UNIT-I

INTRODUCTION OF THE COURSE [ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING]

Course Objectives:

On completion of this course, the students should be able to:

• Impart fundamental knowledge on principles of rapid prototyping with the objective of

increasing productivity and minimizing manufacturing time and cost.
• Identify and control important process parameters in the additive manufacturing for
optimal performance of materials in manufacturing industries.

Scope of the course:

Additive manufacturing (AM) has the potential to completely redefine manufacturing in certain
areas. So of course manufacturers of every size are now looking seriously at 3-D printing as a
complement to existing and traditional manufacturing methods.

Implemented properly, additive manufacturing can significantly reduce material waste, reduce
the amount of production steps, inventory being held, and reduce the amount of distinct parts
needed for an assembly. Aerospace and medical industries lead additive manufacturing
adoption.

Course Outcomes:

On successful completion of the course, the student will be able to:

• Describe additive manufacturing and identify the use of software for rapid prototyping.

• Choose materials from a range of materials for the given processes of additive
manufacturing.

• Select the rapid prototyping process for the given prerequisites.

• Identify the different rapid tooling processes and emerging trends in rapid tooling.
 UNIT-2
RAPID PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT

Introduction to Rapid Product Development:

One of the important steps prior to the production of a functional product is building of a
physical prototype. Prototype is a working model created in order to test various aspects of a
design, illustrate ideas or features and gather early user feed-back. Traditional prototyping is
typically done in a machine shop where most of parts are machined on lathes and milling
machines. This is a subtractive process, beginning with a solid piece of stock and the machinist
carefully removes the material until the desired geometry is achieved. For complex part
geometries, this is an exhaustive, time consuming, and expensive process. A host of new shaping
techniques, usually put under the title Rapid Prototyping, are being developed as an alternative to
subtractive processes. These methods are unique in that they add and bond materials in layers to
form objects. These systems are also known by the names additive fabrication, three dimensional
printing, solid freeform fabrication (SFF), layered manufacturing etc. These additive
technologies offer significant advantages in many applications compared to classical subtractive
fabrication methods like formation of an object with any geometric complexity or intricacy
without the need for elaborate machine setup or final assembly in very short time. This has
resulted in their wide use by engineers as a way to reduce time to market in manufacturing, to
better understand and communicate product designs, and to make rapid tooling to manufacture
those products. Surgeons, architects, artists and individuals from many other disciplines also
routinely use this technology.
• Prototype: It is a model fabricated to prove out a concept or an idea.
• Solid Modelling: It’s a branch of CAD that produces 2D or 3D objects in
an electronic format.
• Definition: Rapid prototyping is basically an additive manufacturing process
used to quickly fabricate a model of a part using 3-D CAM data.
• It can also be defined as layer by layer fabrication of 3D physical models directly from
CAD.
Need for the compression in the product development
• To increase effective communication.
• To decrease development time.
• To decrease costly mistakes.
• To minimize sustaining engineering changes.
• To extend product life time by adding necessary features &
eliminating redundant features early in the design.
Trends in manufacturing industries emphasis the following:
• Increasing the no of variants of products.
• Increase in product complexity.
• Decrease in product lifetime before obsolescence.
• Decrease in delivery time.
• Product development by Rapid prototyping by enabling better
communication.
Conventional Machining:
• Its not suitable for complex shapes because they are difficult to
machine.
 • Time consuming
• Very costly
• Tedious or very laborious.
• Skilled operator is required.
• Accuracy will be less.
• Increased product development time.

• Pre-processing:- CAD model slicing & setting algorithms applied for

various RP systems.
• Post-processing:- Cleaning operations required to finish a part after removing it
from RP machine.
• Materials for Rapid Prototyping:- Paper, Wax, Plastics, Resins, Metallic
powders.
Methodology of Rapid Prototyping:
RP in its basic form can be described as the production of three dimensional (3D)
parts from computer aided design (CAD) data in a decreased time scale. The basic
methodology of all RP process can be summarized as shown in following figure.

Rapid prototyping process chain

 • Construct a CAD model.
• Convert it to STL format.
• RP machine processes .STL file by creating sliced layers of model.
• First layer of model is created.
• Model is then lowered by thickness of next layer.
• Process is repeated until completion of model

• The model & any supports are removed.

• Surface of the model is then finished and cleaned.

• Development of a CAD model

The process begins with the generation CAD model of the desired object
which can be done by one of the following ways;
• Conversion of an existing two dimensional (2D) drawing
• Importing scanned point data into a CAD package
• Creating a new part in CAD in various solid modeling packages
• Altering an existing CAD model
RP has traditionally been associated with solid rather than surface modelling but the
more recent trends for organic shapes in product design is increasing the need for
free flowing surfaces generated better in surface modelling.
• Generation of Standard triangulation language (STL) file
The developed 3D CAD model is tessellated and converted into STL files that are
required for RP processes. Tessellation is piecewise approximation of surfaces of
3D CAD model using series of triangles. Size of triangles depends on the chordal
error or maximum fact deviation. For better approximation of surface and smaller
chordal error, small size triangle are used which increase the STL file size. This
tessellated CAD data generally carry defects like gaps, overlaps, degenerate facets
etc which may necessitate the repair software. These defects are shown in figure
below. The STL file connects the surface of the model in an array of triangles
and consists of the X, Y and Z coordinates of the three vertices of each surface
triangle, as well as an index that describes the orientation of the surface normal.

Tessellation defects
• Slicing the STL file
Slicing is defined as the creating contours of sections of the geometry at various
heights in the multiples of layer thickness. Once the STL file has been generated
from the original CAD data the next step is to slice the object to create a slice file
(SLI). This necessitates the decision regarding part deposition orientation and then
the tessellated model is sliced. Part orientation will be showing considerable effect
on the surface as shown in the figures.

Effect of Part deposition Orientation

The thickness of slices is governed by layer thickness that the machine will be
building in, the thicker the layer the larger the steps on the surface of the
model when it has been built. After the STL file has been sliced to create the SLI
files they are merged into a final build file. This information is saved in standard
formats like SLC or CLI (Common Layer Interface) etc.
• Support Structures
As the parts are going to be built in layers, and there may be areas that could float
away or of overhang which could distort. Therefore, some processes require a base
and support structures to be added to the file which are built as part of the model
and later removed.
• Manufacturing
As discussed previously, the RP process is additive i.e. it builds the parts up in
layers of material from the bottom. Each layer is automatically bonded to the layer
below and the process is repeated until the part is built. This process of bonding is
undertaken in different ways for the various materials that are being used2 but
includes the use of Ultraviolet (UV) lasers, Carbon Dioxide (C ) lasers, heat
sensitive glues and melting the material itself etc.
• Post processing
The parts are removed from the machine and post processing operations are
performed sometimes to add extra strength to the part by filling process voids or
finish the curing of a part or to hand finish the parts to the desired level. The level
of post processing will depend greatly on the final requirements of the parts
produced, for example, metal tooling for injection molding will require extensive
finishing to eject the parts but a prototype part manufactured to see if it will
physically fit in a space will require little or no post processing.
History of RP system
• It started in 1980’s
• First technique is Stereo lithography (SLA)
• It was developed by 3D systems of Valencia in California, USA in 1986.
• Fused deposition modeling (FDM) developed by stratasys
company in 1988.
• Laminated object manufacturing (LOM) developed by Helisis (USA).
• Solid ground Curing developed by Cubitol corporation of Israel.
• Selective laser sintering developed by DTM of Austin, Texas (USA) in
1989.
• Sanders Model maker developed by Wilton incorporation USA in 1990.
 • Multi Jet Modeling by 3D systems.
• 3-D Printing by Solygen incorporation, MIT, USA.

Applications
Most of the RP parts are finished or touched up before they are used for their
intended applications. Applications can be grouped into
• Design (2) Engineering, Analysis, and Planning and (3) Tooling and
Manufacturing. A wide rangeof industries can benefit from RP andthese include,
but are not limited to, aerospace, automotive, biomedical, consumer, electrical and
electronics products.
Classification of RP systems
The professional literature in RP contains different ways of classifying RP
processes. However, one representation based on German standard of production
processes classifies RP processes according to state of aggregation of their original
material and is given in figure.

Here, few important RP processes namely

Stereo lithography (SLA)
Laminated Object Manufacturing (LOM)
Selective Laser Sintering (SLS)
Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM)

Solid Ground Curing (SGC) are described

Classification of RP Processes
Definition of Rapid Product Development
Rapid product development (RPD) refers to recently developed technologies and techniques that
assist manufacturers and designers in meeting the demands of shortened product development
time. For example, injection-molding companies need to shorten tool and die development time
drastically. By using reverse engineering, a three dimensional physical product or clay mock-up
can be quickly captured in the digital form, remodeled, and exported for rapid
prototyping/tooling or rapid manufacturing using multi-axis CNC machining techniques.
The figure below shows the whole process chain of rapid product development using RP
technique.

Rapid Prototyping (RP)

Rapid prototyping is a group of techniques used to quickly fabricate a scale model of a physical
part or assembly using three-dimensional computer aided design data. Rapid prototyping was
termed because of the process this technology was designed to enhance or replace.
Manufacturers and product developers used to find prototyping a complex, tedious, and
expensive process that often impeded the developmental and creative phases during the
introduction of a new product. RP was found to significantly speed up this process and thus the
term was adopted. However, users and developers of this technology now realize that AM
technology can be used for much more than just prototyping.

Fundamentally, the development of RP can be seen in four primary areas. The Rapid Prototyping
Wheel in Figure 1.3 depicts these four key aspects of Rapid Prototyping. They are: Input,
Method, Material and Applications.
Principle of RP
Basic principle of working of RP involves 5 steps:
1. Creation of the CAD model of the design
2. Conversion of the CAD model to STL format
3. Slicing the STL file into 2-D cross-sectional layers
4. Layer by layer construction
5. Cleaning and finishing the model
 UNIT-3
STEREOLITHOGRAPHY

Introduction:
It is the first RP system developed by 3D SYSTEMS of Valencia in California,
USA in 1996.
First Model developed was 250/50 followed by 250/30, 3500, 5000 and 7000.

Principle:
SLA is a laser based Rapid Prototyping process which builds parts directly
from CAD by curing or hardening a photosensitive resin with a relatively low
power laser.

Stereo Lithography (SL) is the best known rapid prototyping system. The technique
builds three-dimensional models from liquid photosensitive polymers that solidify
when exposed to laser beam. The model is built upon a platform in a vat of photo
sensitive liquid. A focused UV laser traces out the first layer, solidifying the model
cross section while leaving excess areas liquid. In the next step, an elevator lowers
the platform into the liquid polymer by an amount equal to layer thickness. A
sweeper recoats the solidified layer with liquid, and the laser traces the second layer
on the first. This process is repeated until the prototype is complete. Afterwards, the
solid part is removed from the vat and rinsed clean of excess liquid. Supports are
broken off and the model is then placed in an ultraviolet oven for complete curing.
Parameters:
Laser Type: Helium Cadmium Laser (He-Cd)
Laser Power: 24mW
Laser Life: 2000
hours Re-coat
material: Zaphir
Minimum Slice Thickness:
0.1mm Beam Diameter:
0.2mm
Scan Speed: 0.75m/sec
Maximum Part Volume: 0.25x0.25x0.25 m
Maximum Part Weight: 9 kgs

Application Range

• Processing large variety of photo-sensitive polymers including clear,

water resistant and flexible resins
• Functional parts for tests
• Tools for pre series production tests.
• Manufacturing of medical models
• Manufacturing of electro-forms for Electro Discharge Machining (EDM)
• Form-fit functions for assembly tests.

Advantages

• Possibility of manufacturing parts which are impossible to

produce conventionally using a single process.
• Continuous unattended operation for 24 hours.
• High resolution.
• Any geometrical shape can be made with virtually no limitation.

Disadvantages
• Necessity to have support structures
• Accuracy not in the range of mechanical part manufacturing.
• Restricted areas of application due to given material properties.
• Labour requirements for post processing, especially cleaning.
Software:
• SLA CONTROL AND SET UP SOFTWARE: It operates on SLA 250 and
SLA 500 machines. It has got three packages.
• SLA VIEW: UNIX based system for viewing and positioning.
• BRIDGE WORKS: UNIX based software for generating
support structures.
• SLA SLICE: Slicing and system operation software.
• MAESTRO: UNIX based software
• MS WINDOWS NT SOFTWARE (3D LIGHT YEAR): It is used for
viewing,
positioning, support generation and slicing, build station for operating SLA
machine.

Build Materials Used:

Epoxy Resin, Acrylate Resin

Epoxy Resin has better material properties and less hazardous but require
large exposure time for curing.

SLA HARDWARE:
The build chamber of SLA contains

• A removable VAT that holds the build resin.

• A detachable perforated build platen on a Z axis elevator frame
• An automated resin level checking apparatus
• VAT has a small amount of Z movement capability which allows computer
to maintain a exact height per layer.
• A recoated blade rides along the track at the top of the rack and serves to
smooth the liquid across the part surface to prevent any rounding off edges due
to cohesion effects.
• Some systems have Zaphyrrecoater blade which actually softens up resin and
delivers it evenly across the part surface.
• Behind the build chamber resides the laser and optics required to cure resin.
• Laser unit is long rectangular about 4 feet long and remains
stationary.

Stereolithography Apparatus Operation:

• The process begins with the solid model in various CAD formats
• The solid model must consist of enclosed volumes before it is
translated form CAD format into .STL FILE
 • The solid model is oriented into the positive octant of Cartesian co- ordinate
system and then translate out Z axis by at least 0.25 inches to allow for
building of supports
• The solid model is also oriented for optimum build which involves placing
complex curvatures in XY plane where possible and rotating for least Z height
as well as to where least amount of supports are required
• The .STL FILE is verified
• The final .STL FILE one which supports in addition to original file are then
sliced into horizontal cross sections and saved as slice file.
• The slice files are then masked to create four separate files that control
SLA machine ending with 5 extensions L, R, V and PRM.
• Important one is V file. I.e. Vector file. The V file contains actual line
data that the laser will follow to cure the shape of the part.
• R file is the range file which contains data for solid or open fields as well as
re-coater blade parameters.
The four build files are downloaded to SLA which begins building supports with
platen adjust above the surface level. The first few support layers are actually
cured into perforations into platen, thus providing a solid anchor for the rest of
the part.
By building, SLA uses laser to scan the cross section and fill across the surface of
resin which is cured or hardened into the cross sectional shape. The platen is
lowered as the slices are completed so that more resin is available in the upper
surface of the part to be cured. Final step is Post Processing.

Post Processing:
• Ultraviolet Oven (Post
Curing Apparatus) 2) An
Alcohol Bath.
Clean the part in the alcohol bath and then go for final curing.

Advantages:
• Parts have best surface quality
• High Accuracy
• High speed
• Finely detailed features like thin vertical walls, sharp corners & tall columns
can be fabricated with ease.
Disadvantages:
• It requires Post Processing. i.e. Post Curing.
• Careful handling of raw materials required.
• High cost of Photo Curable Resin.

Applications:
• Investment Casting.
• Wind Tunnel Modelling.
• Tooling.
• Injection Mould Tools.
Diagram:

Fig: Stereolithography Apparatus

 UNIT-4
SELECTIVE LASER SINTERING & FUSION DEPOSITION MOULDING

SELECTIVE LASER SINTERING:

Selective Laser Sintering is a rapid prototyping process that builds models from a
wide variety of materials using an additive fabrication method. Selective Laser
Sintering was developed by university of Texas Austin in 1987.The build media for
Selective Laser Sintering comes in powder form which is fused together by a
powerful carbon dioxide laser to form the final product.

DTM sinter station 2500 is the machine used for the process.

