Ukraine has done a lot of innovating in this conflict with Russia
18
UmichAgnosApr 13, 2026
+3
If they're making that many copies of a single item, it would be more efficient to invest in a small injection molding setup.
3
GreppyApr 14, 2026
+6
Did you not read the article?
6
UmichAgnosApr 14, 2026
-2
An injection molder is at least an order of magnitude quicker than a 3d printer.
Smallish (camera drone sized) parts complete in seconds, not borderline hours.
And yes, I did read the article that they are going through 500kg of material, if they can settle on a design, an injection molder is more time, energy and cost efficient. If it's 500g of material, printing is the way to go.
-2
isekai_cheeseApr 14, 2026
+8
you cannot set up a an injection mold machine as easy as a bunch of 3d printers. a 3d printer you can pretty much set up anywhere and let it print all night and its ready to use.
plus theres transporting/logistics of the 3d printers which is super convenient vs big machine that does one thing.
what if you need to print other stuff? the molds that were made are now useless. 3d printer just hit print.
8
DingleBerrieIcecreamApr 16, 2026
+3
Injection molding is indeed a more efficient, faster process. That said, based on other related articles, it also seems that they are constantly innovating and evolving the drone part designs. For that reason, 3d printers are more flexible in their ability to make on the fly design changes to parts as they are produced.
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