Case Study: Plasticraft Manufacturing achieves faster, better, cheaper mold production and reduced lead times with 3D Systems' GibbsCAM

GibbsCAM Makes Faster, Better, Cheaper a Reality

Plasticraft Manufacturing, a family-founded plastic-injection molder with more than 120 employees in Alabama (plus a satellite plant in Iowa), faced a major business shock when power-tool work moved offshore. To survive and compete they invested in solid-model CAD but found their existing CAM tools couldn’t efficiently program the increasingly complex 3‑D shapes, creating shop‑floor bottlenecks and long leadtimes.

After evaluating vendors and seeing GibbsCAM cut metal, Plasticraft adopted its integrated CAM/CAD solution. GibbsCAM imports 3‑D solids directly, maintains associativity for on‑the‑fly changes, and reduced programming time from roughly three days to half a day—allowing the shop to start cutting before drawings are output. The result: shorter leadtimes, the ability to produce more complex molds, regained business (including some repatriated power‑tool work), and improved capacity to serve customers.