I agree that high speed CNC milling is probably the best solution, but I am
hoping that someone has done some alternative tooling for large parts.
In the list quite a few months back, there was some discussion but no
examples of using pattern based tooling (SLA master) for the manufacturing
of blow molding cast aluminum tools. While I was with Plynetics there was
experiementation with epoxy/composite tools using steel encasements of the
mold for structural foam that had moderate levels of achievement. I was
hoping that someone else had success stories of alternative tooling
processes with large plastic parts that I could talk about and point to as
"see, this can work!" examples.
While doing a blow mold tool using RP/RT for many high volume applications
that use commodity type resins is probably not realistic, it seems that
someone should have looked at doing an engineering application using a tool
produced via RP/RT.
B. J. Arnold-Feret
ppsltd@airmail.net
For more information about the rp-ml, see http://ltk.hut.fi/rp-ml/
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