How long to the first part?

Developing injection molds takes much longer than 3D printing parts. That's one of the attractive elements of 3D printing: there is no tooling, so you can make a single part in the span of hours or a day or two. The problem is that every part takes a day.

With injection molding, the first part takes a long time. The second part takes just seconds.

Injection molds take a long time because of the amount of machining required. Typically they are made by high-speed cutting of hardened tool-grade steel. The mold is made of many different parts, and tolerances are extremely tight: typically one half of a thousandth of an inch, or even less. (Copier paper is often five thousandths thick, for comparison.)

The total length of time to make a part depends on whether part design is required and the degree of testing (for example, with 3D printed parts) to have a part design final sign-off. Below is a sample schedule to provide a general idea of how much time a new mold can take - with testing time and part validation, 6-7 months is not an uncommon length of time for a durable mold made to last hundreds of thousands or millions of cycles.

What would your project look like? Tell us more about your project and we can provide you more detailed guidance.