> Dear RP's
>
> I was wondering if any body would like to express their opinions on
> my current research for rapid tooling.
>
> I have been working for a number of years in the area of slip casting as a
> method of forming injection-moulding tools. Recently I have been slip
> casting Silicon carbide and a few months back produced a simple test
> injection-moulding tool with a silicon carbide insert, which after a few
> initial problems seam to work OK. The main problem from that point on was
> the restriction in the geometry's that could be formed which I believe I
> have now solved.
>
> This is very preliminary results but the final parts should be within a
> dimensional tolerance of *0.05% of that of the patterns dimensions. And
> the surface finish should be with in 1Ra of the pattern. The final parts
> are reaction bonded silicon carbide, fully dense, and it is estimated that
> the tensile strength should be in the order of 200-300Mpa.
> The potential advantages of using this material and method of forming
> injection moulding tools is that it is extremely wear resistant and
> resistant to corrosion, has very good thermal conductivity of about 10
> times that of a tool steel. Using this method of forming could be both
> cheaper and quicker that conventional tooling methods and the only
> restriction on the size of the tool that can be formed should be the
> furnace size.
> I have also done some initial work using (silicon carbide, copper,
> silicon) materials and (silicon carbide, aluminum, silicon) but have no
> accuracy data on this compositions.
>
> What I am looking for are opinions good and bad about this method of
> tooling and what are the potential other uses of this technology. As at
> this moment in time I am looking to research other potential areas for
> using this forming method, as I can do no experimental work due to a fire
> in the lab where I was working (not caused by me I might add).
>
>
> All opinions are welcome and just to put this into context the objective
> off the research is to produce an alternative to production tooling.
> Thanks for your time
>
> Cheers
>
> Chris Ainsley
>
email : mccainsley@ntu.edu.sg
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