Indirect Methods for Rapid Tool Production

As Rapid Prototyping (RP) is becoming more mature, material properties, accuracy, cost and lead-time are improving to permit it to be employed for the production of tools. Some traditional tool making methods based on the replication of models have been adapted and new techniques allowing tools to be made directly by RP have been developed. This chapter reviews indirect methods for rapid tooling (RT) that are, or shortly will be, available for production runs of up to several hundred parts in the same material as, or a material very similar to, that of the final production part. The RT methods presented below are called indirect because they use a RP pattern obtained by an appropriate RP technique as a model for mould and die making.