Rapid tooling is a manufacturing strategy that utilizes fast prototyping strategies combines with traditional tooling techniques to create parts and products quickly and efficiently.
This objective of rapid tooling is to streamline the production process by making it economical and improve efficiency. In this process, the molded parts are fabricated from CAD data allowing parts and products to be molded faster than the intended time frame.
Rapid tooling is one of the most widely used strategies when it comes to the manufacture of injected molded parts. The production technique suits both large- and small-scale production no wonder it’s a hit for most manufacturers and producers.
The Need for Rapid Tooling Services
Molds created from rapid tooling are the best method for prototyping parts especially for large molded parts before large-scale production commences. The part and product of a tool created through rapid prototyping is the insert along with cavity and core, and the side actions. Based on the type of rapid prototyping, it is possible to get a huge number of cycles out of a tool.
Here are three main services used in rapid tooling during the prototyping process:
3D printing:
This technique plays a key role when it comes to plastic injection molding. Thanks to the emerging trends of modern manufacturing techniques and evolution which enables the addictive manufacturing machines to print plastic injection molds. There is a huge number of benefits of 3D printing.
Using 3D printing allows the creation of molds quickly. One thing that should be noted is that the whole process is quite inexpensive in comparison to printing. This allows rapid tooling to create parts and products of complex shapes and geometries.
But there are no exceptional part tolerances in this 3D printing technology. That means it is possible to create any prototype but when it comes to volume this is not the choice.
Laser sintering:
The entire process is known as sintering. When it comes to usage of traditional machines metals are not used as raw materials when rapid tooling, however for conventional tooling machines you can also use plastic injection molds. This is done through the fusion of metals to form molds in a process known as sintering
The whole process is done by spraying powdered metal cloud to laser beam allowing it to create molds with the desired shape with the laser. What’s impressive about this process is the fact that it’s compatible with a wide variety of metals such as steel, cobalt, titanium, and chromium.
The fact that all products from Rapid tooling China are made of metals means that they have a higher chance of withstanding heat transfer. So, they are well-equipped and robust. They also have a higher heat resistance as well as having the ability to withstand pressure as well as higher ejection capabilities.
When using Rapid tooling, one should be open to all possibilities; the process is not as fast as you’d hope but they are better compared to other production techniques. Some products also require finishing services thus may ending up costing more time.