Selective Laser Sintering begins like most other rapid prototyping processes with a
standard .STL CAD file format.DTM view software uses the .STL files. This
software do the required orientation and scaling of parts.
This machine has auto nesting capabilities which will place multiple part optimally
in the build chamber for best processing speed and results. Once the .STL file is
placed and parameters are set the model is directly built from the file.
The sinter station has built piston at the center and feed piston on the either side. The
model is built layer by layer like other rapid prototyping process so that the build
piston will begin at the top of its range and will lower in increments of the set layer
size as parts are built. With the build piston at the top a thin layer of powder is
spread across the build area by the roller from one of the feed piston. The laser then
cures in a raster sweeps motion across the area of the parts being built.The part
piston lowers and more powder is deposited and the process is continued until all of
the part is built.The build media is removed from the machine. It is a cake of
powder. This cake is taken to the breakout station where excess powder is removed
from the part manually with brushesthe excess powder that has been removed can be
kept for recycling and can be reused. Some material needs additional finishing.

finishing techniques include grid blasting, sanding, polishing, drilling, taping

and coatin
Purpose of Selective Laser Sintering:
To provide a prototyping tool
To decrease the time and cost of design to product cycle.

It can use wide variety of materials to accommodate multiple application

throughout the manufacturing process

Applications:
1. As conceptual models.
2.Functional prototypes.
3.As Pattern masters.
Advantages:
• Wide range of build materials.
• High throughput
capabilities.
• 3.Self-supporting build
envelop. 4.Parts are completed
faster.
• Damage is less.
• Less wastage of material

Disadvantages:
• Initial cost of system is high.
• High operational and maintenance cost.
3.Peripheral and facility requirement.

FUSION DEPOSITION MOULDING:

Fused Deposition Modelling is an extrusion based rapid prototyping process
although it works on the same layer by layer principle as other RP systems. Fused
Deposition Modelling relies on standard STL data file for input and is capable of
using multiple build materials in a build or support relationship.
Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) machine is basically a CNC- controlled robot
carrying a miniature extruder head. By feeding the head with a plastic wire, solid
objects are built "string by string". In this technique, filaments of heated
thermoplastic are extruded from a tip that moves in the x-y plane. Like a baker
decorating a cake, the controlled extrusion head deposits very thin beads of material
onto the build platform to form the first layer. The platform is maintained at a lower
temperature, so that the thermoplastic quickly hardens. After the platform lowers,
the extrusion head deposits a second layer upon the first. Supports are built along
the way, fastened to the part either with a second, weaker material or with a
perforated junction.
Software Used:
FDM machine uses Quick Slice software to manipulate and prepare the incoming
STL date for use in FDM machines. Software can be operated on various types of
workstations from UNIX to PC based.
Build Materials:
• Investment Casting Wax.
• Acrilonitrile Butadiene Styrene plastic.
• Elastomer.
Extrusion Head:
• It is a key to FDM technology.
• Compact and removable unit.
• It consists of Dry Blocks, Heating Chamber and Tips.
Dry Blocks:
• These are raw material feeding mechanisms and are mounted on back of
head.
• These are computer controlled.
• Capable of precision loading and unloading of filament.
• It consists of two parallel wheels attached to a small electric motor by gears.
• The wheels have a plastic and rubber thread and are spaced approximately
0.07inches apart and turn opposite to one another.
• When the wheels are turned in and end of the filament is placed between them,
they continue to push or pull the material depending on direction of rotation.
• When loading the filament is pushed horizontally into the head through a hole,
a little longer than the filament diameter which is the entry to the heating
chamber.
Heating Chamber:
• It is a 90’ curved elbow wrapped in a heating element which serves
two primary functions
To change the direction of the filament flow so that the material is
extruded vertically downwards.
To serve as a melting area for the material
• The heating element is electronically controlled and has feedback
thermocouple to allow for a stable temperature throughout.
• The heating elements are held at a temperature just above the melting
point of the material so that the filament passes from the exit of the chamber is
in molten state. This allows for smooth extrusion as well as time control on
material placement.
• At the end of the heating chamber which is about 4 inch long is the extrusion
orifice or tip.
Tip:
• The two tips are externally threaded and screwed up into the heating chamber
exit and are used to reduce the extruded filament diameter to allow for better
detailed modelling
• .The tips are heated by heating chamber up to above the melting point of the
material.
 • The tips can be removed and replaced with different size openings, the two
most common being 0.012 inch and 0.025 inches.
• The extruding surface of the tip is flat serving as the hot shearing surface
to maintain a smooth upper finish of extruded material.
• The tip is the point at which the material is deposited onto a foam substrate to
build the model..
Build Substrate:
• The foam substrate is an expendable work table once which parts are built.
• The substrate is about 1 inch thick and is passed on into a
removable tray by one quarter inch pins.
• The foam used is capable of withstanding higher temperature. As for the first
few layers of the part, the hot extrusion orifices are touching the substrate.
• The support material is used to support overhangs, internal cavities and thin
sections during extrusion as well as to provide a base to anchor (part) to the
substrate while building.
FDM OPERATION:
• CAD file preparation:
• Before building the part, the STL file has to be converted into the machine
language understood by FDM. Quick Slice software is used for this purpose.
• The STL file is read into Quick Slice and is displayed graphically on
screen in Cartesian co-ordinate system (XYZ)
• Building box represents maximum build envelope of FDM.
• Quick slice gives us options on the FDM system being used, the slice layer
thickness, the build and support materials as well as tip sizes.
• Part Size:
The part must fit into the building box, if not it will either have to be scaled down to
fit or be sectioned so that the pieces can be built separately and then bonded
together later.
• Orientation and Positioning:
Once the part has been built in appropriate built size, the part should be oriented in an
optimum position for building. The shape of the part plays an important role in this,
in that some orientations may require less supporting of overhangs than the others.
• Slicing:
Once the part has been properly oriented and or scaled it must be sliced. Slicing is a
software operation that creates thin horizontal cross sections of STL file that will
later be used to create control code for the machine.
In Quick Slice, the slice thickness can be changed before slicing, the typical slices
ranging from 0.005 inches to 0.015 inches.

Quick Slice allows

• To perform simple editing functions on slice files. Also editing function allows
repair of minor flaws in the STL file with the options of closing and merging
of curves.
Build Parameters:

• Sets:

Quick Slice uses sets or packages of build parameters. Sets contain all of the build
instructions for a selected set of curves in a part. Sets allow a part to be built with
several different settings
E.g. One set may be used for supporting structure of the part, one for part face,
another for thicker sections of the part and still another for exposed surfaces of the
part. This allows flexibility of building bulkier sections and internal fills quickly by
getting finer details on visible areas of a part.
Sets also allow chosen sections of a part to build hollow, cross hatched or solid if so
desired.
Two of the build parameters commonly worked with are road width and fill spacing.

• Road Width:

Road Width is the width of the ribbon of molten material that is extruded from the
tip.

When FDM builds a layer, it usually begins by outlining the cross section with a
perimeter road, sometimes followed by one or more concentric contours inside of
perimeters.
Next it begins to fill remaining internal area in a raster or hatched pattern until a
complete solid layer is finished.

Therefore three types of roads are Perimeter,

Contour and Raster.

• Fill Spacing:

Fill spacing is the distance left between raster’s or contours that make up interior
solids of the parts. A fill spacing set at zero means that part will be built solid.

• Creating and Outputting Roads:

Once all parameters have been set, road are created graphically by Quick Slice. The
user is then allowed to preview each slice if so desired to see if the part is going to
build as required.

• Getting a Build Time Estimate:

Quick slice has a very good build time estimator which activates when an SML file
is written. SML stands for Stratasys Machine Language. Basically it displays in the
command windows, the approximate amount of time and material to be used for
given part. Build time estimate allows for a efficient tracking and scheduling of
FDM system work loads.

• Building a part:

The FDM receives a SML file and will begin by moving the head to the extreme X
and Y portions to find it and then raises the platen to a point to where the foam
substrate is just below heated tips. After checking the raw material supply and
temperature settings, the user then manually places the head at point where the part
has to be built on the foam and then presses a button to begin building. After that
FDM will build part completely without any user intervention.

• Finishing a FDM part:

FDM parts are an easiest part to finish.

Applications:

• Concept or Design Visualization.

• Direct Use Components.
• Investment Casting.
• Medical Applications
• Flexible Components.
• Conceptual modeling.
• Fit, form and functional applications and models for further
manufacturing procedures.
• Investment casting and injection molding.

Advantages:

• Strength and temperature capability of build materials.

• Safe laser free operation.
• Easy Post Processing.
• Quick and cheap generation of models.
• Easy and convenient date building.
• No worry of possible exposure to toxic chemicals, lasers, or a liquid polymer
bath.
• No wastage of material during or after producing the model.
• No requirement of clean-up.
• Quick change of materials.

Disadvantages:
• Process is slower than laser based systems.
• Build Speed is low.
• Thin vertical column prove difficult to build with FDM.
• Physical contact with extrusion can sometimes topple or at least shift thin
vertical columns and walls.
 • Restricted accuracy due to the shape of the material used: wire of 1.27 mm
diameter.

FDM Material Properties:

Tensile Tensile Flexural Flexural
Material Strength Modulus Strength Modulus
(Mpa) (Mpa) (Mpa) (Mpa)

ABDP400 35.2 1535 66.9 2626

Medical
Grade 38 2014 58.9 1810
ABSP 500

Investment

casting wax 3.6 282 49.6 282

(ICW06)

Elastomer 6.55 70 89.69 141

Diagrams:
 Fig a: FDM Extrusion Head

Fig b: Fused Deposition Model Apparatus

 UNIT-5
SOLID GROUND CURING

Solid Ground Curing (SGC)

Solid ground curing (SGC) is a photograph polymer-based added substance assembling or 3D

printing innovation utilized for delivering models, models, examples, and creation parts. In
which the generation of the layer geometry is completed by methods for a powerful UV light
through a veil. As the premise of strong ground curing is the presentation of each layer of the
model by methods for a light through a cover, the preparing time for the age of a layer is free of
the nature of the layer.
History of Solid Ground Curing
Solid Ground Curing (SGC) was produced and marketed by Cubital Ltd. of Israel in 1986 in the
elective name of Solider Framework. While the strategy offered great exactness and a high
creation rate, it experienced high securing and working expenses because of framework
unpredictability. This prompted poor market acknowledgment.
While the organization still exists, frameworks are never again being sold. Overall, it is yet an
intriguing case of the advances other than Stereolithography. Its pre-deceasing quick prototyping
process that likewise uses photograph polymer materials. However, Objet Geometries Ltd. of
Israel held protected innovation of the procedure after the conclusion of Cubital Ltd. in 2002 the
innovation is never again being delivered.
Strong Ground Curing was initially created and sold by Cubital Ltd. of Israel. Their framework
was exceptionally overwhelming and in this manner experienced high beginning and working
costs that in the end caused their defeat. The organization never again exists and Objet
Geometries, Ltd in Israel has procured its protected innovation.
Highlights of Solid Ground Curing
You can use high speed for production of large parts: 500*500 quickly. To create masks you
need to follow a laser-like printing process and expose the full later all at once. Moreover no
post-cure is required which fosters for a quick transition to milling.
The milling step will ensure the subsequent layers are flat but you will need a wax-supported
model. This guarantees no extra support but expect many waste in the end. The Solid Ground
Curing venture is not as prevalent as SLS or SLA. What is making it gain ground is the large,
high throughput parts, which you can fabricate with more than just one 3D printing technology.
Solid Ground Curing Technology
Solid ground curing uses the common technique of coagulating of photopolymers by an entire
lighting and solidifying of the whole surface, utilizing exceptionally arranged masks. In SGC
process, each layer of the model is cured by presenting to an ultra violet (UV) light rather than
by laser checking. So that, each part in a layer are at the same time cured and do not require any
post-curing forms.

Image generated by GPL Ghostscript (device=pnmraw)

Solid Ground Curing Process
1. Ascertaining cross segments. You need ascertaining a cross segment of each cut
layer in light of the geometric model of the part and the coveted layer thickness.
2. Optical cover. The optical cover is produced fitting in with each cross segment.
3. Covering the platform. In the wake of leveling, the stage is secured with a thin layer
of fluid photopolymer.
4. Mask positioning. The cover relating to the present layer is situated over the surface
of the fluid pitch, and the gum is presented to a powerful UV light.
5. Residual fluid. The lingering fluid is expelled from the work piece by a streamlined
wiper.
6. Filling voids. A layer of softened wax is spread over the work piece to fill voids. The
wax is then hardened by applying a cool plate to it.
7. The layer surface is trimmed to the coveted thickness by a processing plate.
 8. Covering work piece. The present work piece is secured with a thin layer of the fluid
polymer, and stage 4 to seven are rehashed for each succeeding upper layer until the
point that the highest layer has been prepared.
9. Melting. The wax is liquefied endless supply of the part.
Advantages of Solid Ground Curing
1. Solid Ground curing framework do not need a help structure. No extra support is
needed since wax is utilized to fill the voids.
2. Accuracy of procedure. The model created by Solid Ground Curing process is nearly
precise in the Z-bearing in light of the fact that the layer is processed after each light-
presentation process.

Disadvantages of Solid Ground Curing

1. Too much waste. In spite of the fact that it offers great exactness combined with high
throughput, it delivers excessively waste.
2. High operational costs. Its working expenses are relatively high because of the
frameworks many-sided quality.

Strong Ground Curing (SGC) forms are reasonable for building various parts with various
geometries and measurements in clump creation of fast models; in any case issues in demonstrate
precision, quality, and material properties of models restrict their applications. This is because it
implores not just 3D printing but also other forms of printing technology such as:
• Stereolithography (SD): It is a method used to create 3-D printed objects. It uses a
Stereolithography to convert liquid plastic into solid objects.
• Continuous liquid interface production
• Ultrasonic consolidation.
• Contour crafting
• Electron beam melting

There are different versions of solid ground curing. One for instance tons the whole procedure to
just six steps:
1. Spraying photosensitive resin. You need using the Data Front End, Cubital’s
software to create a CAD model. You have to spray the flat working surface when you
start on layer creation steps.
2. Developing the photo mask. For each of the layers, you can produce a photo mask
by using Cubital’s proprietary ionographic printing technic.
3. Exposing the photo mask. You will need a UV lamp for this to position the photo
mask over your working surface. The UV lamp will help harden the exposed surface.
4. Vacuuming uncured resin and solidifying remnants. Once you are done curing,
you need vacuuming all the uncured resin. This recycling will leave you the hardened
areas intact.
5. Applying wax to replace uncured resin areas.
6. Mill the top surface flat.
Solid Ground Curing is diverse. The earliest signs are the number of 3 DS printing technologies
that you can use. Cubital’s software is well endowed, and it counters modernism in a way that
makes it stay at the apex of ground curing.
LOM material
Laminated Object Manufacturing (or LOM) is a very fast and inexpensive way to 3D print
objects in several kinds of materials. Sheets of material are bonded together and cut in the right
geometry according to the 3D model. Laminated Object Manufacturing is mainly used for rapid
prototyping processes, not for production.
LOM (Laminated Object Manufacturing): 3D Printing with Layers of Paper
There are a lot of different 3D printing processes available nowadays, but have you ever heard
about Laminated Object Manufacturing? Laminated Object Manufacturing (or LOM) is a very
fast and inexpensive way to 3D print objects in several kinds of materials. Sheets of material are
bonded together and cut in the right geometry according to the 3D model. Laminated Object
Manufacturing is mainly used for rapid prototyping processes, not for production.

