Quickparts Invests in HQ, Adds Rapid Production Tooling

On-demand manufacturing provider Quickparts completed a $2.5 million investment in equipment and space at its headquarters in Seattle, Washington, while also launching its Quick Mold service to North America, which it says can deliver production-quality molded parts to market in as little as five days.

A Quickparts spokesperson tells Plastics Technology that the investments include the installation of six new Neo800 stereolithography (SLA) 3D printers from Stratasys, as well as facility upgrades to the manufacturing space and environmental controls. These include an addition of 1,800 square feet and temperature and humidity controls to enhance the consistency and quality of the space’s output.

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Quickparts applies aluminum tooling for its Quick Mold program. Source: Quickparts

The upgrades help establish the site as an aerospace and defense “center of excellence,” strengthening the company’s capabilities in high-fidelity casting patterns and SLA printing, Quickparts says.

At the same time, the company is bringing its Quick Mold offering to North America after launches in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Quick Mold applies rapidly machined aluminum tooling and engineering-grade thermoplastics to help move customers from design to functional production-grade parts in five days or less.

The Quickparts’ spokesperson says the company can produce aluminum and steel tooling for injection molding parts of all sizes, but for Quick Mold, specifically, the product relies exclusively on aluminum tooling. To maintain operational readiness, the Quick Mold program generally limits part size to 4.500 x 2.750 x 2.000 in. Parts outside that scope can be assessed on a case-by-case basis.

In North America, the Quick Mold services are deployed from the company’s injection molding facility in Clinton Township, Michigan. Customers needing Quick Mold parts in Europe can source them from the company’s Pinerolo, Italy, facility, according to the spokesperson. In terms of early successes, Quickparts says it has used Quick Mold to: deliver a one-day design change cycle for a 50% glass-filled polyamide (PA) 66; turn around a high-stress automotive component in four days; and redesign, tool and mold a luxury vehicle button in four days.