3D 프린팅 vs 실리콘 몰딩 vs 강철 몰드

3D Printing, Silicone Molding, Steel Mold, Which one is best solution for you

During new product development stage, do you face dilemma of choosing between 3D printing, silicone molding, and steel mold processes? This article will deeply analyze these three major processes, helping you clarify how to precisely match production method based on product development stage and market volume. If doubts remain, you can contact our professional engineering team at the end of article to obtain a customized new product development solution.

 

3D Printing——Agile Development with Zero Mold Cost

What is 3D Printing?

 3D printing (additive manufacturing) is a process that directly constructs three-dimensional solid objects by accumulating materials (plastic/resin/metal) layer by layer, without the need for molds, maximizing design freedom. It is based on a digital model, manufacturing objects through material accumulation. Unlike CNC machining (subtractive manufacturing) or casting (conformal manufacturing), its mainstream processes include three material accumulation methods: FDM (melting and extruding thermoplastics), SLA (UV laser curing liquid resin), and SLS (laser sintering polymer powder). The formed blank undergoes post-processing to obtain the finished part.

What Information Do Customers Need to Provide?

 If your new product design requires 3D printing for prototyping, you need to provide essential files: 3D model (STP/IGS format) and parameter requirements: dimensional tolerance, surface finish requirements (painting/plating), functional needs (temperature resistance/impact resistance), and application scenario of final product. Our engineers will analyze the information you provide and offer professional production feasibility advice. If you don’t have a designer to create the product’s 3D drawing, Grandshine can also provide product design services for you.

Product Types Suitable for 3D Printing

3D printing is mainly used in the early stages of product development for verifying product design concepts, analyzing product structures, demonstrating basic product functionality, and achieving final design. 3D printing can achieve complex geometries impossible with traditional processes, such as hollow parts, surgical guides for medical devices, dental models, etc., enabling low-cost validation of product design feasibility.

What Materials Can 3D Printing Produce?

Leveraging the advantages of low cost and rapid prototyping, 3D printing can produce plastic products using PLA, ABS, Nylon, PETG, etc.; it can also produce high-strength, high-temperature resistant products using PC, PP, PEEK, etc.; and high-precision, smooth-surface products using photosensitive resins and standard resins. If you are unsure which material is needed for your product’s 3D printing production, simply inform our engineering team about the product’s application scenario and required test categories, and we can provide professional advice.

Advantages and Disadvantages of 3D Printing

Advantages of 3D printing include zero mold cost production, orders starting from 1 piece with delivery within 5 days, low-cost and rapid validation of product designs, support for one-time molding of complex structures, and easy design modifications and updates. However, 3D printing also has significant disadvantages, such as high per-unit cost, low efficiency for mass production, and some products being unsuitable for functional testing or mass production. If your product is in the early design stage, 3D printing can be used for design validation and iterative adjustments. If you require small-batch trial production, you can consider Grandshine’s silicone molding production service.

 

Silicone Molding——Gold Choice for Small-Batch Trial Production

What is Silicone Molding?

Silicone molding (also known as vacuum casting or silicone soft tooling) is a process that uses a 3D printed prototype as a master pattern to create a silicone mold. This mold is then used to cast plastic parts in small batches under vacuum. Its core purpose is to address the need for small-batch trial production (tens to hundreds of pieces), quickly obtaining products with performance close to injection-molded parts without the expense of opening a steel mold. This is used for early market testing or gathering initial user experience.

Silicone Molding Production Process

The working principle of silicone molding involves 4 main steps:

 Step 1: First, create a high-precision product prototype (the master pattern) using 3D printing (e.g., photosensitive resin/SLA). Accuracy can generally reach 0.2mm.

Step 2: Fix the master pattern in a mold frame and pour liquid silicone over it. After curing, cut the silicone open to remove the master pattern, forming a hollow cavity (the silicone soft mold).

Step 3: Place silicone soft mold into a vacuum casting machine. Under vacuum, inject materials like PC, ABS, PP, POM, PU, etc. into silicone mold. Cure and demold to get the replicated part.

Step 4: Perform surface treatment on replicated part, such as painting or plating.

 

What Products Can Silicone Molding Produce?

Silicone molding can produce small batches of various products:

Rigid material products (e.g., ABS, PP, PC): Such as housings, buttons, protective cases.

Soft material products (e.g., TPU, TPR): Such as medical device handles, soft gaskets, automotive interior parts.

Optical-grade transparent material products: Such as scanner lenses and optical products.

Flame-retardant or food-grade specialty material products: Such as home appliance housings or silicone kitchenware.

