Schnell von der Produktidee zum Bauteil durch Rapid Prototyping

Flexible production concepts for manufacturing products of high quality require the fast availability of prototypes. Therefore, the processes of Rapid Prototyping (RP) are of great importance. On basis of a 3D CAD description of the geometry to be designed, these new processes often represent the fastest and most economic variant for manufacturing models and prototypes. Tasks of the future are to improve the accuracy and the achievable surface quality of the processes as well as particularly to enlarge the applicable range of materials. The application of RP in the area of mold making is of particular importance. The high demands on molds, e. g. from injection molding up to diecasting, can only be fulfilled by using metallic and ceramic materials. In this paper the procedure from the plastic model to the metallic or ceramic prototype respectively to the mold insert are explained. Direct ways to metallic and ceramic parts and applications of secondary operations are shown