I apologize, I thought I had posted the responses!

From: A. Donald Steinman (dsteinman@ctc.org)
Date: Sat Mar 28 1998 - 22:46:20 EET


Dear List,

Back in February I requested some information on rapid tooling / rapid
short run tooling for production materials based on a physical model.
Many of the responses went directly to the list, but some did not. I
thought I had posted these results.

Nonetheless, all of the responses I received are below. I apologize for
any inconvenience this may have caused.

Don

I may be able to help. There are currently several ways from manual to
automatic to reverse engineer objects. Some are destructive some
preserve the original model. Surface resolution is an important factor
in choosing the correct process.

What is the "mosaic" process?

Please contact me if I can be of any help to you.

best,

--
michael rees SCULPTOR           http://www.sound.net/~zedand00/
1212 w 8th St. Bldg B #2,       816 753 3020 voice    zedand00@sound.net

KC, Mo 64101 816 753 1542 fax

Although I think he monitors this list and may well have already responded, it might be useful to pose this question directly to David Comeau of Albright Technologies, Inc. (albright@ultranet.net or 508/422-8051). If I recall correctly, his approach combines rough machining with RTV tooling. The RTV could likely be cast using the handmade model as a master.

Spray metal tooling may be a possible solution to your problem. This process sprays a thin (around 2- 3mm) layer of zinc onto a pattern to create the tool face and split lines, which is then backed up with an aluminium filled epoxy, and can be used as an injection moulding tool. Tools like this have been sprayed onto SL parts, which have a glass transition temperature of about 70 celsius, so your low temperature resistance should not be a problem. The one company that I know who do this work is PERA, here in the UK. Dr

Matt Murphy should be able to give you some more information. His email address is matt_murphy@peragroup.com and their web page is http://www.pera.co.uk/ I'm sure there are other companies who can do this as well. If you want,

I could dig out some references if you need some more information. Hope this helps

You may want to try to create a spray metal mold from your pattern and use epoxy backing to create a mold cavity. If you look at the RP-ML library (found at the bottom of most messages) you may be able to get additional information on the "Spray Metal" process.

hope this helps Carl Dekker metlflo@mw.sisna.com

We cast composite/epoxy injectiuon molds over all different types of master models. The time considerations are revolved around the parting line development and complexity of the mold ie. loose inserts or small protruding features in the mold.

If the geometry is simple a 1-2 week time frame should be do-able. The molds can handle quantities much higher than 500 pieces in polypro.

Drew Brown Conceptual Reality L.L.C. Phone:(248)926-8820 Fax:(248)926-8830 http://www.conceptual-reality.com

My name is Brad Fox, President of Rapid Design Technologies. My company consults on these types of issues. There are a number of means to accomplish the goal you describe here. The right means depends upon a number of other factors such as time, cost, etc.

I would like to offer my consulting services. I have been consulting on

Rapid Product Development topics for 8 years and have a good knowledge base on Reverse Engineering, Rapid Prototyping and Rapid Tooling.

Please let me know if you think there could be a match. I appreciate your consideration.

Sincerely,

Brad Fox Rapid Design Technologies 2500 W. County Road 42, #12 Burnsville, MN. 55337 Ph: 612/882-4660 Fax: 612/882-4662 rdt@visi.com

Yes, Like you I have just recently subscribed to this list and also find it very interesting. We Reverse Engineer parts on daily basis using a 6 axis CMM by which we have cut substantial time out of comapared to manual methods of measureing or capturing geometry. Consequently, we use this geometry to create our STL for RP or master tooling which also has saved very very much time. I dont know what kind of parts you are working with but if the application

applies - then Digitizing with the CMM should be a utilized or at least investigated. In all demonstrations (emphasis on ALL) the capability has

overwhelmed our customers as well as our competition. Cost and time are always factors or constraints that never go away!!

Jim Pike Engineer Technician Sturm Inc. 1305 Main St. Barboursville, WV 25504 (304)733-3211

We are a service bureau in Germany providing complete solutions from CAD-Desogn,Rapid Prototyping up to Rapid Tooling. All RP techniques are of course based on 3D CAD data, which might be a limitation at your clients site, but basically you can not achieve highest performance with low efforts.

Specially in the pre-series injection mould tooling we have developed and optimized a process we have called Prototooling. The process incorporates the production of pre-series injection moulding tools based on 3D CAD data in a time range of 1 - 3 weeks depending of the part geometry. Depending on geometry and injection material we can produce up to thousand injections with standard materials like ABS or PP (i.e. PA 6,30% glas-filled about 100 parts) While our moulds also need some experience during injection, we basically offer the mould production including the injection itself.

If you are interested in more information just let me know.

Peter Volz 4D Concepts GmbH

For more information about the rp-ml, see http://ltk.hut.fi/rp-ml/



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