John,
If I were you, I would go first for scanning the hand-carved model in
different patches, and then transfer those patches of point clouds
into a surface modeller such as Duct from Delcam in UK. When you have
the 3D model you can transfer it into a Core and a Cavity. Using a
stereolithography machine you can make the core and cavity in epoxy.
Here comes my PhD work, where you can transfer the SL core and cavity
into an injection moulding tool, ready for injection, depending on
the material and geometry you can expect any number from 50 to 1000
shots!
I hope this would help.
Good luck
Sadegh
> We have been asked by one of our customers to
> build a plastics injection mold. That's our business, so
> normally this wouldn't present a problem. The catch,
> here, is that the only data available is a hand-carved,
> full-scale model of the part. The object is of a sculptured,
> multi-faceted, free-form geometry that does not lend
> itself to modeling in a cad package such as Pro/E.
>
> Casting directly from the model might be an option, however,
> the cavity blocks would be approximately 11" x 7" x 2", so
> we have ruled out Kel-Tool.
>
> The best option for us would be to have the model scanned
> into some sort of a surface model that we could output to our
> machining center.
>
> Can someone on this list tell me the best way to approach
> this; or, better yet, scan the object into a useable surface
> model (for a fee, of course).
>
> Thanks for your help.
>
Sadegh Rahmati
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Centre for Rapid Prototyping in Manufacturing
Dept. of Manufacturing Engineering, University of Nottingham
Nottingham, UK, NG7 2RD,
Tel; +44 115 9514033 Fax: +44 115 9514000
Email; epxsr@epn1.nott.ac.uk
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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