Flexible Attachment Designs for Rapid Tooling: A Contribution to Greater Design Freedom within Pin-type Moulding, Spatially Curved CFRP Panels

Form flexible moulding by pin-type tooling enables the mass-customised production of spatially curved panels. As the design freedom of such panels is limited to the arrangement density of pins, more compactly arranged pins come to mind. However, increasing this density is limited since the increase in the number of pins and thereby also the mould costs is disproportionately large. To manufacture panels with filigree geometries while using lower pin arrangement densities, attaching rapid tooling moulds is useful. Since such moulds are to be attached on uneven interpolation surfaces, novel flexible and non-destructive (dis-)attachment designs of rapid tooling attachments were developed and investigated. The results enable greater design freedom within pin-type moulding, spatially curved panels.