Advancing the art of moldmaking

Unconventional toolmaking cuts significant time from what's usually needed. The mold section is made by laminating sheetmetal layers in the Fast4m method. Light-blue floodcooling lines for the automotive part surround the part cavity and are visible on the inset CAD image. The vertical lightgold line is a copper-alloy bond between two steel sheets in a laminated mold. The alloy is less than 20 m yet shows close contact with the steel. The CAD model is for an HVAC duct on a car. The close-up shows the complexity possible with Fast4m's conformal cooling lines, in blue. CAD model surfaces of a final part appear under the white wire-frame blocks that represent the pins. A computer program reads the CAD file and adjusts the blocks accordingly. In a partially processed model (right) the CAD surface has been roughed into the ceramic pins. A mold of steel pins is taking shape. Two-inch2 pins compose most of the surface, but larger 4 in.3 pins are visible to the left. It's not hard for tooling costs to devour 40% of a development budget. And once constructed, molds can make only one product. And when production finishes, molds usually collect dust on warehouse shelves for years. A few recent ideas, however, promise to turn these traditions on their head. For instance, a laminate mold can chop up to 10% off traditional tooling lead times. And when put into production, its conformal and flood-cooling channels help shave even more time off manufacturing cycles. Another technique aimed at forming large aerospace and marine parts eliminates a lot of roughing. It also cuts up to 90% off the time usually needed for lowtemperature molds. When this tool is no longer needed, its surface can be adjusted and cut again for new parts. Troy, Mich., borrowed an idea from rapid prototyping