Rapid tooling by rapid prototyping: tools made by laser

Michael Macht; Frank Breitinger

doi:10.1117/12.248590

26 August 1996 Rapid tooling by rapid prototyping: tools made by laser

Michael Macht, Frank Breitinger

Proceedings Volume 2787, Rapid Prototyping; (1996) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.248590
Event: Lasers, Optics, and Vision for Productivity in Manufacturing I, 1996, Besancon, France

Abstract

In view of the competitive situation on the international market, companies are being forced to develop products more rapidly and with less likelihood of errors occurring. In the recent past, product development has been greatly speeded up, above all by computer-aided methods. However, these are not entirely sufficient to achieve a further reduction in product development times. New manufacturing methods such as 'rapid prototyping' (RP) now make it possible to obtain not only computer models but also actual physical patterns in a very early development stage. As RP technologies gained in strength, a demand arose for prototypes in the actual material which it was intended to use for the production article. Using suitable process chains, it is now possible to produce components from various near-series plastics (for example by vacuum casting) and also from metals (e.g. by lost-wax casting or sand casting). At the Augsburg User Center run by Institute for Machine Tools and Industrial Management of Munich Technical University, processes for the rapid production of prototype tools which unite machining methods, RP technologies and molding techniques have therefore been developed.

Citation Download Citation

Michael Macht and Frank Breitinger "Rapid tooling by rapid prototyping: tools made by laser", Proc. SPIE 2787, Rapid Prototyping, (26 August 1996); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.248590

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