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.
The emergence of rapid prototyping over the last 7-8 years has had a revolutionary effect in many companies undertaking new product design. Currently, the emphasis has moved from rapid prototyping to rapid tooling. Use of laminated tooling for sheet metal working has already been proved and some work has also been undertaken to build laminated tooling for moulding plastics. Laminated tooling is relatively rare at the moment and as more tools are built using this technique the benefits and limitations will become more clear.
Laminated tooling is a relatively fast and simple method to make metal tools directly for injection molding or resin transfer molding in the rapid prototyping field. Metal sheets are usually cut, stacked, aligned, and joined. Joining of metal sheets is usually accomplished by brazing or soldering. In the joining process, all the metal sheet layers should be rigidly joined, and thus heat should be applied to the whole volume of the laminate. Therefore, furnace brazing or diffusion bonding processes are considered suitable in laminated tooling.
In this study, a rapid laminated tooling system composed of a CO2 laser, a furnace, and a high-speed milling machine was developed. From the three-dimensional information of a product, slicing into two-dimensional contours was performed and low-carbon steel sheets were cut with the CO2 laser along the paths that were created from the slicing results. The metal sheets were joined by furnace brazing and by dip soldering. Furnace brazing was for relatively high-temperature tooling processes such as injection molding, and dip soldering was for low-temperature tooling processes such as reactive injection molding (RIM). Dip soldering was introduced as a new, simple, and fast joining process of steel laminates. In both joining methods, wetting experiments were performed to ensure the optimal values of the process parameters. Finally, laminate tools were machined with a high-speed milling machine to improve the surface quality.
Well explained. This technology can be-very beneficial for a Mold manufacturer. Please elaborate more on how to install it in a firm.
thank you for your introduction, we don’t have that kind of tooling in our company, but I learned new knowledge from this blog
Thank you to expand my knowledge in mold industry. I am a beginner in mold engineering