Experimental examination of the applicability of additive technologies in the field of rapid tooling - injection molding

Abstract

In this paper, an experimental examination/analyzing applicability and machinability of the polymer material’s core and cavity formed using additive technology (rapid tooling) was conducted. Achieving the price reduction of the final product, as well as the price of the mold for plastic injection through the introduction of rapid tooling injection molding can be applied, not only to mass production, but also to small series production. This research is limited to obtaining plane parts of simpler geometry from polypropylene polymer material. Obtained results showed that, at this point, it is not directly possible to completely produce a core and cavity only through additive technologies. In order to achieve some tolerances at specific places, it is still necessary that the core and cavities are machined with conventional methods. On the other hand, it turned out that by using a polymer core and cavity, it is possible to produce a smaller series of the parts.