The precision of silicone molding can reach 0.2mm, almost equivalent to the dimensional accuracy of steel mold production. This technology can be widely applied in consumer electronics, medical devices, automotive, gifts, home appliances, and other fields.

 

Product Reliability of Silicone Molding

You might worry that small-batch products made via silicone molding cannot pass reliability tests. For this concern, you don’t need to overly worry. Most silicone molded products can achieve 80% of the strength of injection-molded parts and are sturdy and reliable for short-term use.

Additionally, these small-batch products can pass temperature cycling tests from -30°C to 80°C. They can also pass certifications like EN71-3 (toys) and RoHS (electronics). Therefore, silicone molded products are sturdy and reliable in the short term, meeting your needs for pre-market sales.

 

Advantages and Disadvantages of Silicone Molding

Silicone molding first has a significant advantage in mold cost: its mold cost is only 1-5% of a steel mold ($200-$800), and mold lead time is very fast, typically delivering first batch in 10-15 days. Steel mold lead times require 20-40 days, and product development cycle takes at least one and a half months.

Silicone molding supports small-batch production; one set of silicone molds can produce 20-50 pieces, offering great flexibility, and product surface quality is close to injection-molded parts. Steel molds typically have a minimum order quantity (MOQ) of at least 1000 pieces, and color customization also often has minimum quantity restrictions.

However, silicone molding also has obvious disadvantages. First, product dimensional accuracy is usually only ±0.2mm (lower than steel molds – high-precision steel molds can achieve 0.01mm). Secondly, silicone molded products have poor material weatherability; they tend to yellow and deform over time and cannot meet long-term usage requirements. Finally, the mold lifespan is short; after producing more than 50 pieces with one set of molds, risks of deformation and increased dimensional errors arise.

 

Our Silicone Molding Service

If your new product development forecast is within 200 pieces, consider using Grandshine’s silicone molding process. The maximum product size for conventional silicone molding is typically within 1000mm × 1000mm. If the product development forecast reaches 500 pieces or more, we recommend using steel molds. Grandshine provides low MOQ steel mold production support for startups and new projects. The first batch order can start from 500 pieces, helping you obtain high-precision, high-quality products at low cost for market testing and validation.

 

Steel Mold——The Optimal Production Solution for Mass Production

What is a Steel Mold?

Steel mold is a metal mold used in manufacturing for high-volume, high-precision production. It is typically made from high-quality steel (such as P20, H13, NAK80, 718H) using precision processes like CNC machining, EDM (Electrical Discharge Machining), and polishing.

Steel molds mainly include 5 major product mold types:

Injection Molds: Primarily used for mass production of plastic parts. Products include electronic device covers (e.g., mobile phones, tablets), medical device cases, automotive interior panels, lamp covers, daily necessities like toothbrushes, bottle caps, and kitchen appliance housings.

Die Casting Molds: Mainly used for mass production of metal products like aluminum/zinc/magnesium alloys. Products include tablet mid-frames, metal housings for power tools, heat sinks for industrial products.

Stamping Molds: Primarily used for cutting/bending/stretching metal sheets. Products include mobile phone metal mid-frames, inverter and battery storage enclosures, stainless steel pots and other cookware.

Blow Molds: Mainly used for mass production of hollow plastic products, such as beverage bottles, cosmetic bottles, and other container products.

Silicone Molds: Primarily used for mass production of soft silicone products, such as scanner handles, bicycle handles, silicone baby products, silicone ice cube trays, silicone cake molds, silicone candy molds, silicone seals, etc.

Grandshine has 20 years of mold production experience and can produce custom injection molds, silicone molds, die casting molds, and stamping molds for various products. From product design to mold production, then to mass production and product assembly, Grandshine can provide one-stop product supply chain production management for you.

Steel Mold Production Process

The entire steel mold production process mainly involves 8 key stages:

1) Product Analysis & Design: Our engineering team checks the product design drawings for draft angles, wall thickness, parting lines, etc., optimizes the structure to reduce mold development risks, provides a DFM report, and completes 3D mold design and mold flow analysis.

2) Steel Selection: Typically, hardened steel like H136is selected and undergoes quenching and hardening treatment to achieve a mold lifespan of 500,000 cycles.

3) CNC Precision Machining.

4) Special Machining (EDM & Wire Cutting, etc.): Accuracy reaches ±0.003mm, surface finish Ra 0.4μm.

5) Surface Treatment: Based on final product effect requirements, perform polishing, texturing (e.g., grain), or surface hardening (e.g., nitriding) to enhance product surface quality.

6) Mold Assembly.