MCor developed a paper based technology that allows multicolor 3D printing. Courtesy of
MCor.
What is Laminated Object Manufacturing?
Laminated Object Manufacturing is a 3D printing method, developed by Helisys Inc (now Cubic
Technologies). but what happens during this process? Layers of material, plastic or layers paper
are fused, or laminated, together, using heat and pressure.
You may have never heard of this 3D printing technology before and that is normal. Even though
this technique is efficient, affordable and quite fast, it is still not really popular.
In the LOM technology, the layered material is rolled on the building platform. Usually, the
material is coated with an adhesive layer and the feeding roller heats in order to melt the
adhesive. The layer is then glued to the previous one. A blade or a laser is used to draw the
geometry of the object to build and draw crosses on the rest of the surface to facilitate the
extraction of the final objects. At the end, the building platform contains a block composed of the
final objects and the parallelepipoids that are to be withdrawn.
Objects printed using paper then taking on wood-like properties, and can benefit from a sand
casting finish, while paper objects are usually sealed with a paint or lacquer to keep out moisture.
The technology has been brought to the public by Cubic Technologies (formerly Helisys inc.)
that propose a plastic LOM machine. Recently, MCor launched their paper-based machine
adding color to the technology.
What materials can be used with this 3D technology?
This technology is very versatile as almost any material can be glued. During this additive
manufacturing process, layers of adhesive-coated paper, plastic, or metal laminates are
successively glued together. The more common material used is paper as it is easily cut. Plastic
can also be used, using a blade or a laser during the cutting stage. Metallic sheets are more
unusual because the cutting stage is more complicated.
What are the particularities of this technology?
This is a very simple process making it easy to use, cheap and fast. The printing precision
depends on the layer thickness and thus depends on the material. Compared to other
technologies, it is not considered as very precise. The withdrawal of the support parallelepipoids
is an exhausting and critical task that can lead to damaged objects.
What are the applications of Laminated Object Manufacturing?
LOM machines are mainly used for rapid prototyping plastic parts. Its low price and fastness
make it convenient to make prototypes, even though the produced objects are far from end-use
parts. Moreover, Laminated Object Manufacturing can’t create really accurate models such as
technologies like Selective Laser Sintering (SLS), or even Stereolithography (SLA). It is not
possible to print intricate and complex geometries, but its cheap process and freeform fabrication
process are making it a good prototyping technique.
Mcor technologies proposes a particular kind of LOM, they named this additive manufacturing
process Selective Deposition Lamination (SDL). It is a paper based technology that adds color in
the print. Sheets of paper are colour printed, selectively glued and cut with a blade. The glue is
only applied in the surface corresponding to the object, then it is easier to excavate the final
object. Plus, the addition of colour allows this technology to compete with binder
jetting technologies to produce multicolor objects, even if the quality is not the same.

Are you looking for a great rapid prototyping technique? Check out our 3D printing
materials catalog, and choose the best technology for your project! You will just have to upload
your STL file on our online 3D printing service, we will manage your order with our
professional 3D printers.
 UNIT-6
SELECTION OF RP PROCESS

Selection of a RP system depend on several factors such as price accuracy, build envelope, build
material, build speed, surface finish and type of application. Each RP system has its own
strengths, limitations and application.

Rapid prototyping is the fast fabrication of a physical part, model or assembly using 3D
computer aided design (CAD). The creation of the part, model or assembly is usually completed
using additive manufacturing, or more commonly known as 3D printing.

Selecting a Rapid Prototyping Process

The success or failure of a prototype depends on your selection of rapid prototyping processes
for the new product development. There are various ways in which engineering product design
prototypes can be made varying from simple cardboard mock-ups to fully machined metal sub-
assemblies. Prototyping is crucial to any engineering product design, especially new product
development. It is the process of making rough models of the product, for instance, to test its
functionality, shape, size etc.
This article is about part-based prototypes i.e. how individual parts can be made to create the
system level product prototypes.
5 key factors to consider when selecting a Rapid Prototyping Process
Prototypes vary in so many ways as each project, product and product design elements are
different. As the success of any prototype will depend on the selection criteria of prototyping
processes, these 5 key factors should be considered at the start of any prototype process
selection.

5 key factors of rapid prototype process selection

1. Purpose
2. Quality
3. Quantity
4. Complexity
5. Budget/cost
Let’s delve into these key factors to understand why they are essential in choosing your next
prototyping process.
1. Purpose
Within an engineering product design and development project, prototypes are created for four
purposes, according to Ulrich and Eppinger (2008). They
are Learning, Communication, Integration and Milestones. These purposes of the prototyping
will vary depending on which of the 4 new product development (NPD) stages you are in. Each
stage of the NPD will have its feature and functionality requirement to eliminate risk. This will
then define the fidelity type of the prototype required, which is the quality of the prototype
discussed later.
First, it would depend on the planned tests or risk mitigation exercises such as test types,
customer interaction feedback etc. If the product would go through rigorous testing, outside
deployment and product verification then the material selection would play a key part in the
selection of prototyping techniques.
Secondly, any functional aspect you would like on your prototype needs to be considered. Are
you planning on functional tests or do you have any moving parts? This will dictate the selection
and assembly.
Third, changes and modifications. It’s highly unlikely that your prototype is going to be a
success without a few tweaks. So, consider how easy or difficult it would be to modify to get the
prototypes working.
NPD stage
• Product planning and clarifying task
o This stage generally requires very early proof of concept mock-ups, demonstration
units and industrial design prototypes
o Prototyping techniques
▪ CNC machined foam models
▪ Cardboard mock-ups
▪ 3D printed parts and assemblies (FDM, SLA, SLS etc)
• Conceptual design
o At this stage, you probably need scaled parts or assemblies of the design along
with some user interface and limited functionally
o Again, FDM parts are great at getting a feel for the shape and size. If you need
more accuracy then you could move into the next level of 3D printing i.e. SLA,
SLS and poly jet parts. If the parts are metal, then CNC at this stage is your best
bet. In some cases, sheet metal fabrication is also worth considering
• Embodiment design
o This is the development phase where you need to explore fully functional (form, fit
and function) prototypes, hence details are important. At this stage, it is more than
likely that the prototypes are going to be working assemblies containing a lot of
parts
o At this stage, you would also need more than one unit for testing purposes, and it is
also worth considering the final manufacturing techniques so it could be simulated
o Consider vacuum casting and high-resolution 3D printing such as SLS and SLA
for plastic parts
o SLM/DMLS parts ideal for simulating casting parts (Sand, investment and die
casting)
• Detailed design
o Any prototype made during this phase is more than likely to be used for functional
testing and will also be for pre-production pilot runs
o Injection moulded parts can be prototyped using vacuum casting while machined
plastic parts can be 3D printed

2. Quality
• As discussed previously the fidelity or the accuracy of the product required will dictate
what type of process and post-processing you would need. Quality of the prototype as
compared to your final product or subcomponent also needs to be considered. As high-
fidelity prototypes cost more, they should be considered in terms of return on investment.

Prototype qualities ( credit:google images)

• For example, if you have a thread feature on a part then SLA is better than FDM but
would cost more.
• Life of the prototype is also crucial when deciding the technology. For example, if the
parts have fasteners that will be used frequently, then machined or metal inserts are a
better option than 3D printed threaded or self-tapping holes.
• Material selection also plays a vital role in terms of the quality of the prototype. If the
functional elements are linked to special material properties, such as surface finish and
durability, then choosing additive manufactured parts might not be the best choice. The
general material choices for the different manufacturing methods are as follows:

3d printing CNC Vacuum casting

Nylon, PLA, ABS, ULTEM, ASA, ABS, Nylon

ABS, Nylon, Polycarbonate, PEEK
TPU Nylon HT

Aluminium, Stainless Steel, Titanium, Aluminium, Stainless Steel,

N/A
Inconel Titanium, Brass
• If the prototype is made of more than one part, then the tolerance of the prototyped parts
will have to be considered for ease of integration.
 3. Quantity
• The number of required prototype parts are essential in deciding the process as some
prototyping technologies are only cost-effective for smaller quantities. For additive
manufacturing parts volume also plays a crucial part in costing as bigger parts will
require more time to print compared to smaller parts. As a rule of thumb, the following
rules apply.
Plastic parts
Prototype processes

Quantity
Plastic parts
Low (1's) Medium (10's)

CNC machining (simple)

Small 3D printing
3D printing (complicated)
Size
Vacuum casting
Large 3D printing
CNC machining

Metallic parts
Prototype processes

Quantity
Metallic Parts
Low (1's) Medium (10's)

CNC machining CNC machining

Small
3D printing Investment casting
Size
Large CNC machining CNC machining

4. Complexity
The complexity of the part and intricacy of the features will also dictate the rapid prototype
process selection. Additive manufacturing is good for producing very complicated small parts,
but one should be cautious about the final design because complicated means very expensive
mass production.

Process Tolerance (mm) Minimum wall thickness (mm)

FDM ±0.20 – ±0.50 0.8 -1.0

Process Tolerance (mm) Minimum wall thickness (mm)

SLS/SLA ±0.20 – ±0.30 0.7 – 1.0

SLM/DMLS ±0.10 0.4 – 0.5

Binder jetting ±0.20 1.5 mm – 2.0 mm

CNC * ±0.012 0.5

Vacuum casting ±0.1 0.9 – 1.0

Please note that these tolerances and minimum wall thickness are typical values and hugely vary
depending on the material choice and feature design.

AM complex parts
Parts that are eventually produced by injection moulding, various forms of castings can be
prototyped using 3D printing while machined parts can be 3d printed or manufactured using
conventional forming or subtractive manufacturing processes.

5. Cost
Finally, the resources available; the objective of the prototype would go hand in hand with the
resources available. Time, money and man-hours need to get the prototypes manufactured and
working, needs to be considered while choosing the prototyping technology.
Things to ponder:
• Most of the time, time consumed by post-processing or to get the part working from low-
quality prototypes will be more than that of high-quality prototypes
• Some processes such as 3D printing might need some post-processing time but it’s relatively
quicker and cheaper while a vacuum casting would give parts almost identical to that of
injection moulding and can be used without post-processing. However, this will be more
expensive with the tooling cost
• Cost of CNC is proportional to the complexity of the part while the cost of AM is directly
proportional to the volume and size
 • The overall cost would also be tightly linked to the quantities more for a process like CNC
because of the higher set-up cost

Rapid prototyping selection process steps

• Define the purpose of the prototype
• Establish the level of approximation (quality and complexity)
• Outline the evaluation method and plan to identify quantities
• Ensure your cost is kept within your prototype budget

Issues in Rapid prototyping (RP)

Nowadays, rapid prototyping technology still faces many problems, most of which come from
the level of development of the technology itself, especially in the following aspects.

1. Process Problem
The basis of rapid prototyping is the principle of layered superposition. However, what materials
to layered superpose and how to layered superpose are need to research. Thus, people are try to
study and develop new layered superposed molding method, in order to further improve the
performance of the article and the forming precision and efficiency.

2. Materials Problem
Prototyping materials research has always been a hot issue. The properties of rapid prototyping
material should meet:
1) Conducive to rapidly and accurately process the mold;
2) Must be close to the final usage of the part on the strength, stiffness, moisture resistance,
thermal stability and other requirements.
3) Good for subsequent processing of the rapid molding.
Development of new RP materials, especially composite materials, such as nano materials,
heterogeneous materials and materials of other methods difficult to make is still our direction of
effort.

3. Accuracy problem
At present, rapid prototyping parts are generally in a horizontal accuracy of ± 0.1 mm, as well as
the height (Z) direction accuracy. The basic principle of rapid prototyping technology determines
that the process is hard to achieve the surface quality and accuracy specifications of those
manufactured with conventional machining. Thus, it is an important way of improving rapid
prototyping precision that integrated the basic theory rapid of prototyping and the conventional
machining method, which makes them complemented each other.

4. Software Problem
At present, the hierarchical slicing algorithm used in rapid prototyping system is based on the
STL file format conversion, which is to use a series of triangular mesh to approximate the CAD
model data files. This data representation method has many defects, such as the loss of data
caused by some gaps in the triangular mesh, the layered effect caused by plane delamination
which reduces the surface quality and forming precision of parts. So now, we should focus on the
development of new model slicing methods, like feature-based model direct slice method or the
surface layer method, thereby reducing the error caused by the triangular approximation and
improving the forming accuracy and speed.

5. Energy Problem
Currently, rapid prototyping technology uses light energy, thermal energy, chemical energy,
mechanical energy and so on. In the energy density, the accuracy of energy control, forming
processing quality, etc. still need to be further improved.

6. Application Area Problem

At present, the application field of rapid prototyping technology mainly lies in the new products
development. The main purpose is to shorten the development cycle and get the effect of market
feedback as soon as possible.
 UNIT-7
RAPID TOOLING (RT)

Rapid Tooling

This chapter discusses how additive manufacturing can be used to develop tooling solutions.
Although AM is not well suited to high-volume production in a direct digital manufacturing
sense, it does have some benefit when producing volume production tools. This can be from the
perspective of using AM to create patterns for parts that are required using materials or
properties not currently available using AM or for longer run tooling where AM may be able
to simplify the process chain. Commonly referred to as rapid tooling, we discuss here how AM
can contribute to the product manufacturing processes.

Introduction
The term “tooling” refers in this case to the use of AM to create production tools. The tool is
therefore an impression, pattern, or mold from which a final part can be taken. There is a variety
of different ways in which this can be achieved and these will be discussed in this chapter.

In recent years, as can be seen from other chapters in this book, there has been a tendency to
attempt to use AM for production of parts directly from the machine. This is the so-called Direct
Digital Manufacture (DDM) and there are numerous reasons why this can be a preferable
approach to production. However, there are still a number of reasons for creating tooling rather
than DDM:

• The larger the number of parts produced; the more cost-effective it may be to make a
production tool, provided it is known how many parts can be made using such a tool.
• The material requirements for the final part may be very specific and not currently available as
an AM material but may however be possible through the tooling route.
• It may be that the product developer wants to understand the tooling process and thus use AM
to create a prototype tool.
• This may actually be the quickest and most effective way to create the tooling according to the
required specifications. This may be particularly relevant where short lead-times are important.

Tooling is often broken up into two types, referred to as “short-run” and “longrun” tooling.
Although discussed in numerous articles like those by Pham and Dimov, there are no specific
definitions for either of these. Therefore we will attempt to distinguish them here.

Short-run tooling may also be referred to as prototype tooling or soft tooling. The objective is to
use techniques that achieve a tool quickly, at low cost and with few process stages. Quite often
there are a number of manual steps in the process. It is understood that only a few parts are likely
to result from use of the tool; possibly even just one or two parts up to around 100 or more.
Every time the tool is used, it should be inspected for damage and viability. It may even be
possible (or necessary) to repair the tool before it can be used again. It should be noted that if a
tooling solution is required in a very short time (say in a few days), then AM-based short run
tooling may be the only way to arrive there.
Long-run tooling has greater emphasis on use of tooling for mass production purposes. Some
injection molding tools can last for years and millions of parts. Although wear is always going to
occur, the wear-rate is very low due to the relative hardness of the tool compared with the
resulting parts that come from them. The processes required to create long-run tools from AM
would still be chosen for their relative cost and lead-time, but in this case they are more likely
compared with conventional (subtractive) manufacturing processes. Almost every AM-based
long run tooling solution is likely to involve a metal fabrication process.
The benefits of using a rapid tooling solution may be difficult to determine, but could be
immense. Very rarely is a product created from a single tool and the more complex the product,
the more difficult it is to plan. Consider the problem of bringing a new mass-produced car to the
market. Some parts will already be available; some existing parts may require redesigning while
others will require design from scratch. Some of these new parts will be relatively simple, while
others will have significant performance specifications that could have very long lead times.
Now consider how you would create a plan to bring all these together so that the car is launched
on schedule. Even the manufacture of a very simple part could delay the whole process. The use
of AM-based short-run and long-run tooling can be extremely beneficial because of the short
reaction times and simplified process chains. A car manufacturer may be able to plan more easily
and react to disturbances in the process chain more efficiently. Even tooling that does not last
very long (or, for that matter, DDM) can be used to bridge the gap to long-term tooling made
using conventional methods. Delivery times can be met even though the entire mass production
facility has yet to be completed.
The majority of rapid tooling solutions are focused on the creation of injection molding (IM)
tooling. This is because there are a huge number of products made 438 18 Rapid Tooling from
polymers using this approach. We will go on in this chapter to discuss how we can directly
fabricate IM parts using AM as a replacement for subtractive machining processes. Electron
discharge machining (EDM) is an alternative to the more conventional abrasive metal cutting
that is worth separate consideration in this chapter. Of course, not all products are made from
polymer parts. There is a huge variety of metal, ceramic, and composite-based materials and
related manufacturing methods. One method that fits very well into an AM process chain is
investment casting, which we will discuss here, followed by some less mainstream AM-based
approaches that have found niches for some manufacturers.

