Alpine Advanced Materials, a leading expert in the design and manufacture of custom parts for the world’s most demanding aerospace, defense, energy, space and transportation applications, has sought to overcome the challenges associated with traditional metal parts. By introducing high-performance injection-molded composites that are significantly lighter than metal but just as strong, Alpine is able to offer scalable and flexible manufacturing services that are also more economical and environmentally conscious.

By partnering with Nexa3D and using the XiP desktop 3D printer and Freeform Injection Molding (FIM) process to produce 3D printed tooling, Alpine is able to dramatically reduce both the production time and cost of prototype tooling to get parts into the hands of their customers for rapid validation, testing and customer acceptance before making large investments in permanent tooling.

For Alpine Advanced Materials, the traditional injection molding process required significant upfront investment in durable steel tooling, which hindered the rapid production of prototype parts for testing and validation in key high-performance materials such as HX5®, a multi-scale reinforced polymer with exceptional performance over a wide temperature range and in extreme environmental conditions.

In addition, standard 3D printing proved to be too costly and could not withstand the high molding temperatures of the composite polymers.

Jeremy Smith, Alpine Advanced Materials

Alpine Advanced Materials

Contract manufacturing

• XiP desktop 3D printer
• xMOLD 3D-printed resin for tools

3D-printed tools

• Ability to offer injection molding services in just 10 days
• Significantly reduced production costs
• Improved strength and surface quality
• Less risk in material innovation

Alpine Advanced Materials recognized the potential of additive manufacturing and decided to integrate Nexa3D’s XiP 3D printer into its operations. The XiP printer, together with Nexa3D’s xMOLD resin, provided Alpine with the ideal solution for its injection molding requirements. Free injection molding (FIM) with xMOLD allowed the company to overcome the challenges associated with traditional metal tooling and provided a faster and more cost-effective way to produce prototype parts for customer validation. The resin’s compatibility with hundreds of plastics provided the versatile solution Alpine needed to ensure it could mold for a variety of commercial applications.

By introducing the FIM process with the XiP 3D printer from Nexa3D and the xMOLD material, Alpine Advanced Materials benefited from numerous advantages:

Rapid prototyping: FIM enabled Alpine to quickly produce high-quality prototype parts for customer demonstrations and validation tests. The mechanical properties of the FIM parts were exactly the same as those produced with permanent steel tooling, allowing accurate performance evaluation.

Improved strength and surface quality: Compared to directly 3D-printed parts, the parts molded with FIM had a higher strength and surface quality. This makes them suitable for a wide range of applications, including product demonstrations and low volume initial production runs.

Time and cost savings: FIM drastically reduced the time and costs required to manufacture the tools. The exceptional speed of the XiP printer made it possible to produce multiple molds per hour, surpassing the capabilities of conventional CNC machining. Alpine was able to produce 5-10 prototype molds for a fraction of the cost of a production mold, offering significant savings to its customers.

Less risk in material innovation: FIM enabled Alpine’s customers to take a risk-free approach to new thermoplastic materials. Rapidly molded prototypes provided the opportunity for extensive validation testing to ensure the successful introduction of innovative materials.

A defense contractor in Huntsville, AL, turned to Alpine Advanced Materials for quick-turn parts to demonstrate a UAV system. The company needed parts with a higher strength than could be achieved with conventional 3D printing processes, but its metalworking capacity was overstretched. With the help of Nexa3D FIM, Alpine designed, printed, molded and delivered all 60 required parts in just 10 working days, meeting the tight three-week timeframe and ensuring the successful completion of the demonstration.

The collaboration between Alpine Advanced Materials and Nexa3D has created unlimited possibilities for the manufacturing industry through the integration of 3D printing and Freeform Injection Molding. By using the Nexa3D XiP 3D printer and Nexa3D’s xMOLD material, Alpine has successfully overcome the challenges associated with traditional metal tooling. The FIM process has enabled Alpine to deliver fast prototypes, comparatively improve part strength and surface finish, and achieve significant time and cost savings.