TAGS: 3D Printing Metal Replacement Part Design & Manufacturing
Volume Graphics has teamed up with industry consortium to improve rapid-prototyping of plastic mold inserts by using 3D Printing technology. As a project partner, Volume Graphics will bring in expertise in quality assurance and process optimization to the team via its advanced industrial computed tomography (CT) data-analysis software.
Christof Reinhart, CEO of Volume Graphics says, "We are convinced that industrial computed tomography can advance the future of rapid tooling and are working on solutions to increase prototype volumes, speed of design and overall part-and-process quality.”
Additive Manufacturing’s Growing Role in Rapid Tooling
In tool and mold making, additive manufacturing (aka 3D printing) is playing an increasingly important role in the quality and economics of high-efficiency metal production tooling with conformal cooling channels, and rapid prototyping of sample parts and plastic mold inserts. Mold inserts are a focus of the Consortium’s second project because of their critical importance in strengthening parts and/or encapsulating fabricated components.
The development phase of creating injection molded parts and inserts often requires the production of small-quantity prototypes. Two common approaches are:
- The modeling of sample “presentation” components using a low-end rapid process.
- The more complicated method of using an aluminum molding tool, where the final part in the prototype production process is completed with an injection molding machine.
A new “rapid” method offers improved time and cost savings over aluminum: plastic molds—produced through industrial AM—that are then used for prototyping traditional plastic components with inserts. While the sample output is lower in plastic molds than in aluminum, plastic is proving more than sufficient for prototypes and is less expensive than metal.
Volume Graphics’ CT Analysis Software
Graphics’ software provides a much deeper look into CT results, revealing flaws that may be invisible to the naked eye, comparing as-manufactured parts to their original designs and simulating the performance of part geometries to guide design and/or manufacturing corrections. Comparisons between CT and CAD datasets reduce molding-tool corrections for defects and warpage to a minimum.
The latest versions of Volume Graphics’ CT analysis software packages VGSTUDIO MAX and VGMETROLOGY provide a Manufacturing Geometry Correction module, which has been specifically developed by Volume Graphics for tool and mold making and additive manufacturing. Part shrinkage, distortion or other dimensional deviations detected in the CT data set can be transferred to the CAD model of the tool in order to analyze and redesign the relevant contour so that it 3D-prints correctly.
Source: Volume Graphics