Int J Adv Manuf Technol (2003) 21:469475

Ownership and Copyright

2003 Springer-Verlag London Limited
Rapid Manufacture of Metal Tooling by Rapid Prototyping
Z. Shan, Y. Yan, R. Zhang, Q. Lu and L. Guan
Center for Laser Rapid Forming, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing, PR China
As the race to launch a product successfully into the market
increases in speed, the drive to reduce metal tooling lead time
will become more important. Time reduction for fabricating
metal tools depends on fast, efcient, and exible manufactur-
ing processes that dramatically reduce lead times while not
sacricing mechanical properties. A novel process of rapid
tooling, non-baking of ceramic moulding, was studied. It uses
a casting mould made from ceramic slurry and rapid prototyp-
ing to form a metal tool. It provides a quick, accurate, and
relatively cost-effective route for producing metal parts or
tools. The process and key technologies are analysed in detail.
The process has been used in the automotive, consumer pro-
ducts, casting, and toy industries. Applications show that the
total costs for new products can be reduced by as much as
4060%, and lead times can be reduced by 5060%. The
surface roughness is approximately Ra 3.2, and it can be
improved to better that Ra 1.6 by polishing. The dimensional
accuracy relative to size is about 0.1 mm for dimensions less
than 200 mm.
Keywords: Casting; Net shape forming; Non-baking ceramic
mould; Rapid prototyping; Rapid tooling
1. Introduction
New market conditions require faster product development and
reduced time to market. They also demand higher quality,
greater efciency, and lower cost and the ability to meet the
technical requirements of the manufactured products. Creating
tooling for prototype and production components represents
one of the most time-consuming and costly phases in the
development of new products. It is particularly problematic for
low-volume products or rapidly changing high-volume products
[1,2]. The emergence of rapid prototyping (RP) technology has
caused great changes in rapid tooling (RT). Many different
kinds of RT processes have been used for various applications
Correspondence and offprint requests to: Mr Z. Shan, The Centre
for Laser Rapid Forming, Department of Mechanical Engineering,
Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, PR China.
E-mail: shanzhongde@mails.tsinghua.edu.cn
as rapid RT brings many benets to industry [3,4]. Table 1
contrasts RT and conventional tooling. The main benets of
RT are reduced lead times, parts in desired materials, low-risk
design/tool changes, improved product quality, earlier testing,
and more iterations in less time, avoidance of early nancial
commitment, timely product introduction, and increased marked
share and prots.
The rapid tooling goal is to produce complex parts quickly
of the required accuracy and quality, so it can be used in
concurrent engineering. The RT processes can be classied as
soft tooling, rm tooling, and hard tooling, according to the
tooling cycle life. These tooling processes can be divided into
direct tooling and indirect tooling according to the manufactur-
ing process. Each RT process has its applications and short-
comings. At present, the indirect tooling processes have many
more applications than direct tooling processes because of
their dimensional exibility, accuracy, strength, and range of
materials. The direct metal tooling methods are usually used
to provide a near net shape of the required tool [5]. Direct
metal laser sintering fabricates metal tools directly from CAD
data. The process is popular in rapid direct tooling. It could
provide metal tools with very ne detail, but the sintered parts
are relatively soft, rough, and porous. The experience and skill
of the operator plays an important role in producing a good
part, and a new material system has to be further developed
in order to produce a better strength tool [6]. It is very difcult
to manufacture large metal tools.
Although direct manufacturing of metal tools by RP is not
well developed, indirect methods have been used and shown
to be feasible through the combination of RP and metal casting.
Although application in mass production is not practical, this
kind of technology is very suitable for one-off or low-volume
production [4]. Rapid production is the combination of RP and
the casting processes. Many kinds of precision casting process
can be used to fabricate RT, such as precision sand casting,
the evaporative pattern casting (EPC), the vacuum sealed pro-
cess (V-process), plaster mould casting, ceramic mould casting,
and investment casting. The different processes are compared
in Table 2. The ceramic casting, sand casting, and the V
processes are applicable for medium and large dies made of
various alloys. Plaster casting is applicable for medium size
tools made of aluminium alloys. Lost form and investment
casting are suitable for medium and small dies.
