Review article
Rapid Mould Manufacturing
Damir GODEC
; University of Zagreb, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and Naval Architecture, Zagreb
Mladen ŠERCER
; University of Zagreb, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and Naval Architecture, Zagreb
Abstract
The application of prototypes is becoming more and more important in the product development process. The reason lies in an increasing number of the developed automated processes of Rapid Prototyping (RP) which enables direct prototype production based on the CAD model of product within a very short time. One of the basic drawbacks of RP processes is the still limited number of applicable materials for prototype production. On the other hand, if appropriate material for prototype production does exist, the basic principles of prototype production differ from those for e.g. injection moulding. This leads to the key differences in properties of prototypes and future products produced by injection moulding. There is also another trend that can be noticed on the market - demands for the production of larger quantities of the same prototypes. In that case, RP processes are not so attractive any more, because of the costs of prototype materials and the speed of RP process in comparison with e.g. injection moulding. This caused a wider application of RP processes as processes for the production of mould elements or the entire moulds - Rapid Tooling processes (RT). The paper presents an overview of the major RT processes.
Keywords
rapid mould manufacturing; injection moulding; product development
Hrčak ID:
11987
URI
Publication date:
8.5.2007.
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