housing fitted with electronic components and can then be used with enhanced functions.
Rapid Tooling for Flexoptix
What was required was a functional and attractive plastic housing that could be produced cost-effectively and completed quickly.
Due to the complex post-processing and painting required, 3D printing was ruled out, as was the high-quality but very expensive bespoke manufacturing using CNC machining. For most plastic injection moulders, producing fewer than several hundred thousand plastic parts was simply out of the question.
The solution for low production volumes in near-series quality: plastic parts produced using rapid tooling with Solidtec.
The advantages of this injection moulding process were obvious:
- Production of a single-cavity mould from high-strength aluminium
- Machining of the individual plastic parts within a very short production time
- Use of original thermoplastic materials (e.g. PA, ABS, PP or PC)
Small-batch injection-moulded parts with Solidtec
Producing high-quality plastic components at a fair price, even in small batches – that is precisely what we have achieved with the FLEXSOX from Flexoptix.
When directly comparing the costs of small-batch injection-moulded components produced using aluminium moulds with those of additive manufacturing using the SLS process, it quickly became clear to our customer: it’s well worth it!
From around 100 component sets onwards, the costs for plastic components become lower than those of 3D printing – despite the higher initial investment. Flexoptix reached the break-even point with just 84 component sets.
The production of injection-moulded parts in small batches therefore offers excellent value for money with very short lead times.
Has this sparked your interest?
Are you in a similar situation and have you always thought that plastic injection moulding was far too expensive and labour-intensive for your products?
Get in touch!
With rapid tooling and the production of plastic components via small-batch injection moulding, we successfully bridge the gap between 3D printing and large-scale production.