Direct AM Production of Injection Molding Inserts

Wikipedia describes injection molding as the most common modern method of manufacturing
parts and that it is ideal to produce high volumes of the same part. The general principle is quite
straightforward in that molten polymer is forced into a metal mold. Once the polymer has cooled
and solidified, the mold splits open to reveal the part which is then ejected and the process
repeats. There are many texts that cover IM in varying levels of detail. An excellent online
resource can be found from Bolur. From these we can see that, similar to many processes,
optimization and maximization of the output from IM can be very complex. As our demand for
higher throughput, performance, quality, etc. increases so will the need for more cost-effective
solutions.

Since the IM process requires a mold that can somehow separate for the part to be removed,
there are a number of issues that require attention:
• A simple mold will have a cavity into which the polymer is injected. A core will form the other
side of the mold, which is removed after the cooling process so that the part can be ejected. A
mechanism (usually a set of ejector pins) is engaged to push the part out from the cavity.
However, for this to be effective, the cavity walls usually have a slight slope (referred to as a
“draft angle”) that reduces shear forces between the polymer and the mold that would cause the
part to stick.
• Not all molds can be easily split into a simple core/cavity to reveal the part. Complex geometry
parts may require mold sets that separate into more than two segments. Parts may require very
careful redesign so that the number of mold components is minimized. Even so, mold sets can be
very complex.
• Filling the mold with molten polymer can also be problematic. The mold must be completely
full before it starts to solidify, else there may be cavities. Parts that comprise many features, like
thick or thin walls, ribs, bosses, etc. must be carefully analyzed to ensure the mold set is properly
filled. Very complex parts may require multiple injection and venting points to ensure effective
mold filling as well as fine-tuning of the temperatures, pressures and cycle operations within the
IM machine. There are numerous softwares available for
mold operation analysis, like Moldflow.

A simple IM machine setup as drawn by Rockey

An IM machine has a standard plate set into which mold sets are inserted. For these inserts, it is
necessary to know where to locate the injection point, the ejector pins, risers, and other features
that comprise a fully functioning mold solution. It is these inserts that effectively “customize”
the process and where AM can therefore contribute towards a solution.

Inserts can be made using either metal or polymer AM technology. Polymer inserts are obviously
less durable, but are much quicker and cheaper to make. In a white paper published by Stratasys,
the Polyjet process was demonstrated to be effective for producing inserts for a variety of
applications .

IM applications have been tested using the standard Polyjet materials. Best results were
presented for the Digital ABS material. Parts were made in a conventional IM machines using a
variety of materials, including polyamide, ABS, and polyethylene at temperatures up to 300 _C.
Up to 100 cycles have been observed before the inserts broke. Similar results have been reported
using SL and polymer laser sintered parts. It is important to note that the IM inserts made this
way should be handled carefully so that they can achieve acceptable results. Even though the IM
process operates above the heat deflection temperature for the AM materials, it is still possible to
get acceptable molded parts. This is possible if the IM cycle is
lengthened so that the parts can cool more inside the mold before separation and ejection. Note
that this only really works for relatively simple core/cavity sets. For this type of application, the
costs can be around half of similar aluminum molds, with significant reductions in lead-time.
One can expect some hand-finishing of the resulting molded parts.

A core/cavity mold set showing a central injection point and channelling to regions where 5
different parts are formed in one cycle

Polyjet inserts for a two cavity mold set, showing a close-up of the ejector pins
(courtesy Stratasys)
The primary concerns when making mold inserts using polymer AM are heat deflection, wear,
and accuracy. Most AM processes can provide partial solutions to these problems, but generally
the most accurate processes have low heat deflection temperatures and the highest temperature
materials can be found in lower accuracy processes. A number of attempts have been made to
develop materials for IM inserts with polymer AM processes. One material of note is the copper-
polyamide material that was developed for the polymer powder bed fusion process. Adding a
copper filler to the polyamide matrix material served to improve the heat transfer away from the
surface when a mold is used in the IM machine. The copper also provided additional wear
resistance, which increases the life of the mold. It is interesting to note however that this is not a
widely used material as the copperpolyamide is not very useful for many other applications so
only appropriate where a large number of these molds are needed.

A number of chapters in this book discuss AM of metal parts. One of the initial drivers for this
technology was for IM mold inserts. AM can provide a near-net shape for the metal inserts.
Several materials have been developed for metal AM that could be used for this, but the most
widely used would be H13 tool steel. Almost every process that can achieve this is based on
powder metal sintering. Near-net shape can be achieved up to an Ra surface roughness of 12–20
μm but this would generally not be acceptable for most applications and machining of the parting
surfaces in particular would be necessary. If the mold surface also requires machine finishing,
then very careful attention must be given to gaging so that all of the original part lies outside of
the machining volume. Incorrect gaging could lead to some regions not having sufficient stock
material to achieve an adequate surface. It is therefore common for designers to add material to
the CAD model as a machining allowance. Figure shows a tool set where the inserts were made
using a powder metal system, with two parts that were molded from them.

Early metal powder AM machines were very expensive and suffered from problems with
accuracy and consistent material properties. At that time there were a few alternative approaches
to creating metal parts in the Rapid Steel and KelTool processes. While these approaches have
become virtually obsolete, there was distinct advantage in that these processes could result in a
fully metal part but using a conventional polymer AM machine. However, there was the need for
additional furnace technology that added to the expense of the process.

Powder sintering could also be used to create parts that are a blend of polymer and metal
powders. The polymeric material acts as a matrix that can hold the metal powder in place. The
use of a high thermally conductive metal powder, like copper, would be the most ideal to use for
the purpose of creating IM tooling inserts. The copper would cause heat energy to conduct away
from the matrix polymer, thus allowing more rapid cooling during the IM process. The copper
powder, being harder and more durable than the polymer, would also enable longer tool life.

One significant benefit to the use of AM for creation of injection mold tooling is the capability of
creating conformal cooling channels. It is normal to run coolant through the IM inserts,
facilitating the cooling of the plastic part following the injection of the molten polymer. This
cooling process is very dependent on the geometry of the part being molded, with larger
voluminous segments cooling slower than smaller, thinner sections. Greater flow of coolant close
to the larger segments can enable faster and more regular cooling, which can also improve the
part quality by preventing part warpage due to thermally induced stress. The
geometric freedom that is a characteristic of AM can enable very complex cooling channels to be
designed into the part. While the best way to achieve such conformal cooling is very much open
to debate, benefits have been catalogued. An example of conformal cooling can be seen in Fig.
Note that this approach can be applied to both short- and long-run methods.

A direct metal laser sintered tool set, with two parts that have been molded from them

A tool insert design, showing the location of conformal cooling channels

EDM Electrodes
A number of attempts have been made to develop EDM electrodes by plating AM parts [10].
These electrodes could feasibly be used for die-sinking EDM for creating cavities for IM
application. The most common method of plating the polymer AM parts would be by using
electroless plating of copper. There are two major drawbacks to this plating approach. The first is
that electroless plating is best suited to plating a thin layer of material on a surface. For EDM
however, the electrodes are more effective with a thicker amount of conductive material
deposited. It is difficult to deposit sufficiently thick material in a quick and easy manner and with
controllable thickness. This leads to the second problem, which is that even if you can deposit
sufficient material, the definition of the electrode will be compromised by this excessively thick
layer of material. Although possible, it is not a very effective method of making electrodes.

While it may be possible to create an electrode using powder metallurgy methods from AM
molds, possibly a more effective method would be to use direct metal fabrication. Stucker, et al.
used this approach to create electrodes using Zirconium diBoride (ZrB2). This material was
encapsulated in a copper matrix material, which was melted using a selective laser melting
approach. The resulting metal matrix composite was observed to have good erosion
characteristics, wearing approximately 1/16th the rate of a pure copper electrode.

Neither of the above approaches has achieved popularity and there appear to be much better
ways of creating EDM electrodes. However, recent improvements in metal powder melting
systems may revive this research and development since electrode production can account for a
significant amount of the manufacturing costs.

Investment Casting
Investment casting is the process of generating metal parts from a nonmetal pattern. Figure
efficiently describes the investment casting process. The patterns are in some way assembled into
a structure that can be coated with ceramic to produce a shell. The ceramic starts as a slurry into
which the structure, referred to as a “tree” for obvious reasons, is dipped to produce a closely
forming skin. Once this has dried, it is strengthened by applying more coats until it is strong
enough to withstand the casting process. Prior to casting, the pattern is removed by burning out
the material. Care must be taken at this stage to ensure all the material has been burned out of the
shell, leaving no residue. The ceramic shell can withstand the high temperature of molten metal
during the pouring process, which can then be left to cool before the shell is broken from the
tree. The metal replicas of the original pattern are cut from the “trunk” of the structure prior to
post-treatment.

The great advantage of this is that parts can be made in a wide range of materials, specific to the
application. While powder metal AM systems can produce parts directly in metal, there is a
much more limited range of metals available. Furthermore, this is an approach that can result in
metal parts from a nonmetal AM technology. A number of AM processes are capable of directly
making parts in wax, including material jetting and material extrusion. However, it is also
possible to make investment casting patterns from other materials, including polycarbonate and
ABS, which are available from a wide range of AM machines. The key is to ensure that the
material does not expand rapidly during the burnout process, prior to the metal casting. One way
to achieve this is to apply the honeycomb core approach, such as the SL QuickCast build style,
rather than using a solid fill.

