Rapid Manufacturing of Polymer Injection Mould Tool Inserts for Prototype Tooling Production

Product design is a multi-criteria decision process with the complexity of selecting the optimum between functionality, cost, reliability, manufacturability and many other conflicting criteria. The only true way to really know how a component will perform under real world conditions is to manufacture it, in the production intent materials using production tooling. This however is not only costly but can take several months to produce the tooling to produce the part. Computer modelling, analysis and simulations such as 3D Computer Aided design, Finite Element Analysis, Flow Analysis etc can reduce the test programmes, there is still a requirement for prototype parts to test under various load and climatic scenarios. This paper will present the application of Rapid prototyping processes to produce direct tooling inserts in hard (metals) and soft (polymer) materials for prototype production tooling