The Sprout Railing Planter - Designed by Wellstronics3D and Made in Minnesota!
How Did Wellstronics3D Help?
Sprout Planter came to us in the very early stages of product development looking for a way to change their product from a basic, expensive and crude design to a unique and cost-effective scalable product for a planter that can mount on vertical balusters. We enhanced their product by creating a product that could be manufactured at large scale. The final product was much less expensive to produce, was a higher quality product and allowed for color customization and all of this was designed at Wellstronics3D and manufactured in Minnesota.
This product was designed to be snapped together and assembled without hardware, which saves labor by allowing the end use customer to assemble it easily and quickly. Initially, this was prototyped out of ABS to test Form Fit and Function so the assembly process could be tested. After several design iterations, the product was ready for manufacturing. The process that was chose to manufacture this product was High Pressure Injection Molding. To minimize the tooling costs needed to mold this product using Polypropylene, the design was made to work with a straight pull mold tool and specific walls were designed to be mirrored to reduce the number of required mold tools. Using mirrored parts saved the customer roughly $7500 in mold tooling costs.
The overall cost for this project was roughly $10,000 and took about 6 months to design and move into manufacturing.
Sprout Planter Project Details
Providing Manufactured Results!
$10,000 - Total Design Project Costs
6 Months - Design to Manufacturing
$7500 - Tool savings by using mirrored parts
MFG Process - High Pressure Injection Molding
Originally Designed and Manufactured in Minnesota
https://sproutplanter.com/
FAQs
How do you transition a 3D printed prototype to mass production?
Transitioning requires optimizing the design for "Form, Fit, and Function." At Wellstronics3D, we refine designs and part geometry for High-Pressure Injection Molding through Design for Manufacturing (DFM) to ensure the lowest possible production cost per unit.
How much does mold tooling cost?
Costs typically range from $5,000 for simple tools to $50,000+ for complex, high-volume production. We specialize in DFM to minimize these expenses; by optimizing part geometry and by minimizing the number of required parts. We frequently save our clients thousands of dollars in upfront tooling costs.
How long does it take to go from a design iteration to a finished product?
A typical product development cycle—from refining a prototype to launching full-scale manufacturing—takes approximately 6 months. This timeline includes rigorous testing for "Form, Fit, and Function," mold tool creation, and final production runs to ensure the product is market-ready
Can injection molded products be designed to assemble without hardware?
Yes. By utilizing precision engineering and materials like Polypropylene, we can design products that "snap together." This hardware-free approach reduces your assembly labor, eliminates the cost of extra fasteners, and provides a more seamless experience for the end user.