Customer Story

Built-Rite Tool & Die

Built-Rite Tool & Die is a mold-making and design firm in Massachusetts with expertise in precision mold manufacturing. They specialize in the production of molds for plastic injection molding. These molds have complex designs, requiring extensive planning and precise execution.

“An injection mold is a very complex assembly and must be built to withstand very high pressures. We immediately recognized advantages of using printed metal parts in our molds, including the ability to produce mold inserts quickly, the ability to design cooling channels in a way that we could not before— conforming to the cavity geometry, and light-weighting parts to help reduce operator fatigue. What used to take two weeks with outside vendors now takes a couple of days. We can increase build capacity and diversify, and we can capture more business—especially in prototyping. We couldn’t compete on turnaround time before.”
Ron Caron General Manager, Built-Rite

Built-Rite assessed the technology fit of the Studio System, the office-friendly metal 3D printing system from Desktop Metal, to improve operations and evaluated the part performance of a printed mold cavity insert. Findings from these initial tests include 90% cost-per-part savings and demonstrated the potential for the Studio System in tooling applications.

For Built-Rite, the Studio System™ introduces the ability to make quick-turn mold assembly components with a process that is far less labor-intensive than other equipment in their machine shop and more cost competitive than a third-party prototyping firm. The Studio printer uses closed-cell infill to lightweight parts and minimizes material without impacting the wear resistance required for tooling.

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