Many international companies have launched rapid molding, which is slightly different from ours. 3D printed mold is currently popular internationally, which offers quick turnaround times, but has more restrictions. Take the ABS injection molded molds of a manufacturing supplier for instance, the lead time of mold is only one week and the cost is less, but the products are required to be small size, simple structure, lower precision and larger demolding angle (greater than 5° is recommended). The die life is within 20 times, and surface quality is poor. This type of mold is mostly applied to medical devices and instrumentation industries, only available for the application of material testing, and fast lead time should be met. It is rarely used in automotive interiors & exteriors.
There are also international companies that offer molds made of aluminum alloy. We all have the close turnaround times, but surface treatment of RPWORLD is finer than that of other companies.
The reason probably is that they have made subtraction such as no water-cooling system in mold and less polishing on the mold surface. In addition, RPWORLD's molds of aluminum alloy is more financially effective. The part of reason is that the labor costs of developed countries are higher, contributing to higher cost on their products.
RPWORLD also provides rapid tooling made of #45/P20 materials, the lead time is around 3-4 weeks, and the cost is close to aluminum alloy molds.
But aluminum alloy mold is not applicable for every situation, and is not cost-effective for the products of complex geometry structure. For example, too much ribs on interiors and exteriors will cause overload for EDM; The low modulus of elasticity of aluminum alloy material makes the mold rigidity insufficient and brings problems to the injection molding production, especially for the large-size products; The poor welding performance of aluminum alloy will greatly increase the project risks if the mold is required to be modified in future.