{"id":68910,"date":"2026-01-21T00:01:15","date_gmt":"2026-01-20T23:01:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.3dnatives.com\/en\/?p=68910"},"modified":"2026-01-19T18:02:12","modified_gmt":"2026-01-19T17:02:12","slug":"ataru-black-resin-injection-molding-21012026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.3dnatives.com\/en\/ataru-black-resin-injection-molding-21012026\/","title":{"rendered":"Is Additive Manufacturing Really Ready for Injection Molding?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Can additive manufacturing<\/a> be relied on for injection molding<\/a> when it comes to small-to-medium series production? Molds manufactured via 3D printing often show short life spans when subjected to excessive stress, whether from heat or pressure. Nano Dimension has challenged this perception by developing ATARU Black, a resin with a high thermomechanical durability, offering a reliable and repeatable solution for additive tooling.<\/p>\n

In order to evaluate and validate the capabilities of ATARU Black, Nano Dimension has partnered with SKZ – German Plastics Center<\/a>, headquartered in W\u00fcrzburg, Germany, a leader within research, education, product testing and process evaluation within the plastics industry. The rigorous trials by the SKZ as an independent partner suggest a high suitability of the resin as an injection tool insert material, bridging the gap between prototyping and small and medium-scale production.<\/p>\n

The results of the tests were compiled by Nano Dimension in this case study, showing how ATARU Black resin withstands the real-world conditions of injection molding. If you would like to learn more, you can download it for free HERE<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>

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To determine the performance of a resin<\/a> in the context of rapid tooling, it is important to evaluate its printability, pairing behavior with different thermoplastic materials, and stability under adverse thermomechanical load in an injection molding process. To do that, the SKZ has developed and used the Stonehenge benchmark tool insert since 2017, featuring challenging and delicate geometry such as pins, cores and grooves to evaluate the print accuracy, mold durability and precision of the molded parts. The molds were manufactured on an industrial Digital Light Processing (DLP) printer using 405 nm exposure wavelength and post-processed according to Nano Dimension’s recommendations.<\/p>\n

In the trial, several commonly used thermoplastic materials were used for the injection molding trials with the 3D-printed molds to test their performance and life span. These included ABS, POM, and glass fiber-reinforced polypropylene (PPGF30). The molds delivered over 100 parts from ABS and over 50 parts from POM, without any visible damage or abrasion, suggesting a much longer potential lifespan. For PPGF30, the mold withstood more than 150 injections without requiring any release agent beyond the initial application at the start of the trial.<\/p>\n

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The ATARU Black Resin<\/p><\/div>\n

But what enables ATARU Black to succeed where other resins fail? The key is the extremely high glass transition temperature (Tg) above 300\u00b0C and a Young’s modulus of 5.7 GPa, while still retaining an above-average elongation at break for this class of engineering, ceramic filled resins. These properties ensure that the mold retains its precise geometry under high clamping forces and the heat of molten thermoplastics without deforming.<\/p>\n

The case study also covers other points that validate the strength and durability of ATARU Black resin. You will have access to detailed thermal imaging data of the mold surfaces, as well as the complete post-processing workflow and injection molding parameters used for each polymer. Download the full case study HERE<\/a><\/strong> to explore the complete findings and evaluate ATARU Black resin as a reliable solution for tool prototyping and small-series manufacturing.<\/p>\n

What do you think of ATARU Black? Let us know in a comment below or on our\u00a0LinkedIn<\/span><\/a>\u00a0or\u00a0<\/span>Facebook<\/span><\/a>\u00a0<\/span>pages! Plus, don\u2019t forget to sign up for our free weekly\u00a0<\/span>Newsletter<\/span><\/a>\u00a0to get the latest 3D printing news straight to your inbox. You can also find all our videos on our\u00a0<\/span>YouTube<\/span><\/a>\u00a0channel.<\/span><\/p>\n

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*All Photo Credits: Nano Dimension<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Can additive manufacturing be relied on for injection molding when it comes to small-to-medium series production? Molds manufactured via 3D printing often show short life spans when subjected to excessive stress, whether from heat or pressure. Nano Dimension has challenged…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6048,"featured_media":68955,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"content-type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[27,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-68910","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-3d-materials","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.3dnatives.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68910","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.3dnatives.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.3dnatives.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.3dnatives.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6048"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.3dnatives.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=68910"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.3dnatives.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68910\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":68963,"href":"https:\/\/www.3dnatives.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68910\/revisions\/68963"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.3dnatives.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/68955"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.3dnatives.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68910"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.3dnatives.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=68910"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.3dnatives.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=68910"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}