7) T0 Trial & Correction: Verify if the product structure and appearance meet requirements, and evaluate if production efficiency can meet high-volume mass production demands.

8) Mold Maintenance & Delivery.

Each step in these 8 stages highly tests the professional technical skills of mold engineers. An excellent engineering team can achieve extreme precision in every detail of mold at each production stage. An unprofessional engineering team may struggle to achieve high levels of mold quality and precision, potentially leading to various product quality issues during later production and delays due to constant mold modifications.

Grandshine’s mold engineering team has 20 years of mold production experience, specializing in producing high-quality precision molds. We have successfully produced various plastic housing molds and products for companies like United Airlines, T-Mobile, Samsung, and Lenovo.

 

Advantages of Steel Molds

As a crucial carrier of modern intelligent manufacturing, the core advantages of steel molds are reflected in three dimensions: high precision, long lifespan, and mass production economy. Compared to silicone molding and aluminum molds, steel molds have 7 significant advantages:

1) Steel molds possess an absolute precision advantage: Accuracy can reach ±0.01mm (silicone molding accuracy is typically ±0.2mm), surface finish can reach Ra 0.02μm, making it essential for developing high-precision products, medical devices, automotive lenses, etc.

2) Ultra-long service life: Steel molds can achieve a lifespan of 300,000 to 1,000,000 cycles, resulting in extremely low per-unit costs during mass production. For example, an Apple iPhone mid-frame die-casting mold (SKD61 steel) maintained ±0.03mm accuracy even after producing 2 million pieces continuously. Silicone molds typically last only 20-50 cycles, unsuitable for large-volume production.

3) Low per-unit cost for mass production: Benefiting from the long lifespan and high production efficiency of steel molds, only an initial mold cost investment is required to produce large volumes. The per-unit cost is only one-tenth or even lower than that of silicone molding or 3D printing.

4) Diversity of production materials: Steel molds can process PC, PP, ABS, TPU, TPR, TPE, POM, glass fiber reinforced plastics, PEEK high-temperature engineering plastics, liquid silicone rubber (LSR), liquid metals for die casting, etc., meeting different product application needs.

5) High production efficiency: Per-unit production cycle for steel molds is only 15-60 seconds;  daily capacity of a single injection molding machine can reach 2,000-5,000 pieces. Silicone molding relies mainly on manual operation, with a per-unit production cycle typically requiring 2-4 hours.

6) Diversity of surface treatments: Steel molds support thousands of textures like polishing, leather grain, wood grain, matte finish, geometric microstructures, etc., while silicone molding usually only supports a limited number of textures.

7) Guaranteed consistency of batch product quality: Products produced from the same steel mold maintain high consistency in dimensions, function, and structure.

 

Our Steel Mold Service

Steel mold production covers a very wide range of product fields, including consumer electronics, medical devices, automotive components, 반려동물 용품, daily necessities, kitchen and bathroom appliances, and many more. If your product needs to enter mass production and requires maintaining a low per-unit cost, stable and strict quality requirements, and needs to pass a series of tests or comply with industry standards, then steel molds are the ideal production choice for you.

Grandshine provides professional steel mold design, production, and finished product mass production services. We have our own production bases in both China and Malaysia. Our company has passed ISO9001 and ISO14001 certifications and has been recognized as a National High-Tech Enterprise, making us your trustworthy mold supplier.

 

New Product Development Recommended Path

Three-Stage Progression Method (Taking Smart Hardware Products as an Example)

Stage 1: Concept Validation (1-10 pieces), using 3D printing process. The main goal is to check  rationality of product design appearance and structure.

Stage 2: User Testing (50-300 pieces), using silicone molding process. The main goal is to launch low-cost small-batch products to the market, collect user feedback, validate user needs, verify product design feasibility, and lay the foundation for final mass production.

Stage 3: Formal Mass Production (>500 pieces/month), using steel mold process. The main goal is for batch production, achieving automated production, cost control, and ensuring quality stability.

 

Grandshine Manufacturing Solutions

Grandshine, as a professional new product development expert, provides you with a full-chain service from product design → design review → 3D printed sample validation → silicone molding small-batch trial production → steel mold mass production → product assembly and delivery.

We have our own mold factories and production workshops in both China and Malaysia, with a monthly production capacity of up to 500,000 pcs. The factories have all passed ISO9001 and ISO14001 certifications and have been awarded the title of National High-Tech Enterprise.

If you encounter any problems in product production supply chain management or wish to customize your own unique product design, our engineering team can provide you with professional services. Contact 이메일: Kaiwin@grashine.com 또는 WhatsApp: 0086 13823302586. Best regards for your business!