The impossible is now possible. R&D enters a new dimension

25 April 2023 4 min

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The research & development team is growing stronger. The resources, time and energy invested in this area last year are already yielding tangible results – and this is only the beginning of the implementation of innovative solutions that will set the course for the Rawlplug in the coming years.

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One of the most significant innovations that have enriched our processes in 2022 is what we refer to as rapid prototyping.

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No such thing as “no can do”
Constructors closer to customers

It provides broad support for constructors in their design work. Last year, we invested in new 3D printers significantly expanding the spectrum of our capabilities, concentrating all our competences at the same time within a single, newly created 3D printing laboratory. Consequently, our designers now have the tools in place to quickly transform an idea into a real-life item.

Paweł Bunio

Director of the R&D Departament

No such thing as “no can do”

The new laboratory is fully prepared to operate in three areas. The first of these involves sintered polyamide prints, used to visualise the solid and making it possible to touch the workpiece. The second option is resin printing, making it possible to very rapidly create inserts for prototype moulds and to perform tests on short series (20 to 100 items) of specific workpieces.

In only 24 hours, we are capable of printing an insert which we don’t even have to process afterwards. Over the next 24 hours, we can inject the product and prepare samples made of the plastic dedicated to the specific prototype.

Paweł Bunio

Director of the R&D Departament

The third area is 3D printing in sintered steel, which, in addition to prototyping, makes it possible to manufacture production inserts on a large scale.

Thus, we are becoming an important link in tool production, supplementing the work carried out at the tool shop, which produces workpieces in a conventional manner. In R&D, we are capable of speeding up a specific project, as we reduce complex processes to a single stage. In addition, we create shapes that are not available anywhere else.

Paweł Bunio

Director of the R&D Departament

Just to make things clear: the new processes in R&D do not compete against those already functioning on a daily basis at the tool shop, but are rather elements that make the development of both areas more dynamic, and thus contribute in the same way to the development in the area of production (which, by the way, gained in the same period, among other things, new injection moulders, other machinery, and a completely new mixing & filling department) and, in the long term, of sales (an efficient, cheaper process can increase sales).

An example? Conformal cooling. Until recently, Rawlplug’s mould cooling was based on conventional technologies, which was associated with lower process efficiency, resulting mainly from the limitations of perpendicular or parallel cooling channels in the surfaces, and consequently with different distances of the cooling channels from specific workpieces.

By printing an entire channel, we can give it the shape we need at the given moment. The process therefore becomes independent of the cooling elements, as the walls of the cooling tube are right there next to the workpiece. This allows us to reduce the cooling time to the maximum possible extent, which is fundamental in injection moulding.

Paweł Bunio

Director of the R&D Departament

Constructors closer to customers

The implementation of innovative processes is only one part of the changes that have recently taken place in the R&D department. We have also invested in expanding the team’s competences. We didn’t have to wait long to see the results, as the first 7.2 V battery created from scratch by Rawlplug launched in 2022, and the work related to the design of new power tools, which we are now developing on several extremely important levels (including the digital one), has gained even more momentum (we will keep you posted on the details).

The last couple of months have also seen a significant expansion of the R&D structure, the core of which used to be composed of the laboratory and the production development and quality departments. The R&D team has been joined by engineer consultants from technical support, as well as trainers from the Rawlplug Academy and from the recently established EHS (Environment, Health and Safety) department, whose main task is to grow the company by developing management systems.

Our technical support, in touch with our customers right from the design phase, is a genuine window on the world to us. Rawlplug Academy, on the other hand, involves direct contact with customers as part of training. In both these spaces, we gather invaluable data that enable us to improve already existing products and to develop entirely new ones, in line with the specific expectations and needs of our customers.

Paweł Bunio

Director of the R&D Departament

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