HLH Helps Fuse Rapid Injection Mould Specialized, Super Thin-Wall Diagnostic Device

HLH Rapid was tasked with creating a highly complex tool for this project—especially by prototype standards. Fuse required two 4-cavity tools with side actions to accommodate the design and built-in liquid seals, these demanded tight-fit precision and high-quality surface finishes.

The part also required a 500-micron wall thickness (0.5 mm), which is very thin for injection moulding and below the normal starting range of 1 mm or more. Achieving this would typically require costly, advanced, and specialised thin-wall moulding techniques.

For a startup organisation like Fuse with limited funds, turning to a specialised thin-wall moulding facility was simply not a feasible option but neither could they afford to lose this feature, as it was needed for the part to function effectively. 

Ralph Lamble, Chief Operating Officer of Fuse, with over 20 years of experience developing injection moulded medical technologies, said, “Ultimately, the decision on which vendor to choose came down to finding the best value—balancing cost, speed, and quality.” In this case, HLH was the manufacturer that best met their goals.

HLH was able to provide very affordable tooling solutions for their cost-sensitive products

Having previously worked with dozens of tooling manufacturers locally and internationally over the years, Ralph shared, “We’ve been able to achieve things with HLH that I don’t think we would have got through other vendors, from my experience.” He further added, “The price has been fantastic—we’ve been able to go to steel tools at a price that’s less than an aluminium tool.”

Fuse approached HLH with this project, knowing it was quite high-risk for both parties, but both took the challenge and compromised on their ideal to make it work

“We made a slight compromise on the design by increasing from 300-micron wall to 500-micron wall—still very very thin walls in injection moulding terms in the context of this part design,” said Ralph. “And HLH agreed to go ahead and try and mould it (despite the challenges).” In the end, HLH successfully moulded the 500-micron part, which did the job for Fuse’s intent. Ralph added, “It’s easy to say NO and not try things. We wanted to push forward and try things at risk and the outcome was successful!”

HLH sent through an in-depth DFM analysis which was followed up with quick and effective communication

“HLH have really helped support on the communication,” said Ralph. “We’ve had quite a bit of back and forth on the design intent and tool construction intent, and that has ended up with really great parts. That’s not always been the case when I worked with other vendors. Sometimes, people have their own views on what’s possible and not possible, and you can’t quite meet in the middle. We’ve met in the middle with HLH really successfully, which has led to a really good outcome for us.”

Highlights and Results

✔ HLH Rapid provided the most competitive quote, at less than half the cost of some competitor quotes.
✔ Successfully produced super-thin 500-micron (0.5mm) wall injection moulded prototypes.
✔ Completed in-depth DFM analysis, tooling, and T1 samples in under 2.5 weeks.
✔ Helped Fuse shave weeks off their development program.
✔ Moulded a high-quality, tight-fit liquid seal design with precision and a perfect surface finish on the first try, with no need for adjustments.
✔ Delivered 5,000 sets of parts initially, with a further 10,000 more now delivered, and 20,000 more on order, and tooling readily available for future orders.

Need an expert injection moulding partner for your next custom project? To kick off your prototype or production injection moulding project, send your CAD drawings and project details to info@hlhrapid.com, and our team will get back with a quote within 48 hours.