Technological and Economic Comparison of Additive Manufacturing Technologies for Fabrication of Polymer Tools for Injection Molding

摘要

This paper investigates the technological and economic potential of 10 different AM materials manufactured with four different AM technologies for the use of tool production for injection molding in small series applications. Therefore, experimental trials with three different injection molding materials with increasing manufacturing difficulty in terms of resulting tool loads are conducted. Tool wear, resulting part quality and tool manufacturing cost are taken into account for potential evaluation. A concrete selection of the most suitable materials for further investigation is given.