Rapid manufacturing and epoxy rapid tooling for metal parts gain support Speeding manufacturers' time-to-market with epoxy rapid tooling manufacturing and rapid tooling techniques remains an elusive goal.

epoxy rapid tooling article

Originally a tool for designers and a replacement for the model shop, rapid technology today is producing larger, stronger parts from metal alloys and plastics. As manufacturers get better at making parts and tools quickly, rapid technology has enabled production of metal and plastic parts in small quantities, as well as producing larger components than were possible a few years ago.

Recent advances in approaches for rapid manufacturing, tooling, and rapid prototyping with metal-based materials show promise that may eventually have an impact on the rapid prototyping industry. Defining rapid manufacturing can be difficult, and some longtime rapid prototyping industry observers contend that rapid manufacturing hasn't taken off yet. But that may be about to change, as many rapid prototyping systems are being used successfully in rapid production of end-use parts. To date, some rapid tooling techniques have been successfully deployed in the automotive industry, such as the process developed by the Manufacturing Systems department of Ford Motor Co.'s (Dearborn, MI) Scientific Research Laboratory (see the article "Rapid Tooling Technology From Ford Country" in the November 2001 issue of Manufacturing Engineering.)

Ford has been licensing the technology to companies for producing dies, punches, and other tools by a thermalspray process it developed by which a ceramic master of the working die surface is spray coated with molten metal, then backfilled with
epoxy rapid tooling to create a working die.