BY V.

VISHNUTEJA NFTDC ID # 55025

1. Quick Review of RP Process 2. Basics of Rapid tooling & the process 3. Tooling Schemes 4. Direct Tooling Techniques 5. Indirect Tooling Techniques 6. Merits & Applications 7. Future Scope

Quick Review of RP Process:

Rapid Tooling Process :

Rapid Tooling is a general terminology for using a technological process to rapidly produce mold inserts for injection molding of plastics and casting of materials. The Process : Transferring non-functional models constructed form the range of RP Techniques into a functional prototype part. Materials used are

ABS Cycolac
Polycarbonate Lexan Polycarbonate /ABS Cycoloy Nylon Zytel Ployprylene polyethylene

Tooling Schemes:

 Enables the production of inserts capable of surviving from a few dozen to tens of thousands of cycles and represent good alternatives to traditional molding techniques.
Classfied into two as Firm tooling ( Bridge Tooling) which includes less expensive methods with shorter lead times that are appropriate for tool validation and Hard Tooling which performs above operation with greater cost and higher lead time.

2. Laminate tooling : Uses LOM machine to build molds based on advanced materials like epoxy or ceramics withstanding abnormal operating conditions. 3. Sandform tooling : Uses SLS technique and produces cores used in low pressure sand casting.

4. EOS Direct Tool Process : Used for rapid production of complex inserts , the surfaces of which can not be machined directly.
5. Direct metal tooling using 3D printing : Build tooling inserts in range of materials including Stainless steel ,tungsten and tungsten carbide.

Indirect Tooling :
1.Alternates Room Temperature Vulcanizing : to traditional mould-making techniques and necessitate a minimum of one intermediate replication process. Intended as pre-production tooling and produce large drafting angles ,simpler part shapes and lower mechanical-thermal specifications.

Epoxy Tooling : moulds for prototype plastic injection ,castings, compression moulds

Ceramic Tooling:

Used in plastic processing ,metal forming and metal casting.

Amount of water required has to be controlled to avoid excess shrinkage in the material sets.

Spin Casting:

Spin casting moulds for metal parts are made up of heat-vulcanized rubber.
Involves injecting a material into a mould that rotates at high speed.

INVESTMENT CASTING:

SAND CASTING:

Wax patterns are employed to

define Shape and are then melted away. SL is used to create the pattern. Usually of two types : Shell investment casting and solid flask investment casting

Employed for production of large

metal Parts with low surface quality.

Metal Spray :

APPLICATIONS :

ADVANTAGES :
The potential to develop better quality products. Reduces total production time and inaccuracies caused by intermediate replication stages. Provides real opportunities to cut overall costs of a product launch and considerably increase the chances of its commercial success. The high cost of labour and short supply of skilled patternmakers can be overcome

FUTURE SCOPE & CHALLENGES :

Use of IGES ,HPGL ,STEP & VRML instead of STL CAD tools for Micro structured objects Development of Voxel based and FE based methods for micro structured objects. Production of materially graded structures Productivity/ Cost of RP Materials Materials

Process Planning
RP data formats and design tools