High-Precision Shaping Capabilities Further Automate Precision Toolmaking

Mantle has released its High-Precision Shaping package, which includes 0.006" and 0.010" ball mill cutting tools and automated toolpathing software. The package enables tool rooms to automate the toolmaking process by producing sharp corners and edges without requiring EDM operations. By eliminating EDM and other toolmaking operations, Mantle helps tool rooms reduce the time required to produce mold tools by up to 75%, the company reported.

Mantle's TrueShape technology combines 3D printing of its tool steel pastes with traditional CNC machining to refine the shape of printed tools and provide enhanced accuracy, surface finish and tool steel properties. Mantle's 3D printer is built on a CNC platform and utilizes multiple cutting mills to refine the shape of the printed tool while it is still in a soft state. Mantle's High-Precision Shaping package enables tool rooms to produce tools with radii under 0.003", a 70% improvement compared to the .010" radii previously attainable, thereby eliminating more of the costly and time-consuming EDM operations of traditional toolmaking, the company reported.

"Mantle allows us to offer production-grade tooling to our customers in prototype time," said Eric Derner, Technical Sales Applications Engineer at Nicolet Plastics, an injection molder. "Mantle will allow us to reduce our need for offshore tooling, which introduces scheduling and supply chain risk, with comparable pricing. With Mantle's H13 tool steel and new High-Precision Shaping capabilities, we can print tools in-house and deliver complex molded parts to our customers weeks faster than before."

For more information contact:

Mantle Inc.

1950 Cesar Chavez St.

San Francisco, CA 64124

415-655-3555

www.mantle3d.com