Re: Tooling Quotations With RP Model Supplied

From: Fusioneng@aol.com
Date: Sat Apr 24 1999 - 05:17:40 EEST


In a message dated 4/21/99 4:08:55 PM Central Daylight Time,
rjensen@parker.com writes:

<< Clearly, one can get a better quotation on conventionally produced mold
tooling
 when one supplies an RP model along with the drawings. Does anyone know of
any
 published studies with hard numbers that supports this statement?
 
 Thanks!
 Russ Jensen
 Parker Hannifin Corp., Racor Div.
>>

Russ
Several years ago when people sent out for mold quotes providing 2D drawings
to build molds from, it was beneficial to have SLA parts along with the
quotes. However it has been a couple years since we have tried to quote any
jobs at all from 2D drawings. Most companies have stopped producing complete
2D drawings of their parts ( a very large waste of time). Instead 3D models
are produced and 2D reference drawings are made to show engraving, mold
texture, design notes, and misc info which can't be represented in the model.
You could not build a mold from the information on these prints. We quote a
couple thousand jobs a year and 99% of the jobs come to us as 3D solid or
surface files. If we do recieve 2D only data we are normally leary and pass
on the job until they can provide 3D data to us. The mold industry standard
today is ready to go ProE files with all the Drafts and parting lines
defined. If the files are anything short of that, it's time and material to
bring the files to that level before we even start talking about a mold. All
molds are firm quoted to a set price and delivery. We cannot afford to play
with peoples half finished Autocad part drawings. We have been burned by that
so many times in the past it is no longer funny. This is the reality of the
production mold building business today. Im sure there are a few small shops
out there still working off 2D prints but they need to get serious if they
want to survive. The only other notable exception is the Japanese who are
admittedly a few years behind the US and Europe in this area. I would rather
someone Email me an STL file to quote from rather than a part or a print. I
can do much more with it. I know im going to get flamed big time for this, so
everyone LET ME HAVE IT.
Bob Morton
Fusion Engineering

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