Schematic of the investment casting Process

 UNIT-8
DIRECT RT PROCESSES

Direct Methods of Rapid Tooling

All of the previous methods of rapid tooling involve the indirect production of a master pattern
from which the tool is produced. One of the concerns of producing a tool is the time it takes to
produce and finish this pattern. Also, replication techniques, such as these can lead to
inaccuracies. Ultimately, companies want to produce the tooling directly, although most of the
direct tooling methods are not without limitations.
Using additive "layer manufacturing" techniques, it is possible to include additional features in
the tool that are impossible to achieve with conventional tooling techniques. The most significant
of these is conformal cooling (or heating) channels that allow the cooling or heating of the tool at
points where it is required – not only where the channels can be conveniently drilled, as in
conventional cooling. Investigations have shown that conformal channels can cut injection mold
cycle times by up to 40 percent.
1.Direct AIM tooling
Rather than making a master stereolithography pattern around which a material is cast, it also is
possible to build the cavity directly on the stereolithography machine. 3D Systems (Valencia,
CA) has named this process Direct AIM. (AIM stands for ACES Injection Molding. ACES
stands for "Accurate Clear Epoxy Solid," which is a stereolithography build style.) Although not
nearly as strong or hard as conventional tooling, it is possible to inject a range of thermoplastics
into these cavities and produce useable parts. At present, only less abrasive and lower melting
point polymers are being molded, although research is underway to improve this application.
Stereolithography tools are generally produced with the standard commercially-available
stereolithography resin. Up to 500 parts have been molded from a single tool, although 10 to 50
parts is more typical. Research into the development of high temperature and filled resins also is
being undertaken by several organizations.
The process is quick and it produces parts using production thermoplastics. Low tool strength
and the risk of failure are disadvantages.
2.SLS RapidSteel
In the same way that a cavity can be generated directly by stereolithography, it also is possible to
build tool cavities directly using the laser sintering process. With DTM's RapidSteel (also
referred to as RapidTool), digital models of the core and cavity geometries are created and sent
to a Sinterstation machine for fabrication in RapidSteel powder. This material consists of
particles of mild stainless steel that are coated with a thin layer of a polymer binder material. The
Sinterstation produces green parts that are then fired in a furnace. The furnace removes the
polymer binder and infiltrates bronze into the mold inserts through capillary action. This process
produces a fully dense tool that consists of about 60 percent steel and 40 percent bronze. The
inserts are then finished, drilled for ejector pins, and fit to a mold base.
The process produces a durable mold that can be used for injection-mold tooling, as well as die-
casting applications. RapidSteel molds have been used to cast hundreds of aluminum, zinc and
magnesium parts. The process allows for complex geometries and RapidSteel molds can
withstand the conditions of injection molding. However, RapidSteel requires finish machining
and polishing that can be time consuming
The advantages are speed, good tool strength and its use for injection molding and die-casting.
Disadvantages are equipment cost and size limitations.
3.Copper Polyamide Tooling
The Copper Polyamide tooling process from DTM (Austin, Texas) involves the selective laser
sintering of a copper and polyamide powder matrix to form a tool. All of the sintering is between
the polyamide powder particles.
The process boasts an increase in tool toughness and heat transfer over some of the other soft
tooling methods. These characteristics are provided by the copper and can give the user the
benefits of running a tool with pressure and temperature settings that are closer to production
settings. The primary disadvantage is the low material strength.
4.Direct Metal Laser Sintering
Direct Metal Laser Sintering (DMLS) from EOS involves the direct processing of metal powders
in a laser sintering machine. Typically, the machine is used for the production of tool inserts, but
it also is possible to produce metal components. Two materials are available for the DMLS
process: 1) bronze-based materials, which are used for injection molding of up to 1,000 parts in a
variety of materials, and 2) steel-based material, which is useful for up to 100,000 plastic
injection molded parts.
This process was used to produce injection mold tooling for a Germany appliance manufacturer.
Seven mold inserts were produced in 20 hours using the bronze-based material. Several
thousands molded parts were produced in 30 percent glass-filled polyamide. The tool took two
weeks to produce compared to 10 weeks for a machined tool and cost about $6,800 compared to
$8,200 for the machined tool.
DMLS offers good feature definition, although the surface definition of the steel-based powder
needs improving. Also, the steel material builds slowly.
5.Laminated Tooling
Laminated tooling is an alternative to building cavities directly on an RP machine. Using the
similar principles to the Laminated Object Manufacturing (LOM) process, layers of sheet metal
are cut to replicate slices through a CAD model. Laser cutting or water jet technologies generally
produce the profiles.
To produce a mold tool, the CAD model must take the form of the required cavity. By cutting all
of the slices of the cavity in sheet metal, a stack of laminates can be made to replicate the
original CAD model. Using either clamping or diffusion bonding, it is possible to create a
pseudo-solid cavity in hardened tool steel without the need for complex post process cutter path
planning. Due to the use of relatively thick laminates – typically 0.040 inch (1 mm) – the surface
finish of the tools is generally poor; therefore, some form of finish machining is generally
required.
Laminated tools have been used successfully for a variety of techniques including press tools,
blow molding, injection molding and thermal forming. Research also is being performed into the
use of laminate tools in pressure die-casting. Tool life is a function of the initial sheet material,
which can be hardened after cutting and lamination. However, part complexity is bounded by
layer thickness.
One significant advantage of laminated tooling is the ability to change the design of parts quickly
by the replacement of laminates (if un-bonded). Conformal cooling channels also are easily
incorporated within the tool design and laminated tooling is good for large tools as well. The
need for finish machining to remove the stair steps is the main disadvantage of this process.
6.LENS
The Laser Engineered Net Shaping (LENS) system from Optomec (Albuquerque, New Mexico)
–originally developed at Sandia National Laboratories – builds parts using a metal powder feed
into a laser, essentially laser cladding. The LENS process injects metal powder into a pool of
molten metal created by a focused Nd:YAG laser beam. The fabrication process occurs in a low-
pressure argon chamber for oxygen-free operation. A motion system moves a platform
horizontally and laterally as the laser beam traces the cross-section of the part being produced.
After forming a layer of the part, the machine's powder delivery nozzle moves upward prior to
building the next layer.
Like other RP techniques, LENS is an additive fabrication method – although it produces fully
dense metal parts. To date, parts have been fabricated in 316 and 304 stainless steel, in nickel-
based super-alloys such as Inconel 625, 690 and 718, H13 tool steel, tungsten, Ti-6Al-4V
titanium alloy and nickel aluminides.
The primary advantage is 100 percent dense parts. The disadvantages are poor surface finish and
small feature definition.
7.Controlled Metal Build-up (CMB)
Albrecht Röders GmbH & Co KG (Soltau, Germany) has commercialized a process called
Controlled Metal Buildup (CMB). The basic technology was originally developed at the
Fraunhofer Institute for Production Technology – IPT (Aachen, Germany). Last year, the
company sold three systems.
The process involves laser cladding and milling that results in 100 percent dense parts. CMB
deposits the material from a steel wire and a 1-2 kW HDL laser welds the steel onto the surface
of the work piece. A high-speed cutter flattens each layer before a new layer is deposited.
8.Prometal
ExtrudeHone's (Irwin, Pennsylvania) ProMetal Rapid Tooling System – named RTS-300 – is the
commercial realization of MIT’s Three Dimensional Printing (3DP) process for manufacturing
metal parts and tooling.
The machine is capable of creating steel parts up to 12 ´ 12 ´ 10 inches (300 ´ 300 ´ 250 mm) in
size. ProMetal applications include tooling for plastic injection molding, vacuum forming, blow
molding, lost foam patterns and the direct fabrication of powder metal components
ExtrudeHone sold its first commercial RTS-300 to Motorola, which was installed in early 1999.
Motorola joined a collaborative effort consisting of several industrial members, all part of MIT's
Three Dimensional Printing Consortium. Although early reliability problems delayed the
implementation effort, recent advances have provided acceptable results.
Many rapid tooling methods are available. Most of them require a master pattern, although a
growing number offer a direct path to fabricating the tooling. In the short term, indirect methods
of RT will continue to flourish because these methods are the most developed. However, in the
long term companies will lean toward direct methods of tooling because they eliminate a step –
the use of a pattern – that can help reduce the time it takes to produce the tooling and improve
the accuracy of the process.
The demand for faster and less expensive tooling solutions has resulted in an impressive number
of RT methods being developed worldwide. Many companies are pursuing the development and
commercialization of RT because of its market potential. Each of the processes comes with a set
of strengths countered by limitations. Typically, this results in solutions that cater to niche
applications. Yet, because of their possible impact, these developments are causing a flurry of
inquiries from companies in the Americas, Europe, Asia and other developed regions.
Meanwhile, countless manufacturing companies are working hard to determine if the time is
right to phase in one of these approaches.
Indirect Methods of Rapid Tooling
Several pattern-based processes have been developed for creating a mold rapidly, with varying
costs, leadtimes and process capabilities. The accuracy of these processes depends in part on the
accuracy of the RP process used to create the pattern.
1.RTV Silicone Rubber Molds
One of the most popular tooling applications for RP is the production of room temperature
vulcanizing (RTV) silicone rubber molds. Silicone is a versatile material (although somewhat
expensive) that can be molded around a master pattern to produce a cavity. With the advent of
rapid prototyping techniques, master patterns are often an RP model. Silicone rubber molds are
used to produce urethane or epoxy prototypes.
The process of making a rubber mold consists of making a master pattern, finishing the pattern to
the desired appearance and casting RTV silicone rubber around the pattern to form the mold.
Using the transparent material the model is suspended within a box and silicone rubber is poured
to fully surround the model. After the silicone rubber has solidified, the parting line is cut with a
scalpel and the model removed, leaving the required cavity.
It is then possible to mold two-part thermoset materials within the cavity. One of the most
popular is polyurethane, which is available in a variety of mechanical properties and can mimic
the mechanical and thermal properties of elastomers, ABS, nylon and other popular
thermoplastics. Polyurethane is usually poured into the silicone rubber cavity under vacuum to
avoid air bubbles in the molded component. The silicone rubber tool will generally produce
about 20 polyurethane parts before it begins to deteriorate. This will depend on the amount of
detail in the tool and the type of polyurethane being molded. Flexible polyurethanes require
longer post cure times within the mold, which is placed in the oven at 149° F (65° C). This
prolonged contact dries out the surface of the silicone rubber and renders it more brittle. Once
this occurs, fine detail on the inner surface of the mold starts to break off and subsequent molded
parts reflect this loss.
Silicone rubber tooling provides fast, inexpensive molds, excellent part cosmetics, and the option
of using multiple materials. The process is suitable for small or large parts. The primary
weakness of the process is that the properties of the urethane materials are different from those of
the thermoplastic materials used in production. Due to material cost and labor demands,
individual part prices are relatively high.
Even with its limitations, silicone rubber tooling can be used as a production process. Bastech
(Dayton, Oh) currently uses silicone rubber tooling to make an instrument case that has high
cosmetic requirements, including texture, but very little strength requirements. In this project, the
customer required only 100 parts per year. Measuring 350 x 300 x 20 mm (14 x 12 x 2 inches),
the case would have required a significant investment in hard tooling.
2.Vacuum Casting
Plastic parts are vacuum cast by placing a silicone tool in a vacuum chamber with a polyurethane
resin. The two-part resin is mixed and de-gassed before being poured into the silicone cavity.
After pouring, the vacuum is released and the tool is removed to a post-curing oven for up to two
hours depending on tool size. Following an exothermic reaction of the two-part resin, the cavity
is opened and a polyurethane part removed. The silicone cavity is then closed and the process
repeated.
3.RIM
Unlike vacuum casting, the Reaction Injection Molding (RIM) process does not rely on
expensive vacuum chambers and mixing units. The process uses a simple resin injection system
with two pressurized chambers. Using an injection nozzle, a silicone tool is filled at atmospheric
pressure until excess resin is driven up through a series of riser holes. The cure reaction time is
much shorter than in vacuum casting. There is no thermal cycling and the contact time between
the resin and silicone rubber is much shorter; therefore, the tools can last for up to 100 shots.
4.Wax Injection Molding
In addition to two-part resin molding, silicone cavities also are suitable for low-pressure injection
molding of waxes for investment casting. Using a low pressure, injection system, semi-molten
wax is forced into the silicone cavity until full. The cavity is then chilled until the wax has fully
solidified. The wax is then removed from the cavity and the process repeated. However, due to
the fragility of the investment casting wax material, extreme care must be exercised when
removing wax parts from the silicone tool.
The advantages of RTV silicone rubber tooling is that it is quick to produce, reproduces detail
impressively well and it's fast for producing a limited number of plastic parts. Disadvantages are
poor tool life, cost of silicone rubber and lengthy cycle time. Also, it does not use the final
production material (except for wax) or final manufacturing process.
5.Spin-Casting
An interesting application of silicone rubber as a mold material is available from a company
named Technicast Moulds Ltd. (Watford, Herts, England). The tools used in this process are
made from vulcanized rubber with several models located in a radial fashion in a disc-shaped
tool. This process makes it possible to cast polyurethane or zinc-based alloys. To aid in the
filling of the cavity, the tool is rotated so that the centrifugal force pressurizes the cavity.
This is an ideal process for forming small zinc castings that will ultimately be produced by die-
casting. If handled carefully, spin-cast tools can produce in excess of 100 replicated parts before
degradation of the tool. Parts also are produced in a range of low melting point alloys.
The advantages of spin-casting include the option of processing a variety of materials that range
from polyurethanes to zinc; the process is relatively quick and the equipment is relatively
inexpensive. Disadvantages include size limitations, the fact that it is not a production process
and the mechanical properties of the zinc castings are not the same as with die-casting.
6.Cast Resin Tooling
This is one of the simplest and most economical methods of producing a tool for the injection
molding of thermoplastic parts. It consists of mounting a pattern within a mold box, setting up a
parting line, and then painting and later pouring resin over the pattern until there is sufficient
material to form one half of the tool. After completing the first half, the process is repeated for
the other half of the tool. There are many tooling resins available with different mechanical and
thermal characteristics – with epoxy being one of the most popular. The resins are often loaded
with aluminum powder or pellets to improve the thermal conductivity and compression strength
of the tool and to reduce the cost of the resin. Cast resin tools are usually used for 100 to 200
molded parts, although it's possible to get up to 1,000 parts – depending on the material being
molded.
The advantages of this process are that it's fast, relatively simple, and can be used to mold
common thermoplastics such as polypropylene and ABS. A disadvantage is the low mechanical
strength of the molds, especially when the mold includes small thin features. For this reason, this
method of rapid tooling is only suitable for relatively simple shapes. Also, the low thermal
conductivity of the mold material lengthens the molding cycles times.
7.Spray Metal Tooling
Metal spraying is used for the production of soft tooling. It involves spraying a thin shell of
about 0.080 inch (2 mm) in thickness over a pattern and backing this with epoxy resin to give it
rigidity. Several metal spraying techniques are available. With most RP techniques, the models
produced have a low glass transition temperature (i.e., the temperature where the material starts
to change to a soft amorphous structure). Therefore, it is important to keep the pattern
temperature as low as possible when spraying. If the temperature of the model increases
sufficiently it will start to relax and distort, which results in an inaccurate tool.
The most popular techniques for use with RP models are spraying low melting point alloys (lead-
/tin-based) with a gun similar to a paint sprayer and metal deposition with an arc system. The arc
system feeds two wires into a gun and an electric arc is struck between them. This causes the
wire material to melt and then a compressed gas atomizes and sprays it onto the pattern. The
higher the melting point of the wire material, the more difficult it is to keep the pattern cool.
Therefore, it is common to spray zinc or aluminum based alloys directly onto RP models. It also
is possible to spray higher melting point materials onto RP models, but it is necessary to be a
little devious. One technique is to apply a metallic coating by using electroless plating or
physical vapor deposition. Once there is a metallic coating on the model, heat will be transmitted
more readily across its surface.
One problem associated with metal spraying is that it produces shells with high internal stresses.
It is possible to counteract these by simultaneously shot-peening the sprayed shell. Steel shot
fired at the shell during spraying induces compressive stresses that counteract the tensile stresses.
Metal spraying is typically used on models that have large gently curved surfaces and is indeed
most suited to this type of geometry. It is very difficult to spray into narrow slots or small
diameter holes. When these types of features are included on the model, it is common to make
brass inserts, locate them in the model and spray around them. When the model is removed from
the shell, the inserts are permanently fixed into the shell. These inserts also are stronger than the
shell material, which is weak and breaks easily if formed as a tall, thin feature.
Spray metal tools can produce more than 1,000 parts depending on the process, material being
formed and the amount of tender loving care given to the tool. Clamping and injection pressures
for metal-sprayed injection tools are usually less than those for steel or aluminum tools and may
affect the mechanical properties of the injection-molded part. And because the shell is very thin
and generally backed up with an epoxy-based resin, the thermal conductivity of a metal-sprayed
tool is less than that of an aluminum or steel tool. This also will affect the mechanical properties
of the injection-molded components and will increase cycle time. Some plastics are much more
corrosive and abrasive on tool faces. This can be partially overcome by a variety of techniques,
such as plating the tool surface with nickel or chrome, or using aluminum or steel inserts.
Spray metal tools have been used in many applications including sheet metal forming, injection
molding, compression molding, blow molding and pre-preg sheet lay up. Various plastics have
been molded including polypropylene, ABS, polystyrene and difficult process materials such as
reinforced nylon and polycarbonate.
The main advantage of spray metal tooling is that you can produce large tools quickly. The main
disadvantage is that it may be difficult or impossible to spray into narrow slots or deep holds –
meaning that the part geometry must be relatively simple. Molds are not particularly strong and
the process requires special equipment and special operating environment.
8.Sprayed Steel
The Sprayform sprayed steel process is similar in method to traditional sprayed metal tooling, in
that atomized material is deposited using a spray gun. However, the main difference is in the
mechanization of the process, as multiple spray heads are involved. The process produces much
harder tools and is therefore a much more useful process than traditional sprayed metal tooling
The Ford Motor Company (Dearborn, Michigan) has purchased the technology behind the
sprayed steel process, which was developed by Sprayform Holdings Ltd. of the UK. Currently,
Ford is licensing the process to other companies.
The primary advantage of the Sprayform process is that it works well for large tools, especially
as sheet metal stamping dies. It offers a high deposition rate and is less expensive compared to
conventionally machined steel tooling. The cost of the equipment and the licensing fees, as well
as the limitation of spraying into holes and slots are disadvantages.
9.Rapid Solidification Process
Another steel spray process is currently in development at Idaho National Environmental and
Engineering Lab (INEEL) called Rapid Solidification Process (RSP). It differs from other
sprayed metal processes in that it can deposit hundreds of pounds of material per hour, while the
conventional wire-feed systems deposit approximately 15.4 lbs. (7 kg) per hour. This means that,
potentially, the RSP process could be used to build the entire tool as opposed to a thin shell that
requires back filling.
Global Metal Technologies, Inc. (Solon, Ohio) has entered into a Cooperative Research and
Development Agreement (CRADA) with INEEL (Idaho Falls, Idaho) and intends to use RSP
tooling in its production facility. The company claims that RSP tooling lasts 20 percent longer
than conventional dies and can lower tooling costs by 20 percent.
INEEL has been successful in spraying H13 and P20 tool steels onto a ceramic take-off of an RP
master pattern. A limitation at present is the size limitation of about six inches (150 mm).
10.Plaster Molds
Plaster mold casting is a prototype manufacturing process for simulated die-castings. Although
there are several variations of this process, it usually begins with a master shape of the die-
casting. It is not absolutely necessary to include draft in the walls at this stage, but it can help. A
silicone rubber reversal is then molded over the master. A second silicone rubber is molded into
the first. This provides a silicone rubber positive of the original model. Plaster is molded around
the second silicone rubber positive to provide a plaster cavity. Metal is poured into the plaster
cavity. After solidification of the metal, the plaster is broken away.
The rubber version of the master is required so that it can easily be withdrawn from the plaster
mold. It is also possible to mold epoxy off of the master and pour plaster over this. The epoxy
molds will have a greater life than those made from rubber.
Typical leadtimes from the manufacture of the master model to manufacture of 10 castings is
about 8 days, and two weeks to produce 30 to 50 castings. However, three to four weeks is a
more typical delivery time. The cost of prototyping with this process is about two to five percent
of the cost of a production die, so it is considered to be a good insurance.
The advantages of the process are low mold cost and good surface detail. Also, it's possible to
produce reasonably large parts with this process. One disadvantages is lower cooling rates,
which means poorer mechanical properties. This can lead to parts with a yield strength that is 20
percent lower than conventional die-casting. Another disadvantage is that you must produce a
new mold for each casting. And finally, slightly different alloys are used for plaster casting
compared to die-casting
11.Electroforming
Electroforming involves electroplating a thick shell (several millimeters thick) onto a master
pattern. Before plating can commence, the surface must be made electrically conductive. A
simple technique to achieve this is to spray a conductive lacquer onto the model. After plating,
the shell is removed and then backed with a suitable material.
This is a technique used to produce tools for shoe soles with complicated patterns from original
wax models. Nickel is a common material for electroforming and has good thermal conductivity
and strength. The process gives faithful reproductions of the master, but can be limited when
plating into deep narrow slots or holes. Electroplating builds up more material on exterior
corners and narrow slots can be closed at the top before they have plated enough at the bottom.
This can be partially overcome by reducing the current, but this increases the time to produce the
shell.
Express Tool (Warwick, Rhode Island) is developing an electroforming process that it plans to
commercialize. The company typically produces the patterns by machining graphite. This
material is an excellent conductor and it machines many times faster than aluminum. Another
benefit to using graphite is that it serves as a natural release due to its lubricant properties –
making it easier to separate it from the nickel shell.
An advantage of electroforming is that it is very good at the reproduction of detail.
Disadvantages are that the process is not particularly fast and it's not possible to do deep slots or
holes.
12.Cast Aluminum and Zinc Kirksite Tooling
For higher production volumes and more aggressive polymers, it is critical that the tool material
has a high degree of mechanical hardness. Using molten metal casting techniques, it is possible
to cast around an accurate pattern with either aluminum- or zinc-based alloys with a two-week
leadtime.
Given the casting temperature of both aluminum and zinc it is important to replicate the initial
pattern into a material capable of withstanding such heat. Using silicone tooling, as detailed
earlier, a cavity is produced around the model. However, rather than a resin copy being made, the
silicone cavity is then filled with ceramic. After drying, the ceramic facsimile is placed into a
bolster and covered with the molten metal.
Cast aluminum and zinc kirksite tooling offer a simple and low-cost method of tooling.
Disadvantages include a distortion of tools, accuracy problems due to shrinking, and geometry
limitations (i.e., no fine features).
13.Investment Cast Tooling
Some companies have used investment casting with RP models to produce metal tooling. Most
of the tools cast so far have been in aluminum, but there are some examples of tool steel molds.
If a steel or hardened alloy cavity is required, either for mechanical strength and thermal cycling
or due to high-volume production, investment cast tooling can offer an alternative to open cast
tools, such as the kirksite process. By making a sacrificial RP model of the desired cavity, the
lost wax process can be used to replicate the part in a metal.
The RP pattern is first invested in multiple layers of ceramic slurry, which are allowed to dry
between coats. After the shell has dried, the ceramic shell and invested part are fired. The firing
process sinters the ceramic shell and causes the invested model to be burned out. After firing,
any ash residue is washed from the ceramic shell. The molten alloy of the tool material is then
poured through a gating system into the void left by the RP pattern. After solidification and
cooling, the ceramic shell is fractured and the newly formed metal cavity is removed and post-
process machined.
Investment cast tools have been used for injection mold cavities and die casting tools. However,
due to the unpredictable contraction of the casting process, it is difficult to maintain a high level
of accuracy with this tooling process.
An advantage to the process is that you can get better detail than with cast aluminum or kirksite
tooling. Distortion, limited accuracy and the need for finish machining are disadvantages.
14. 3D Keltool
The 3D Keltool process typically starts with a CAD design of the core and cavity mold inserts,
followed by the creation of the core and cavity patterns with stereolithography or some other RP
process. Once these core and cavity patterns have been finished to the desired surface, silicone
rubber is cast against them to create molds into which a mixture of metal powder and binder is
poured, packed and cured. The metal mixture consists of finely powdered A6 tool steel and even
finer particles of tungsten carbide. At this point, the cast core and cavity inserts exist in a green
state. These green inserts are fired in a hydrogen-reduction furnace to burn away the binder,
sinter the metal particles and infiltrate copper into the inserts. This produces solid metal inserts
that are approximately 70 percent steel and 30 percent copper with physical properties similar to
that of P20 tool steel. The inserts are finish-machined, drilled for ejector pins and fitted into mold
bases.
The tools from this process show very good definition and surface finish. Lead-time is typically
shorter than conventionally produced tooling. The primary disadvantage is size limitation. The
maximum size of a mold insert is 150 x 215 x 100 mm (5.9 x 8.5 x 4 inches). The length in the z-
direction can extend to 145 mm (5.75 inches) when the x and/or y dimensions are shorter. Some
toolmakers have press fit two or more inserts side-by-side – in a mold base – to create larger
tools
Laminated Tooling
Laminated tooling is an alternative to building cavities directly on an RP machine. Using the
similar principles to the Laminated Object Manufacturing (LOM) process,
layers of sheet metal are cut to replicate slices through a CAD model. Laser cutting or water jet
technologies generally produce the profiles.
To produce a mold tool, the CAD model must take the form of the required cavity. By cutting all
of the slices of the cavity in sheet metal, a stack of laminates can be made to replicate the
original CAD model. Using either clamping or diffusion bonding, it is possible to create a
pseudo-solid cavity in hardened tool steel without the need for complex post process cutter path
planning. Due to the use of relatively thick laminates – typically 0.040 inch (1 mm) – the surface
finish of the tools is generally poor; therefore, some form of finish machining is generally
required.
Laminated tools have been used successfully for a variety of techniques including press tools,
blow molding, injection molding and thermal forming. Research also is being performed into the
use of laminate tools in pressure die-casting. Tool life is a function of the initial sheet material,
which can be hardened after cutting and lamination. However, part complexity is bounded by
layer thickness.
One significant advantage of laminated tooling is the ability to change the design of parts quickly
by the replacement of laminates (if un-bonded). Conformal cooling channels also are easily
incorporated within the tool design and laminated tooling is good for large tools as well. The
need for finish machining to remove the stair steps is the main disadvantage of this process.
Powder Metallurgy based Technology
Powder metallurgy (PM) is a term covering a wide range of ways in which materials or
components are made from metal powders. PM processes can avoid, or greatly reduce, the need
to use metal removal processes, thereby drastically reducing yield losses in manufacture and
often resulting in lower costs.
Powder metallurgy is also used to make unique materials impossible to get from melting or
forming in other ways. A very important product of this type is tungsten carbide (WC). WC is
used to cut and form other metals and is made from WC particles bonded with cobalt. It is very
widely used in industry for tools of many types and globally ~50,000 tonnes/year (t/y) is made
by PM. Other products include sintered filters, porous oil-impregnated bearings, electrical
contacts and diamond tools.
Since the advent of industrial production–scale metal powder–based additive
manufacturing (AM) in the 2010s, selective laser sintering and other metal AM processes are a
new category of commercially important powder metallurgy applications.

