RAPID DEVELOPMENT OF SPIN CAST ZINC PARTS USING RAPID TOOLING TECHNOLOGIES

摘要

An attempt is made to study the feasibility of using stereolithography (SL) and arc metal spray technologies to rapidly develop products of zinc spin casting. A tooling process is introduced to make an intermediate tool from the SL pattern. The intermediate tool is then used in an arc metal spray process to form the metal master pattern that is subsequently used to make the spin casting moulds. Different materials and processes were studied to fabricate the intermediate tool. It shows that the ceramics used in investment casting and Shaw process are suitable materials for the intermediate tools. A preliminary analysis of the dimensional errors confirms the viability of the process chain for rapid development of spin cast zinc parts.