LASER SINTERED SHORT RUN TOOLING FOR INJECTION MOLDING

摘要

Direct prototyping of a mold using a laser sintered (SLS') polyamide/coppcr (Cu/PA) composite~b allows the production or a limited number of prototype injection molded parts from production materials such as PP. PE, and ABS. The tooling is produced without doing reverses from patterns typical of prototype tools. The paper details the process including production of the tool, typical parts from such tool, and best use of such parts, tolerances, feature details, and cosmetics. The process is benchmarked against CNC tools and epoxy/composite tooling to compare durability, lead time, and accuracy Whereas the material is not touted to be a production tooling substitute. the copper/polyamide facing with epoxy based tooling may be an option for parts with low volume, quick turnaround requirements, medium tolerance requirements, and fine detail and feature refinements. However, prior to processing, the Cu/PA tools have several criteria that must be incorporated into the design of the tool in order to effectively utilize the process.