Three Dimensional Printing (3DP) technology was developed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and licensed to several corporations.

   Snaps allow an easy method of assembly and disassembly of plastic parts. Snaps consist of a cantilever beam with a bump that deflects and snaps into a groove or a slot in the mating part.

  Inserts are used in plastic parts, to allow the use of fasteners such as machine screws. The advantage of this is that since these inserts are made out of metal, they are robust. Further, machine threads also allow great many cycles of assembly and disassembly, Inserts are installed using one of the following methods.

1) Incomplete Fillings:
a) not enough resin to fill the mold completely
b) inadequate injection stroke
c) low injection rate
d) low injection pressure
e) resin viscosity too high
f) exotic geometry

 Living hinges are thin sections of plastic that connect two segments of a part to keep them together and allow the   part to be opened and closed. Typically these are used in containers that are used in high volume applications   such as toolboxes, fish tackle boxes, CD boxes etc.

1)  Textures and Lettering can be molded on the surfaces, as an aesthetic aid or for incorporating identifying information, either for end users or factory. Texturing also helps hide surface defects such as knit lines, and other surface imperfections. The depth of texture or letters is somewhat limited, and extra draft needs to be provided to allow for mold withdrawal without marring the surface.

 1)  Textures and Lettering can be molded on the surfaces, as an aesthetic aid or for incorporating identifying information, either for end users or factory. Texturing also helps hide surface defects such as knit lines, and other surface imperfections. The depth of texture or letters is somewhat limited, and extra draft needs to be provided to allow for mold withdrawal without marring the surface.

Thick sections cool slower than thin sections. The thin section first solidifies, and the thick section is still not fully solidified. As the thick section cools, it shrinks and the material for the shrinkage comes only from the unsolidified areas, which are connected, to the already solidified thin section.