Powder production techniques

Any fusible material can be atomized. Several techniques have been developed which permit
large production rates of powdered particles, often with considerable control over the size ranges
of the final grain population. Powders may be prepared by crushing, grinding, chemical
reactions, or electrolytic deposition. The most commonly used powders are copper-base and
iron-base materials.[10]
Powders of the elements titanium, vanadium, thorium, niobium, tantalum, calcium, and uranium
have been produced by high-temperature reduction of the corresponding nitrides and carbides.
Iron, nickel, uranium, and beryllium submicrometre powders are obtained by reducing
metallic oxalates and formates. Exceedingly fine particles also have been prepared by directing a
stream of molten metal through a high-temperature plasma jet or flame, atomizing the material.
Various chemical and flame associated powdering processes are adopted in part to prevent
serious degradation of particle surfaces by atmospheric oxygen.
In tonnage terms, the production of iron powders for PM structural part production dwarfs the
production of all of the non-ferrous metal powders combined. Virtually all iron powders are
produced by one of two processes: the sponge iron process or water atomization.
1.Sponge iron process
The longest established of these processes is the sponge iron process, the leading example of a
family of processes involving solid state reduction of an oxide. In the process, selected magnetite
(Fe3O4) ore is mixed with coke and lime and placed in a silicon carbide retort. The filled retort is
then heated in a kiln, where the reduction process leaves an iron “cake” and a slag. In subsequent
steps, the retort is emptied, the reduced iron sponge is separated from the slag and is crushed and
annealed.
The resultant powder is highly irregular in particle shape, therefore ensuring good “green
strength” so that die-pressed compacts can be readily handled prior to sintering, and each particle
contains internal pores (hence the term “sponge”) so that the good green strength is available at
low compacted density levels.
Sponge iron provides the feedstock for all iron-based self-lubricating bearings, and still accounts
for around 30% of iron powder usage in PM structural parts.
2.Atomization
Atomization is accomplished by forcing a molten metal stream through an orifice at moderate
pressures. A gas is introduced into the metal stream just before it leaves the nozzle, serving to
create turbulence as the entrained gas expands (due to heating) and exits into a large collection
volume exterior to the orifice. The collection volume is filled with gas to promote further
turbulence of the molten metal jet. Air and powder streams are segregated using gravity
or cyclonic separation. Most atomized powders are annealed, which helps reduce the oxide and
carbon content. The water atomized particles are smaller, cleaner, and nonporous and have a
greater breadth of size, which allows better compacting. The particles produced through this
method are normally of spherical or pear shape. Usually, they also carry a layer of oxide over
them.
There are three types of atomization:
• Liquid atomization
• Gas atomization
• Centrifugal atomization
Simple atomization techniques are available in which liquid metal is forced through an orifice at
a sufficiently high velocity to ensure turbulent flow. The usual performance index used is
the Reynolds number R = fvd/n, where f = fluid density, v = velocity of the exit stream, d =
diameter of the opening, and n = absolute viscosity. At low R the liquid jet oscillates, but at
higher velocities the stream becomes turbulent and breaks into droplets. Pumping energy is
applied to droplet formation with very low efficiency (on the order of 1%) and control over the
size distribution of the metal particles produced is rather poor. Other techniques such as nozzle
vibration, nozzle asymmetry, multiple impinging streams, or molten-metal injection into ambient
gas are all available to increase atomization efficiency, produce finer grains, and to narrow the
particle size distribution. Unfortunately, it is difficult to eject metals through orifices smaller
than a few millimeters in diameter, which in practice limits the minimum size of powder grains
to approximately 10 μm. Atomization also produces a wide spectrum of particle sizes,
necessitating downstream classification by screening and remelting a significant fraction of the
grain boundary.
3.Centrifugal disintegration
Centrifugal disintegration of molten particles offers one way around these problems. Extensive
experience is available with iron, steel, and aluminium. Metal to be powdered is formed into a
rod which is introduced into a chamber through a rapidly rotating spindle. Opposite the spindle
tip is an electrode from which an arc is established which heats the metal rod. As the tip material
fuses, the rapid rod rotation throws off tiny melt droplets which solidify before hitting the
chamber walls. A circulating gas sweeps particles from the chamber. Similar techniques could be
employed in space or on the Moon. The chamber wall could be rotated to force new powders into
remote collection vessels,[11] and the electrode could be replaced by a solar mirror focused at the
end of the rod.
An alternative approach capable of producing a very narrow distribution of grain sizes but with
low throughput consists of a rapidly spinning bowl heated to well above the melting point of the
material to be powdered. Liquid metal, introduced onto the surface of the basin near the center at
flow rates adjusted to permit a thin metal film to skim evenly up the walls and over the edge,
breaks into droplets, each approximately the thickness of the film.[12]
Other techniques
Another powder-production technique involves a thin jet of liquid metal intersected by high-
speed streams of atomized water which break the jet into drops and cool the powder before it
reaches the bottom of the bin. In subsequent operations the powder is dried. This is called water
atomization. The advantage of water atomization is that metal solidifies faster than by gas
atomization since the heat capacity of water is some magnitudes higher than gases. Since the
solidification rate is inversely proportional to the particle size, smaller particles can be made
using water atomization. The smaller the particles, the more homogeneous the micro structure
will be. Notice that particles will have a more irregular shape and the particle size distribution
will be wider. In addition, some surface contamination can occur by oxidation skin formation.
Powder can be reduced by some kind of pre-consolidation treatment, such as annealing used for
the manufacture of ceramic tools.

1.Powder compaction

Rhodium metal: powder, pressed pellet (3×105 psi) remelted.

Powder compaction is the process of compacting metal powder in a die through the application
of high pressures. Typically the tools are held in the vertical orientation with the punch tool
forming the bottom of the cavity. The powder is then compacted into a shape and then ejected
from the die cavity. In a number of these applications the parts may require very little additional
work for their intended use; making for very cost efficient manufacturing.
The density of the compacted powder increases with the amount of pressure applied. Typical
pressures range from 80 psi to 1000 psi (0.5 MPa to 7 MPa), pressures from 1000 psi to
1,000,000 psi have been obtained. Pressure of 10 t/in² to 50 t/in² (150 MPa to 700 MPa) are
commonly used for metal powder compaction. To attain the same compression ratio across a
component with more than one level or height, it is necessary to work with multiple lower
punches. A cylindrical workpiece is made by single-level tooling. A more complex shape can be
made by the common multiple-level tooling.
Production rates of 15 to 30 parts per minute are common.
There are four major classes of tool styles: single-action compaction, used for thin, flat
components; opposed double-action with two punch motions, which accommodates thicker
components; double-action with floating die; and double action withdrawal die. Double action
classes give much better density distribution than single action. Tooling must be designed so that
it will withstand the extreme pressure without deforming or bending. Tools must be made from
materials that are polished and wear-resistant.
Better workpiece materials can be obtained by repressing and re-sintering.
 Powder Compaction Press
2.Die pressing
The dominant technology for the forming of products from powder materials, in terms of both
tonnage quantities and numbers of parts produced, is die pressing. There are mechanical, servo-
electrical and hydraulic presses available in the market, whereby the biggest powder throughput
is processed by hydraulic presses. This forming technology involves a production cycle
comprising:
1. Filling a die cavity with a known volume of the powder feedstock, delivered from a fill
shoe.
2. Compaction of the powder within the die with punches to form the compact. Generally,
compaction pressure is applied through punches from both ends of the toolset in order to
reduce the level of density gradient within the compact.
3. Ejection of the compact from the die, using the lower punch(es) withdrawal from the die.
4. Removal of the compact from the upper face of the die using the fill shoe in the fill stage
of the next cycle, or an automation system or robot.
This cycle offers a readily automated and high production rate process.
Design considerations
Probably the most basic consideration is being able to remove the part from the die after it is
pressed, along with avoiding sharp corners in the design. Keeping the maximum surface area
below 20 square inches (0.013 m2) and the height-to-diameter ratio below 7-to-1 is
recommended. Along with having walls thicker than 0.08 inches (2.0 mm) and keeping the
adjacent wall thickness ratios below 2.5-to-1.
One of the major advantages of this process is its ability to produce complex geometries. Parts
with undercuts and threads require a secondary machining operation. Typical part sizes range
from 0.1 square inches (0.65 cm2) to 20 square inches (130 cm2). in area and from 0.1 to 4 inches
(0.25 to 10.16 cm) in length. However, it is possible to produce parts that are less than 0.1 square
inches (0.65 cm2) and larger than 25 square inches (160 cm2). in area and from a fraction of an
inch (2.54 cm) to approximately 8 inches (20 cm) in length.
3.Isostatic pressing
In some pressing operations, such as hot isostatic pressing (HIP) compact formation and
sintering occur simultaneously. This procedure, together with explosion-driven compressive
techniques is used extensively in the production of high-temperature and high-strength parts such
as turbine disks for jet engines. In most applications of powder metallurgy[14] the compact is hot-
pressed, heated to a temperature above which the materials cannot remain work-hardened. Hot
pressing lowers the pressures required to reduce porosity and speeds welding and grain
deformation processes. It also permits better dimensional control of the product, lessens
sensitivity to physical characteristics of starting materials, and allows powder to be compressed
to higher densities than with cold pressing, resulting in higher strength. Negative aspects of hot
pressing include shorter die life, slower throughput because of powder heating, and the frequent
necessity for protective atmospheres during forming and cooling stages.

Full Mold Casting

Full-mold casting is an evaporative-pattern casting process which is a combination of sand
casting and lost-foam casting. It uses an expanded polystyrene foam pattern which is then
surrounded by sand, much like sand casting. The metal is then poured directly into the mold,
which vaporizes the foam upon contact.
First, a pattern is usually made from polystyrene foam, which can be done many different
ways. For small volume runs the pattern can be hand cut or machined from a solid block of
foam; if the geometry is simple enough it can even be cut using a hot-wire foam cutter.
If the volume is large, then the pattern can be mass-produced by a process similar to injection
molding. Pre-expanded beads of polystyrene are injected into a preheated aluminum mold at low
pressure. Steam is then applied to the polystyrene which causes it to expand more to fill the die.
The final pattern is approximately 97.5% air and 2.5% polystyrene.

