At 04:08 AM 1/5/99 EST, you wrote:
Master Patterns
>produced by a Sanders machine are of no benefit to the 3D Keltool process as
>they are not strong enough to be used.
I believe that Greg Pettingill at greg_p@indirect.com is correct in his
assessment. Our EXPERIMENTAL Indirect RP process (rapid tooling) has
utilized Sanders patterns as well as patterns from other processes to
produce cast injection molds, the cavities of which, in some cases of molds
cast for others, I am told have not required any hand finishing. In any
event, the cavities of any of our molds can be hand finished to whatever
finish is required, by conventional toolmaking techniques. Our tools are
cast in whatever conventional mold-making alloy is deemed best for the job,
such as 410SS, A356 aluminum, H13, and etc. As we continue to develop the
process we'll get better at eliminating any need for hand finishing. Even
surface textures for plastics injection molds will come along in time, as
the RP processes are improved.
For more information about the rp-ml, see http://ltk.hut.fi/rp-ml/
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.2 : Tue Jun 05 2001 - 22:50:43 EEST