Why Lifestyle Additive Replaced Injection Molding With SLS for Faster, Smarter Production

January 05, 2026 | Reading time: 4 min

When you’re responsible for getting medical devices to market, every decision is a trade-off between speed, risk, and cost.

Injection molding has long been the default option for plastic parts: once you’ve invested in tooling, you can produce large volumes at a low unit cost. But that model assumes stable designs, predictable demand, and long product lifecycles. For companies working on innovative devices, custom instruments, and constantly evolving product lines, those assumptions are breaking down.

Lifestyle Additive, a medical device manufacturer focused on nylon components, faced that reality head-on. They needed production-grade quality for drill guides, driver handles, and single-use instruments — but they also needed the agility to iterate designs quickly, respond to surgeons’ feedback, and support low-to-medium volume runs.

That’s why Director of Operations Nathan Stevens and his team made selective laser sintering (SLS) on EOS systems the backbone of their production strategy — using injection molding only when volumes and stability really justify tooling.

Their story is a practical roadmap for any manufacturer evaluating the additive manufacturing business case for SLS.

From Early 3D Printing Curiosity to Production-Ready SLS

Nate’s first encounter with 3D printing was a simple nylon buckle from an early FDM printer — low resolution, clearly experimental. Today, he oversees SLS production of end-use medical parts on EOS P 110 systems.

What changed?

Two major shifts:

Material properties and quality: SLS nylon parts from EOS systems deliver solid, consistent material properties and surface finishes that compare well to injection-molded parts — good enough to qualify as end-use components.
Process maturity: With dependable SLS hardware and software, Lifestyle Additive can treat polymer 3D printing production as a stable process, not a lab experiment.

“When these parts are finished, they’re no longer prototypes. These are end-level parts that can be qualified and validated,” Nate emphasizes. That was the inflection point where SLS became a cornerstone of their manufacturing strategy.

Making the Numbers Work: Cost and Scale With SLS

Speed alone doesn’t justify a shift in process. The economics have to work.

Lifestyle Additive’s experience with SLS production shows how the numbers add up:

Efficient 3D nesting: In the powder bed, parts can be stacked and arranged throughout the entire build volume, maximizing yield per job.
No support structures: SLS uses unsintered powder as a natural support. There’s no extra support material to print and remove, which reduces material waste and post-processing labor.
Automation-friendly workflow: Powder handling, sieving, and recycling can be integrated into a largely automated process, lowering labor costs per part.
Predictable TCO: Instead of absorbing unpredictable tooling changes, Lifestyle Additive pays for powder, machine time, and a managed proportion of reused material.

High uptime and repeatability from EOS SLS systems help reduce scrap and rework — two hidden cost drivers that erode margins in both traditional and additive workflows.

For operations and procurement teams, this creates a clear additive manufacturing business case: SLS is particularly cost-effective for complex parts, lower volumes, and product lines where designs are still evolving.

Competing on Product, Not Just Price

Finally, SLS gives Lifestyle Additive a powerful way to differentiate.

With selective laser sintering, they can:

Deliver end-use parts with a smooth, “injection-mold–like” surface finish that surprises new customers.
Consolidate multi-part assemblies into a single printed piece, reducing assembly time, cost, and potential failure points.
Use geometries that molding can’t produce — internal channels, organic shapes, and ergonomic features tailored to surgeons.

Nate explains that many customers are surprised by how closely SLS parts match the strength and appearance of molded components — while reaching the market significantly faster.

That combination of performance, customization, and speed gives Lifestyle Additive a competitive edge that traditional manufacturing alone can’t easily replicate.

SLS and Injection Molding: A Combined Strategy

Importantly, Lifestyle Additive doesn’t see SLS and injection molding as an either/or decision.

SLS polymer 3D printing production provides:

Speed to market.
Design freedom.
Economical low-to-medium volume production.

Injection molding still has a role when volumes are high and designs are locked for the long term. SLS becomes the bridge: it gets products to market quickly with end-use quality parts — and when the time is right, molded production can take over for stable, high-volume SKUs.

See Lifestyle Additive’s Journey Firsthand

If you’re currently relying on injection molding, CNC, or other polymer AM technologies and exploring how SLS could fit into your strategy, Lifestyle Additive’s experience offers a real-world template.

Watch Video: Lifestyle Additive’s Path from Injection Molding to SLS

Hear directly from Nate Stevens on how his team uses EOS SLS systems to accelerate development, improve supply chain resilience, and build a smarter, more flexible production model.