The finished patterns can be hot glued to pre-made pouring basins, runners, and risers to form the
final pattern.The pattern is then coated with a refractory material. The coated pattern is placed in
a flask and packed carefully with green sand or a chemically bonded sand.

Finally, the molten metal is poured into the mold, which vaporizes the foam allowing the metal
to fill the entire mold. The vapor is simultaneously extracted from the flask through the sand.
The casting is allowed to cool and then dumped out of the flask ready to use. The sand does not
need to be reprocessed so it can be directly reused.
The minimum wall thickness for a full-mold casting is 2.5 mm (0.10 in). Typical dimensional
tolerances are 0.3% and typical surface finishes are from 2.5 to 25 µm (100 to 1000 µin) RMS.
The size range is from 400 g (0.88 lb) to several tonnes (tons).
Full-mold casting is often used to produce cylinder heads, engine
blocks, pump housings, automotive brake components, and manifolds. Commonly employed
materials include aluminium, iron, steel, nickel alloys, and copper alloys.

Advantages and disadvantages

This casting process is advantageous for very complex castings, that would regularly
require cores. It is also dimensionally accurate, requires no draft, and has no parting lines so
no flash is formed. As compared to investment casting, it is cheaper because it is a simpler
process and the foam is cheaper than the wax. Risers are not usually required due to the nature of
the process; because the molten metal vaporizes the foam the first metal into the mold cools
more quickly than the rest, which results in natural directional solidification.
The two main disadvantages are that pattern costs can be high for low volume applications and
the patterns are easily damaged or distorted due to their low strength. If a die is used to create the
patterns there is a large initial cost.

Quick cast
Investment casting has, without a doubt, earned its place in manufacturing. The lost-wax process
has proven to be a cost effective way to produce prototypes, short runs or full production metal
components. Parts can be reduced in weight, tolerances of ± .005″ per inch held, and expenses
and time involving machining and finishing reduced or eliminated. The bottom line is, many
parts are perfect candidates for investment casting.
QuickCast is an SLA build style and was created to meet the needs of the Investment Casting
industry. QuickCast patterns were the first direct pattern (patterns created via a 3D printing
QuickCast patterns for investment casting have had the most profound effect on this industry.
QuickCast replaces the time consuming process of creating tooling to produce wax patterns,
allowing the review of metal designs in days instead of months.
QuickCast patterns are a hollow SLA build style with hexagonal support structures.
The QuickCast build style consists of a hollow stereolithography pattern with an internal
hexagonal support structure that adds strength to the pattern, allows for easy drainage, and
facilitates collapse of the pattern during thermal expansion to help avoid cracking the shell.
QuickCast patterns provide several advantages compared to other direct patterns including low
moisture absorption, high finish, dimensional stability and capabilities of producing large
assemblies.
 UNIT-9
EMERGING TRENDS IN RT

REVERSE ENGINEERING

In mechanical engineering, the term reverse engineering (often abbreviated to RE) is used to
summarise the process of reconstructing an existing object. When designing an object from
scratch, an engineer will draw up a design specification and produce drawings from which the
item is constructed.
Conversely, with reverse engineering, the design engineer starts with the final product and works
through the design process in the opposite direction to arrive at the product design specification.
During the process, vital information about the design concept and manufacturing methods is
discovered.
The process of reverse engineering begins by gaining dimensional information of the object
via 3D scanning, whether it is a mechanical component, a consumer product or an ancient
artefact.

Reverse engineering involves acquiring three-dimensional positional data in the point cloud.
There are many ways of gathering valuable dimensional information about the product, but using
an accurate 3D measuring system is paramount. The accuracy of the data captured will impact
the quality and deviation of the Reverse Engineered model when compared to the original.
Physical Digital uses the globally-recognised GOM 3D structured light scanning systems, which
offer highly-accurate, traceable and repeatable measurement. The surface data captured is then
passed to our in-house design team to establish the original design intent of the object.

Reverse engineering enables the duplication of an existing part by capturing the component’s
physical dimensions, features, and material properties. There are a wide range of reasons for
reverse engineering an object, including:

Legacy Components – For many components that were designed and manufactured years ago,
there are no existing 2D drawings or 3D CAD data from which to reproduce the object. Here,
reverse engineering is a vital means to gain the information to recreate the product.
Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) issues – If the OEM is no longer trading or has lost
design measurements, then Reverse Engineering will supply the vital product information to
continue manufacturing of that object.
Design Development, Part Testing & Analysis – Through reverse engineering, a 3D product
can be quickly captured in digital form and remodelled or analysed in order to achieve improved
design iterations.
Competitor Analysis – Any organisation can analyse competitor products through reverse
engineering.
Bespoke and Ancient objects – Where there is no information about the dimensions of an
object except for the physical item itself, the quickest and most reliable way to reproduce it will
be by reverse engineering. Where a product is organic in shape (not a standard geometry such as
cuboid or cylindrical), designing in CAD may be challenging as it can be difficult to ensure that
the CAD model will be acceptably close to the sculpted model. Reverse engineering avoids this
problem as the physical model is the source of the information for the CAD model.
Modern manufacturing – methods such as Additive Manufacturing rely on reverse engineering.
Digital Archiving – Museum pieces and historic artefacts can be captured through 3D scanning,
then reverse engineered and the resulting CAD data can be held in case of any future damage to
the object or any need to reproduce parts of the item.

REVERSE ENGINEERING AND PRODUCT PROTOTYPING

Reverse engineering is commonly applied to the general process of recreating existing 3D

geometry in the computer. This 3D geometry could be the shape of a real, manufactured object,
like a car, or it could be some type of organic shape, like a plant or a human body.
Although many manufactured objects are now defined digitally using some type of 3D modeling
software, in many instances, the part may not be able to obtain the existing geometry digitally.
For example, the digital geometry might be needed for part repair or during product development
iterations. For example, engineers may want to put the shape of an old VW Beetle into the
computer so that they could construct an oversized sculpture of the car. It could also be an
engineer who wants to capture the shape of an airplane to put into a flight simulator program. For
nonmanufactured objects, such as rocks, trees, and human beings, there are no existing computer
models and one has no choice but to re-create the 3D shape on the computer. In general, CAD
models are often unavailable or unusable for parts which must be duplicated or modified when:

1. CAD was not used in the original design,

2. there is inadequate documentation on the original design,
3. the original CAD model is not sufficient to support modification or manufacturing using
modern methods,
4. the original supplier is unable or unwilling to provide additional parts, or
5. there have been shop floor changes to the original design.

The reverse-engineering machines require very high precision, and thus there are some standard
procedures to ensure that the machine is well qualified before it is used.For example, the CMM
is an accurate measuring device used to verify dimensions to ensure part quality. A CMM can be
used to measure features in 2D and 3D, although 2D features cannot be measured directly. For
example, a line is a 2D feature, and can be defined by the intersection of a plane to the reference
plane. While a plane is a 3D feature, a line can be indirectly defined by defining two planes using
a CMM. Most parts are made up of simple geometric elements such as planes, edges, cylinders,
spheres, and cones, created by machining or forming. Distance, symmetry, intersection, angle,
and projection cannot
be measured directly, but must be constructed mathematically from measured features.

Projection is the reproduction of a workpiece feature on another feature, for example, projecting
a circle or line on a plane, or a point onto a line. Intersection is where two existing geometric
elements meet and cross each other. For example, points are created by the intersection of two
lines, or of a line and a plane; and lines are created by the intersection of two planes.
The sequence for programming a CMM with a probe includes the following steps:

1. Home the CMM, and establish a global coordinate system.

2. Qualify the tip, and compensate for tip diameter. Probe qualification is critical for machine
accuracy, especially when the machine is started each day or when a new probe is installed. To
qualify the tip, one needs to 172 Rapid Prototyping and Engineering Applications: A Toolbox for
Prototype Development

A. Measure a reference sphere

B. Enter the reference sphere diameter, actual probe diameter, and probe positions into the
computer
C. The computer calculates the effective probe diameter and location of the center of the probe in
the measuring volume
3. Align the part, and establish a local coordinate system on the part. To align a part with its
CAD model, one needs to align
A. The reference plane
B. The major axis
C. The part zero
4. Measure the part.

Traditional CMMs typically have better accuracy, but can be limited in the size and complexity
of the object to be scanned. Portable CMMs are generally less accurate, but they are portable,
with less limitation on the size of an object. Measurement systems using noncontact
technologies, such as various laser scanning probes or laser tracking systems, can scan
very large and complex surfaces accurately, but can be very expensive depending on the type of
system. Sensing can be classified into passive sensing and active sensing. Passive sensing is
when sensing energy is only received and no energy is emitted for the purpose of sensing, for
example, stereo vision techniques. Active sensing is when properly formatted light or any other
form of
energy is emitted rather than received once it has interacted with the object to digitize, for
example, CT (computerized omography) and MRI (magnetic resonance imaging).

Geometric Data Acquistion

The acquisition and maintenance of the geometric data base is an important cost factor for a
geographical information system (GIS). The goal of the acquisition process is to encode and
store the geometric features as accurately as necessary, and as economically as possible.
Operator-guided digitizing and raster-to-vector conversion are the two techniques mainly applied
for the capture of geometric data. Both techniques have specific advantages for certain classes of
applications with respect to accuracy and economics. Although it is called an “old” technique,
operator-guided digitizing can still be the most economical solution for many digitizing tasks.
The economics can be improved by technical enhancements, for example the use of the
acoustical channel, or by implementing the appropriate strategy for object capture. Additional
tools beyond the basic storage and retrieval functions facilitate the management of geometric
data.
3D reconstruction is the process of capturing the shape and appearance of real objects. This
process can be accomplished either by active or passive methods.[1] If the model is allowed to
change its shape in time, this is referred to as non-rigid or spatio-temporal reconstruction.[2]

Active methods
 3D echo sounding map of an underwater canyon

Active methods, i.e. range data methods, given the depth map, reconstruct the 3D profile
by numerical approximation approach and build the object in scenario based on model. These
methods actively interfere with the reconstructed object, either mechanically or radiometrically
using rangefinders, in order to acquire the depth map, e.g. structured light, laser range finder and
other active sensing techniques. A simple example of a mechanical method would use a depth
gauge to measure a distance to a rotating object put on a turntable. More
applicable radiometric methods emit radiance towards the object and then measure its reflected
part. Examples range from moving light sources, colored visible light, time-of-
flight lasers [6] to microwaves or 3D ultrasound. See 3D scanning for more details.

Passive methods

Passive methods of 3D reconstruction do not interfere with the reconstructed object; they only
use a sensor to measure the radiance reflected or emitted by the object's surface to infer its 3D
structure through image understanding. Typically, the sensor is an image sensor in a camera
sensitive to visible light and the input to the method is a set of digital images (one, two or more)
or video. In this case we talk about image-based reconstruction and the output is a 3D model. By
comparison to active methods, passive methods can be applied to a wider range of situations.
Monocular cues methods
Monocular cues methods refer to using one or more images from one viewpoint (camera) to
proceed to 3D construction. It makes use of 2D characteristics(e.g. Silhouettes, shading and
texture) to measure 3D shape, and that's why it is also named Shape-From-X, where X can
be silhouettes, shading, texture etc. 3D reconstruction through monocular cues is simple and
quick, and only one appropriate digital image is needed thus only one camera is adequate.
Technically, it avoids stereo correspondence, which is fairly complex.
Shape-from-shading Due to the analysis of the shade information in the image, by
using Lambertian reflectance, the depth of normal information of the object surface is restored to
reconstruct.
Photometric Stereo This approach is more sophisticated than the shape-of-shading method.
Images taken in different lighting conditions are used to solve the depth information. It is worth
mentioning that more than one image is required by this approach.[12]
Shape-from-texture Suppose such an object with smooth surface covered by replicated texture
units, and its projection from 3D to 2D causes distortion and perspective. Distortion and
perspective measured in 2D images provide the hint for inversely solving depth of normal
information of the object surface.
Rapid Tooling: Its Processes, Advantages, and Applications

If you want to market your product faster, you will need rapid prototyping to make the parts
readily available for testing. There are many innovations in the manufacturing industry in recent
years. And among them are the various rapid prototyping techniques that can help the design
team during the product development phase. It’s called rapid prototyping.
Thanks to rapid tooling, parts are manufactured quickly to test and validate them before going
into production tooling. There are different names for rapid tooling. Some people call
it prototypes tooling, soft tooling, or prototype mold. For now, let us stick with rapid tooling.
This article will dig deeper into this buzzword and look at its advantages and applications.
Before we move into that, let us first get to know what rapid tooling is.

Rapid Tooling Products

The Beginning of Rapid Tooling

Simply put, rapid tooling is a process of creating a prototype in a short time. It all began in the
1990s where engineers using plastic injection molding tried to find ways to create molds in days
or even hours instead of the number of months it took them to produce a machine mold.
Parts made through rapid tooling is a perfect solution to test and evaluate a prototype and make a
few hundred parts before actually going into full production mode. Rapid tooling techniques
build inserts like the core, side actions, and cavity of the parts. It all depends on the rapid tooling
employed; it can produce parts through multiple cycles out of the same mold.
There are many rapid tooling techniques to choose from, and each type can have various
benefits. You have many factors to consider for getting the most of these benefits because it
varies depending on the size, consistency, technology, accuracy, and the materials you will use.

You have to keep the following limitations in mind, too, if you are considering rapid tooling to
make your prototype.
1. The mold should be strong
The mold has to be durable so that it can manage the injection molding method. The molding
machines clamped heated materials into the mold at pounds per inch, so the molds should
withstand the injections.
2. The mold should be smooth
Aside from being strong, it should also be smooth to inject the plastic cleanly. This characteristic
is critical because it is needed for each ejection. In rapid tooling, some processes add materials
layer by layer, so it’s not smooth. In this case, the prototype requires additional finishing to be
viable for prototyping.
One thing about rapid tooling is it uses the exact material of the final product. It’s good because
you can have a more precise idea of how the parts will be in actual utilization. Thus, you can
explore and confirm if you have the right material.

Benefits of Rapid Tooling

Here are the other benefits of rapid tooling

It provides an opportunity for innovation

Because rapid tooling eliminates the use of conventional tooling, it initiates up a new range of
opportunities for improvements. Traditional prototyping takes a long time because it needs
making the prototype tooling and its components to exact the tolerances. In rapid prototyping,
the designers can conceive complex geometries that will be impossible to develop in
conventional prototyping too.

Time-saving
Rapid tooling is time-saving because it eliminates the need to produce molds, patterns, and
special tools that you used in conventional tooling. Because of this, rapid tooling shortened the
time between the initial idea and evaluation.
The resulting prototypes are accurate and readily accessible for testing the forms, features,
usability, and performance. Its designers can also modify the product based on the feedback. A
fast turnaround can help the company to obtain a competitive edge to bring new products into the
market.

Cost Savings
Another benefit of rapid tooling is the cost savings. The part produced in rapid tooling is
synonymous with full-scale production. You can use these parts for impact and stress testing.
With the results from testing, you can determine the changes needed before going into an
expensive tooling process.

Applications of Rapid Tooling

There are many applications for rapid tooling, and these applications will continue to grow
because of the development of new procedures. Here are some of them:
The making of molds – both metallic and non-metallic molds can be made through rapid tooling.
The making of casting shapes and cores – SLS application is the latest technology invented in
sand casting shapes and cores.
The electrodes for EDM, making of marking stamps, production of hybrid patterns for casting,
and producing splintering tools are some of the applications of rapid tooling.
There are many reasons why you should consider rapid tooling. It is a low cost, quick and
effective way that will allow you to market parts faster. The cost advantage is the most useful
because it will enable market testing, which is suitable for low volume production.

