Water-Breakable Resin Could Transform Injection Mold Tooling — ALTANA Cubic Ink Debuts New Material

A New Approach to Mold Making

ALTANA Cubic Ink has introduced a water-breakable resin specifically designed for injection mold tooling, potentially solving one of the most persistent challenges in rapid prototyping: mold removal.

The Cubic Ink MOLD 400 vp material allows manufacturers to 3D print injection molds that can be simply dissolved in water rather than being mechanically broken out — a process that can damage parts, wear out tools, and add significant labor costs.

Faster Turnaround, Lower Costs

According to the company, water-breakable molds reduce lead times from weeks to days, while enabling complex part geometries that would be difficult or impossible with traditional machining.

The technology is aimed at prototype validation, bridge tooling, and low-volume production runs where traditional steel or aluminum molds would be prohibitively expensive.

The webinar, scheduled for May 20, 2026, will feature Chris Rollag, North American Sales Manager at ALTANA Cubic Ink, discussing practical applications and design best practices for 3D printed molds.

Why This Matters

Injection molding is one of the most common manufacturing processes for plastic parts, but mold costs traditionally start at $5,000-10,000 for simple designs and escalate rapidly for complex geometries. Water-breakable 3D printed molds open rapid tooling to smaller teams and companies that cannot justify traditional mold investments.

The approach follows a "Print & Inject" workflow: print the mold on a standard DLP or LCD 3D printer, cure it, then inject your material. Once cooled, the mold is immersed in water and dissolves away — no molding compound to chip out, no risk of part damage from aggressive demolding.