Rapid tooling analysis of Stereolithography injection mould tooling

Increasing competition in global markets is exerting intense pressure on companies to trim their product cycles continuously. As delivery times and costs of tools are on a downward trend, the modern tool manufacturer is under pressure to produce tools quickly, accurately and at a lower cost. Reducing the time to produce prototypes is a key to speed up the development of new products. Rapid tooling (RT) with particular regard to injection mould fabrication using rapid prototyping (RP) technology of Stereolithography (SL) may lead to savings in cost and time. In this paper, SL is used to directly build rapid injection mould tools for short run production. SL tools have been evaluated to analyse the maximum number of successful injections and quality of performance. SL epoxy tools were able to resist the injection pressure and temperature and 500 injections were achieved. The tool failure mechanisms during injection are investigated and tool failure either occurs due to excessive flexural stresses, or because of excessive shear stresses.