The use of RPT in Injection Moulds for low and very low Production Series: A case-study analysis

Paulo Miguel Nogueira Peças; Elsa Maria Pires; Inês Esteves; A.S. Pouzada; A.J. Pontes

Key information

Authors:

Paulo Miguel Nogueira Peças (Paulo Miguel Nogueira Peças); Elsa Maria Pires (Elsa Maria Pires Henriques); Inês Esteves (Inês Esteves Ribeiro); A.S. Pouzada; A.J. Pontes

Published in

October 2008

Abstract

The rapid development and production of new plastics products is a timely topic in the industry and directly related to the manufacturing of their moulds. These must be cheaper and quickly made available. There is also an increasing demand for small series of plastic parts due to the progressively shorter product life cycle of customised products. This trend demands for technological solutions able to reduce the manufacturing cost and delivery time of the moulds, without compromising their precision and complexity. Rapid Prototyping and Tooling technologies (RPT) are intimately linked with this new business context. Nonetheless it is important to understand the economic advantages of RPT in the mould manufacturing process relatively to the conventional methods. This paper reports on two cases studies chosen to demonstrate the importance of the RPT in mouldmaking. One case study compares a mould with the moulding surfaces obtained by metal spraying with another produced by HSM of aluminium. The other case study compares the performance of several core moulding blocks produced by various RPT routes. The case-studies are analysed using a comprehensive cost model able to calculate the costs incurred in each solution during the life cycle stages of the moulds.