Non-Planar Mold Printing for Consumer Goods

The Challenge

A leading sportswear manufacturer needed to 3D print molds with smooth, curved surfaces. Traditional 3-axis slicing produced visible staircase artifacts on the curved regions — unacceptable for production tooling where surface quality directly affects the final product.

Their existing workflow relied on manual toolpath generation in CAD software, which was time-consuming and required significant expertise.

The Solution

Using the 5 Axis Slicer’s non-planar slicing mode, the team generates curved-layer toolpaths that follow the mold surface geometry. The layers curve with the part instead of stacking as flat planes, eliminating the staircase effect entirely.

Key configuration:

• Non-planar slicing with adaptive curvature following
• Variable layer height — thinner on high-curvature regions, thicker on flat areas
• FDM-optimized toolpath parameters for their specific printer setup

The Results

• Staircase artifacts eliminated on curved surfaces
• Mold surface quality suitable for production use
• Toolpath generation reduced from hours (manual) to minutes (automated)
• Repeatable results across different mold geometries