Development of Medical Devices and Instrumentations

Other important applications of the prototyping technology are in the development of medical
devices and instrumentations. Medical instruments that have been upgraded using the 3D
technology include surgical fasteners, scalpels, retractors, display systems, among many others.
Besides the designing of the medical devices, the prototyping technology is also used in the
manufacturing of these devices. Devices that need to be specifically individualized for a
particular patient are the candidates of the additive technologies.
Most hearing aid devices are designed using the stereolithography or the selective laser sintering.
Other areas that are adapting the rapid prototyping technology is the replacement of teeth.
Some drug dosage forms are also designed by the use of these technology. Especially the dosage
forms that are difficult to design using any other method.
Tablets having a sustained drug release are also being manufacture using the rapid prototyping
technology. The new technology has improved the safety of drugs to patients by minimizing the
adverse drug reactions that may arise.

Application in the Manufacture of Prostheses and Implants

Rapid prototyping plays a crucial role when it comes to implantations and use of prostheses.
Through the technology, prostheses that have been specifically designed for a particular patient
are now available. Patients whose requirement is outside the standard size or those who require
special treatments can now get some customized prostheses that fits them at an affordable cost.
Rapid prototyping and computed tomography technologies utilize techniques, such as X-rays and
NMRI, and enable the transfer of data generated to be used as the input data for the rapid
prototyping process. A lot of development have been done to enhance the accuracy,
interpretation, and the translation of the CT scan results. The accuracy of the models generated
from the rapid prototyping systems have also been improved over time.
Various types of rapid prototyping technology have been applied in the various medical uses
with some of them being selected as the standard method. An example of standard method used
for medical purposes is the CT scan used in the hip replacement surgical procedure.
Data from the CT scan is combined with engineering data to join to the bone. The data is then
turned into a plastic model to be applied as an implant for the patient.
Other medical applications of the prototyping technologies is in the replacement of the external
missing organs. In such instances, the remaining organ is scanned into a three-dimensional
image, and the mirror-image of the data acquired is used to build data for the missing organ.

Planning for Surgical Procedures and Other Scientific Applications

Models of complex organs in the body are being developed using the rapid prototyping
techniques. The models are used by surgeons to get the real impression of the structures before a
surgical intervention is performed.
Complex procedures, especially those ones involving the craniofacial and the maxillofacial
surgeries utilize the scientific application. The models are always placed in the surgical rooms
where the procedure is being done by the surgeon.
The most commonly used technology for this application is the stereolithography. The model has
some of the most reliable features, such as the transparency and developments in the color resins,
enable a clear differentiation of tumors and any other foreign growth in the bodies.
Rapid prototyping technology is also used in the manufacture of biologically active implants and
also in tissue engineering. The application involves the use of selective laser sintering of
ceramics.
 UNIT-10
PROCESSING POLYHEDRAL DATA

Polyhedral Compilation
Polyhedral compilation encompasses the compilation techniques that rely on the representation
of programs, especially those involving nested loops and arrays, thanks to parametric
polyhedra 952 or Presburger relations 31, and that exploit combinatorial and geometrical
optimizations on these objects to analyze and optimize the programs. Initially proposed in the
context of compilers-parallelizers, it is now used for a wide range of applications, including
automatic parallelization, data locality optimizations, memory management optimizations,
program verification, communication optimizations, SIMDization, code generation for hardware
accelerators, high-level synthesis, etc. There has been experience in using such techniques in
static compilers, just-in-time compilers, as well as DSL compilers. The polyhedral research
community has a strong academic background, but more and more industry users start to adapt
such technologies as well.
The interest of using polyhedral representations is that they can be manipulated or optimized
with algorithms whose complexity depends on their structure and not on the number of elements
they represent. Furthermore, generic and compact solutions can be designed that depend on
program parameters (e.g., loop bounds, tile sizes, array bounds). In a word, polyhedral
techniques are the symbolic counterpart, for structured loops (but without unrolling them), of
compilation techniques (such as scheduling, lifetime analysis, register allocation) designed for
acyclic control-flow graphs or unstructured loops. Also, compared to optimizations that handle
loops or arrays as a whole, polyhedral techniques can work at the granularity of their elements,
i.e., at the granularity of a loop iteration and instance of a statement (operation), and at the
granularity of an array element

Boundary Representation (B-REP)

boundary representation—often abbreviated as B-rep or BREP—is a method for representing
shapes using the limits. A solid is represented as a collection of connected surface elements,
which define the boundary between interior and exterior points.
A boundary representation of a model comprises topological components
(faces, edges and vertices) and the connections between them, along with geometric definitions
for those components (surfaces, curves and points, respectively). A face is a bounded portion of
a surface; an edge is a bounded piece of a curve and a vertex lies at a point. Other elements are
the shell (a set of connected faces), the loop (a circuit of edges bounding a face) and loop-edge
links (also known as winged edge links or half-edges) which are used to create the edge circuits.
Compared to the constructive solid geometry (CSG) representation, which uses only primitive
objects and Boolean operations to combine them, boundary representation is more flexible and
has a much richer operation set. In addition to the Boolean operations, B-rep has extrusion (or
sweeping), chamfer, blending, drafting, shelling, tweaking and other operations which make use
of these.
The basic method for BREP was developed independently in the early 1970s by both Ian C.
Braid in Cambridge (for CAD) and Bruce G. Baumgart at Stanford (for computer vision). Braid
continued his work with the research solid modeller BUILD which was the forerunner of many
research and commercial solid modelling systems. Braid worked on the commercial
systems ROMULUS, the forerunner of Parasolid, and on ACIS. Parasolid and ACIS are the basis
for many of today's commercial CAD systems.
Following Braid's work for solids, a Swedish team led by Professor Torsten Kjellberg, developed
the philosophy and methods for working with hybrid models, wire-frames, sheet objects
and volumetric models during the early 1980s. In Finland, Martti Mäntylä produced a solid
modelling system called GWB. In the USA Eastman and Weiler were also working on Boundary
Representation and in Japan Professor Fumihiko Kimura and his team at Tokyo University also
produced their own B-rep modelling system.
Initially CSG was used by several commercial systems because it was easier to implement. The
advent of reliable commercial B-rep kernel systems like Parasolid and ACIS, mentioned above,
as well as OpenCASCADE and C3D that were later developed, has led to widespread adoption
of B-rep for CAD.
Boundary representation is essentially a local representation connecting faces, edges and
vertices. An extension of this was to group sub-elements of the shape into logical units
called geometric features, or simply features. Pioneering work was done by Kyprianou in
Cambridge also using the BUILD system and continued and extended by Jared and others.
Features are the basis of many other developments, allowing high-level "geometric reasoning"
about shape for comparison, process-planning, manufacturing, etc.
Boundary representation has also been extended to allow special, non-solid model types
called non-manifold models. As described by Braid, normal solids found in nature have the
property that, at every point on the boundary, a small enough sphere around the point is divided
into two pieces, one inside and one outside the object.] Non-manifold models break this rule. An
important sub-class of non-manifold models are sheet objects which are used to represent thin-
plate objects and integrate surface modelling into a solid modelling environment.
STL Format
In a nutshell, an STL file stores information about 3D models. This format describes only the
surface geometry of a three-dimensional object without any representation of color, texture or
other common model attributes.
These files are usually generated by a computer-aided design (CAD) program, as an end product
of the 3D modeling process. “.STL” is the file extension of the STL file format.The STL file
format is the most commonly used file format for 3D printing. When used in conjunction with
a 3D slicer, it allows a computer to communicate with 3D printer hardware.
Since its humble beginnings, the STL file format has been adopted and supported by many other
CAD software packages, and today is widely used for rapid prototyping, 3D printing, and
computer-aided manufacturing. Hobbyists and professionals use it alike.The true meaning of the
file extension .STL has been lost to the mists of time.
It’s widely believed to be an abbreviation of the word STereoLithography, though sometimes it
is also referred to as “Standard Triangle Language” or “Standard Tessellation Language”.The
main purpose of the STL file format is to encode the surface geometry of a 3D object. It encodes
this information using a simple concept called “tessellation”.
Tessellation
Tessellation is the process of tiling a surface with one or more geometric shapes such that there
are no overlaps or gaps. If you have ever seen a tiled floor or wall, that is a good real life
example of tessellation.Tessellation can involve simple geometric shapes or very complicated
(and imaginative) shapes.
STL File information
 The STL file format provides two different ways of storing information about the triangular
facets that tile the object surface. These are called the ASCII encoding and the binary encoding.
In both formats, the following information of each triangle is stored:
1. The coordinates of the vertices.
2. The components of the unit normal vector to the triangle. The normal vector should point
outwards with respect to the 3D model.
STL file 3D printed
For 3D printing, the STL file has to be opened in a dedicated slicer. What’s a slicer? It’s a piece
of 3D printing software that converts digital 3D models into printing instructions for your 3D
printer to create an object.The slicer chops up your STL file into hundreds (sometimes
thousands) of flat horizontal layers based on the settings you choose and calculates how much
material your printer will need to extrude and how long it will take to do it.
All of this information is then bundled up into a GCode file, the native language of your 3D
printer. Slicer settings do have an impact the quality of your print so it’s important to have the
right software and settings to get you the best quality print possible.
Once the GCode has been uploaded to your 3D printer, the next stage is for those separate two-
dimensional layers to be reassembled as a three-dimensional object on your print-bed. This is
done by depositing a succession of thin layers of plastics, metals, or composite materials, and
building up the model one layer at a time.
The STL file format is not the only format used in 3D printing. There are over 30 file formats for
3D printing. Most important is the OBJ file format, which can store color and texture profiles.
Another option the is Polygon file format (PLY), which was originally used for storing 3D
scanned objects.
More recently, there have been efforts to launch a new file type by The 3MF Consortium, which
is proposing a new 3D printing file format called 3MF. They claim it will streamline and
improve the 3D printing process.
To implement it, Microsoft has partnered up companies like Autodesk, HP, and Shapeways to
make their vision a reality. More details on the 3MF Consortium can be read on their website,
together with preliminary documentation about the 3MF file type on their GitHub page. It’s far
too early to say whether this will become widely adopted, however.
Advantages and disadvantages of STL file format
Since there are many 3D printing file formats, the obvious question is : which one should you
use for your prints? The answer, as it turns out, depends a lot on your use case.
When not to use an STL file-As we saw earlier, the STL file format cannot store additional
information such as color, material etc. of the facets or triangles. It only stores information about
the vertices and the normal vector. This means that if you want to use multiple colors or multiple
materials for your prints, then the STL file format is not the right choice. The OBJ format is a
popular format enjoying good support which has a way to specify color, material etc. Therefore,
this is the right choice for this task.
When to use an STL file-On the other hand, if you want to print with a single color or material,
which is most often the case, then STL is better than OBJ since it is simpler, leading to smaller
file sizes and faster processing.
Other advantages of the STL file format
Universal: Another big advantage of the STL file format is that it is universal and supported by
nearly all 3D printers. This cannot be said for the OBJ format, even though it enjoys reasonable
adoption and support as well. The VRML, AMF and 3MF formats are not widely supported at
this point of time.
Mature ecosystem: Most 3D printable models you can find on the internet are in the STL file
format. The existence of this ecosystem, combined with STL-based software investments made
by 3D printer manufacturers, has given rise to a large user-base that’s heavily invested in the
format. This means there’s plenty of third party software dealing with STL files, which is not the
case with the other file formats. Some disadvantages of the STL file format
There are some glaring disadvantages to using STL as well. As the fidelity of printing processes
embraces micron-scale resolution, the number of triangles required to describe smooth curved
surfaces can result in massive file sizes. It’s also impossible to include metadata (such as
authorship and copyright information) in an STL file.
 UNIT-11
INTRODUCTION TO SOFTWARE FOR RP

Software Prototype
Software prototyping is the activity of creating prototypes of software applications, i.e.,
incomplete versions of the software program being developed. It is an activity that can occur
in software development and is comparable to prototyping as known from other fields, such
as mechanical engineering or manufacturing.
A prototype typically simulates only a few aspects of, and may be completely different from, the
final product.
Prototyping has several benefits: the software designer and implementer can get valuable
feedback from the users early in the project. The client and the contractor can compare if the
software made matches the software specification, according to which the software program is
built. It also allows the software engineer some insight into the accuracy of initial project
estimates and whether the deadlines and milestones proposed can be successfully met. The
degree of completeness and the techniques used in prototyping have been in development and
debate since its proposal in the early 1970s

The purpose of a prototype is to allow users of the software to evaluate developers' proposals for
the design of the eventual product by actually trying them out, rather than having to interpret and
evaluate the design based on descriptions. Software prototyping provides an understanding of the
software's functions and potential threats or issues. Prototyping can also be used by end users to
describe and prove requirements that have not been considered, and that can be a key factor in
the commercial relationship between developers and their clients. Interaction design in particular
makes heavy use of prototyping with that goal.
This process is in contrast with the 1960s and 1970s monolithic development cycle of building
the entire program first and then working out any inconsistencies between design and
implementation, which led to higher software costs and poor estimates of time and cost. [citation
needed]
The monolithic approach has been dubbed the "Slaying the (software) Dragon" technique,
since it assumes that the software designer and developer is a single hero who has to slay the
entire dragon alone. Prototyping can also avoid the great expense and difficulty of having to
change a finished software product.
The practice of prototyping is one of the points Frederick P. Brooks makes in his 1975 book The
Mythical Man-Month and his 10-year anniversary article "No Silver Bullet".
An early example of large-scale software prototyping was the implementation of NYU's Ada/ED
translator for the Ada programming language.[3] It was implemented in SETL with the intent of
producing an executable semantic model for the Ada language, emphasizing clarity of design and
user interface over speed and efficiency. The NYU Ada/ED system was the first validated Ada
implementation, certified on April 11, 1983.[4]

The process of prototyping involves the following steps]

1. Identify basic requirements
Determine basic requirements including the input and output information desired. Details,
such as security, can typically be ignored.
2. Develop initial prototype
 The initial prototype is developed that includes only user interfaces. (See Horizontal
Prototype, below)
3. Review
The customers, including end-users, examine the prototype and provide feedback on
potential additions or changes.
4. Revise and enhance the prototype
Using the feedback both the specifications and the prototype can be improved.
Negotiation about what is within the scope of the contract/product may be necessary. If
changes are introduced then a repeat of steps #3 and #4 may be needed.

SOLID VIEW
SolidView Software from Stratasys Direct Manufacturing lets anyone view, measure, mark-up, and
communicate 3D and 2D designs and assemblies using a standard Windows PC. SolidView's
intuitive user interface makes it ideal for rapid prototyping, reverse engineering, and general view
and mark-up applications. Extensive cross-sectioning and measurement features make it easy to
identify and document design changes. Automatic slide record and playback, along with a complete
suite of mark-up tools enable full 3D communication of complex designs and assemblies. With
SolidView's exclusive publishing capabilities you can even send a no-cost 2D/3D player along with
your designs. SolidView adds instant value to your existing CAD data by allowing everyone
involved in the product development process-engineering, manufacturing, purchasing, Quality
Assurance, suppliers, marketing and sales and even customers-to share the design data on their
Windows PC.SolidView reads the following 3D and 2D formats: SLDPRT, SLDASM, TL, VRML,
OBJ, DXF, CGM, HPGL, HPGL2, TIFF, GIF, BMP,Options for IGES and VDA import, as well as
network licensing are also available.
SOFTWARE MAGICS
Magics rapid prototyping software enables you to import a wide variety of CAD formats and to
export STL files ready for rapid prototyping, tooling and manufacturing. Its applications include
repairing and optimizing 3D models; analyzing parts; making process-related design changes on
your STL files; designing fixtures; documenting your projects; production planning and much
more.