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Although the possibilities with Rapid Prototyping technologies are enormous, there are also limitations. Rapid Prototyping
systems can't yet produce parts in a wide enough range of materials, which means that concessions have to be made on
functionality. And although the systems are fast, considering the time consumed between finishing the product design and the
production of the first part, the systems are not fast enough to produce a small or medium sized batch of products in an
economic way. Conventional processes such as molding and casting are still the only means available to do that. But RP technology
is often the starting point for making these processes faster, cheaper and better.
As the term already implies, RT is a technology to produce tooling quickly. Two broad categories of rapid tooling exist.
One category involves indirect approaches that use RP master patterns to produce the tool. While a lot of such processes are
in various stages of development, only a few are common and commercially important today. Methods are:
RTV Silicone Rubber Mold
Reaction Injection Moulding (RIM)
Aluminium Filled Epoxy
Sprayed Metal
Kirksite
3D Keltool
The second category is a direct approach, meaning that an RP machine builds the actual core and cavity mold inserts, in the
case of injection mold tooling. As in the case of indirect processes, there are a large number of technologies being explored,
but only a few are commercially important today. Methods are:
Space Puzzle Molding
Direct AIM
Soft Tooling from Metals
Hard Tooling from Metals
The methods above are commonly used to produce metal tool parts which are needed to produce batches of plastic parts. Off course
these methods can also be used to produce physical prototypes of metal parts. But there are is some other methods available,
dedicated to produce metal parts quickly with the support of RP technologies:
Investment Casting
With so many methods available it's obvious that there are numerous routes to get to a final functional part or tool starting
from a CAD definition. The choice depends on the application, volume of parts to be produced, final material and accuracy
requirements, RP process used, and numerous other factors.
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