State of the Art of Rapid Tooling

摘要

Based on the development of various rapid prototyping methods there have been emerged so many rapid tooling strategies including those requiring RP master pattern, those involving direct product and indirect production. Many of the currently available methods are introduced in this paper as well as their possibilities and limitations. Research topics and the main problems are also listed. This is useful to the selection of rapid tooling method and the research projects to improve them.