Mold Design and Production by Using Additive Manufacturing (AM) - Present Status and Future Perspectives

Abstract

This paper covers the advanced Additive Manufacturing (AM) techniques applied to injection mold design and production. Its aim is to do a comprehensive analysis on what AM is doing for the recent and future perspectives in the field of mold’s production. Further analyses are done on the possible use of Rapid Tooling (RT) techniques based on AM technologies. These include plastic mold inserts made using high strength polymer resins and metal-based technologies for direct tooling work. Moreover, the work also reviews conformal cooling channel design based on laser sintering AM technologies and its effect in improving mold cooling efficiency to reduce cycle times, which is an important issue in the injection molding process. Finally, a brief techno-economical analysis is presented, as well as a comparison between the two different types of molds – the conventional ones, and molds produced by rapid tooling. The conclusions leads toward future usage of RT and AM in the mold design and production.