Rapid Sheet Metal Manufacturing. Part 2: Direct Rapid Tooling

Applications of laser assisted metal rapid tooling process to manufacture of molding & forming tools — state of the art

“…81 Cheah et al have studied on the formability and the economical efficiency of embossing tools, which are manufactured from the SLS process, for aluminum sheets with the thickness of 1.5 and 2.0 mm. 85 They have demonstrated that the direct rapid tooling using SLS process as an economical approach to develop the prototype of the sheet metal forming tools. Ahn et al have investigated into a symmetrical development process, which integrates the CAD/CAE with DMLS and DMT processes, for the deep drawing tools with a small size.…”

“…1,16,81,[84][85][86] Research on the application of laser assisted metal rapid tooling process to the forming tool have been focused on a direct fabrication of sheet metal forming tools. 39,81,[83][84][85][86] As underscored the importance of the eco-friendly manufacturing process and tool recycling, new application area of the laser assisted metal rapid tooling process to the forming tools has been deduced in recent years. 8,9,11,38,79,87 …”

“…19. [3][4][5]8,9,16,35,39,79,[83][84][85][86][87] Kuzman et al have researched into the integrated approach for the production of the active deep drawing tool parts using the finite element method and the DMLS process. In this research, they have reported that new powder types and the suitable system technique, which can give higher mechanical properties and tool wear resistance, should be developed.…”

Selective laser sintering: A qualitative and objective approach

“…This process has also been used in injection molding, 18 rapid tooling for electrical discharge machining electrodes, 19,20 polymer molding, 21 sand casting molds, 22 zirconia molds for titanium castings, 23 bio-medical applications, 23-25 leadzirconate-titanate (PZT) parts, 26 and sheet metal parts. 27 In the past, the status of SLS has been reviewed relative to other rapid prototyping methods, 1 laser sintering of metals along with the role of phosphorous in the binding mechanism, 28 postprocessing of laser-sintered parts, 29 direct selective laser sintering of metals, 30 the progress of rapid tooling using this method, 6 and the materials used and their suitability for being processed. 31 However, a substantial amount of work has been reported after publication of these earlier reviews warranting the need for another comprehensive, integrated, and referenced approach.…”

Structural analysis on the arc spraying rapid tooling for sheet forming

“…The RT techniques including laser sintering, 3-D printing, and arc spraying have been applied to investment casting, die casting, and so on [2][3][4]. Rapid sheet metal fabrication is a closed-loop process for making products which uses advanced computer-aided techniques and computer-controlled machines to produce RT directly or indirectly [5,6]. Nakagawa summarized some sheet metal forming die techniques required for trial and small lot production, such as laminated tool, low-melting-point alloy tool, concrete die, and dieless forming [7], but arc spraying rapid tooling (ASRT) was not mentioned.…”