RAPID SHEET METAL MANUFACTURING: DIRECT AND INDIRECT RAPID TOOLING

摘要

The traditional methods adopted for tool design and production in sheet metal forming industry carries a high cost and long lead time resulting in cost justification problems for low volume production. Rapid Tooling (RT) technology is capable of justifying the cost of tooling suitable for low volume production or prototyping purposes. With the introduction of Rapid Sheet Metal Manufacturing (RSMM), which is a closed loop process that uses advanced computer-aided techniques and computer-controlled machines to produce tooling directly or indirectly, the various benefits of RT can be achieved. The key aspect of this closed loop process is the method used to fabricate and modify sheet metal tooling. Various approaches are adopted in the preparation of tooling for embossing sheet metal material. The three indirect approaches use Selective Laser Sintering (SLS), Stereolithography (SLA), and high speed Computer Numerical Controlled (CNC) milling to build the masters from computer models. The masters are utilized in the vacuum casting process to generate the tooling. The direct approach utilizes RapidSteel~(TM) 2.0 in fabricating metal forming tools. The tools are suitable for low volume production or design evaluations of sheet metal products where prototyping cost and lead-time are greatly reduced. Comparisons on quality, lead-time and cost are presented.