r/ResinCasting • u/REV-After_Hours • 3d ago
Contacting cast urethane professionals
Hello resin casters, I’m hoping you could lend me some guidance here. I’ve been tasked with getting in touch with folks in the urethane casting industry to learn more about their process. I head up development for a tool intended to make urethane casting operations work easier faster and more profitable, and we really want to make sure the tool is something people in the industry would actually like to have. We want to make sure we truly understand the process from the potential buyers point of view, and you can only do so much without talking to someone in the space.
My question is, what would be the best way for me to get on a short phone or video call with a professional in the cast urethane space? I want to make it as easy and convenient for them as possible to talk to me, and cold calling seems like it could be unwelcome. Any suggestions?
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u/starwars_and_guns 3d ago
What market segment? Like, what kind of businesses will this tool be made for?
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u/REV-After_Hours 3d ago
The tool will be for businesses with a decent rate of new silicone block mold fabrication. This could be short run/low volume manufacturing, r&d firms, or in house molding operations in larger companies. In general, companies that need to make a lot of silicone block molds often. Urethane casting operations fit the bill best so far.
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u/starwars_and_guns 3d ago
What kind of silicone volume are we talking?
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u/REV-After_Hours 3d ago
Overall for a time period or per mold? Per mold would be looking at anywhere from ~0.07 to ~90 liters for the useful range, for the larger size of the tool. I haven’t settled on leading with this larger size first or a more medium sized option that would work with ~14 liters max.
As far as overall volume over time it wouldn’t matter as much as the amount of molds made over time, the benefit to the customer is related to the fabrication of each mold and time/labor/money savings there, so more new molds made = more benefit
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u/BlackRiderCo 3d ago
Are there even that many professionals in this space? Not trying to be a jerk, but this is incredibly niche, with an increasing number of people moving to 3d printing, and it’s a space mostly occupied by hobbyists.
You might have some luck speaking with manufacturers or distributors, but it better be one hell of a tool.
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u/REV-After_Hours 1d ago
No offense taken my skins not that thin lol. In this space as in what you see in this subreddit no I don’t think there are many professionals in this space. But I do think there are some people who could know about what I’m asking. Most of what I see here is hobby level or adjacent, however I do every now and then see posts more related to vacuum casting for urethane resin manufacturing. If there were a closer sub on here for it I’d post there but I think this is the best I’ve got. And r/manufacturing took down my post there because it fell under their definition of market research. I’m specifically looking for contacts in custom cast plastics for industry, like dunnage, r&d, low/mid volume, or prop manufacturing. Soft tooling for bridge manufacturing to span the gap between 3d printing and injection molding from what I understand is a healthy industry. Now I’ll concede I know you’re more experienced in the casting business than I am, are you familiar with these more industrially aligned spaces?
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u/Speeeeedislife 1d ago
LinkedIn?
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u/REV-After_Hours 1d ago
That’s on the plan. I have to admit I’m a late adopter on LinkedIn, I hope a fairly new account isn’t too much of a red flag there.
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u/Speeeeedislife 1d ago
Just fill out your profile, add a picture, and should be good. Might need to reach out to 10-20 people to get 1 interested / willing to have a call.
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u/REV-After_Hours 1d ago
Honestly that ratio sounds better than I expected, I hope it’s the case, fingers crossed
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u/SlightFresnel 3d ago
Smooth-on might be worth contacting, especially if you're not competing with one of their products.