470 Z. Shan et al.
Table 1. Contrast between RT and conventional tooling.
Item Rapid tooling Conventional tooling
Fabrication time and cost Not affected by complexity Affected by complexity
Accuracy and surface nish Good accuracy and excellent surface nish Highly accuracy and excellent surface nish
Concerns over tool modications Few concerns A few concerns
Driving mode Direct CAD use Indirect CAD use
Tooling life Small or medium volume capability High-volume capability
Tooling types Rapid soft, bridge, hard tools Hard tools
Table 2. Comparison of different casting processes.
Casting process Dimensional Surface Size limitations Intricacy
accuracy roughness (Ra)
Investment CT46 0.83.2 Small and middle Complicated
Plaster CT46 0.81.6 Small and middle Complicated
Lost CT57 1.66.3 All Complicated
Sand CT58 6.312.5 All Medium
Ceramic CT46 0.83.2 All Medium
Vacuum CT57 1.63.2 Large Medium
Many case studies of different RP processes and casting
techniques have proved to be successful. There are many
combinations in which the approach is satisfactory. Each kind
of RP process can fabricate prototypes with the specic kind
of materials, which will require the corresponding casting
technique to provide the conversion from prototypes to metal
parts. It is not always practical for any kind of RP technique
to combine with any kind of casting process directly. Some
paths need transition steps and many of them need improve-
ment of quality.
It is an acceptable way to fabricate large metal tools quickly
and at low cost, especially used in automobile manufacture by
combining RP and the ceramic casting process. Ceramic mould
casting has been used in the casting industry for many years,
but a considerable range of ring temperatures, from 300 to
1300C, is recommended in the literature [7], and 68 h are
required to bake the ceramic mould. It is unlikely that any
substantial improvement in strength will be obtained at sintering
temperatures below 1000C. Slightly oxidising conditions are
recommended when ring moulds to encourage the burning of
residual volatile substances. Many composite moulds present
their own difculties, with radiant heating in tunnel furnaces
being preferred to re the ceramic material without excessively
heating the backing material. However, the moulds are often
destroyed or distorted by the different coefcients of thermal
conductivity among the ceramic material, the backing material
and the metal sand box.
A novel process of rapid tooling, involving non-baking
ceramic moulding based on RP is reported in this paper,
which uses a casting moulded from ceramic slurry and rapid
prototyping to form a metal tool. It provides a quick, accurate,
and relatively cost-effective route for producing large metal
parts or tools. The process and key technologies are analysed.
2. The Rapid Metal Tooling Process
Description
The rapid metal tooling process data is shown in Fig. 1.
First, a 3D solid model is created. The CAD data can either
be created by using CAD software or directly from 3D probes.
Many CAD software systems can be used to design the mould,
such as Solidworks, Pro/Engineer, and Unigraphics. In this
work, the Solidworks software system is employed to design
the mould. The metal shrink ratio is predicted in the tooling
design stage, so the CAD model can be designed to account
for the shrinkage. The Marc FEM software system is used to
simulate the metal shrinkage ratio.
Secondly, the CAD le is usually converted into an STL
le, and then the STL le is sliced at intervals equal to the
layer thickness. The data le is then used to drive currently
available RP systems such as LOM (SSM), FDM, and SL to
fabricate a physical object directly. The rapid prototype of the
mould is fabricated by using a rapid prototyping system. Many
kinds of RP system can be used to manufacture the master
Fig. 1. The rapid production development system.
Rapid Manufacture of Metal Tooling 471
prototype. The SSM800 (Solid Slice Manufacturing) system
made at Tsinghua University is employed in order to achieve
a smooth nish and good dimensional accuracy. The CAD le
with slice data is fed into the RP system. A carbon dioxide
laser cuts the outline of each separate lm according to the
information for the layer. Layer by layer, the process is
repeated automatically until the pattern is nished. After it is
polished, the pattern can be used to fabricate the metal mould.
The dimensional data of the prototype will be checked to
ensure surface quality. If the prototype is acceptable, a silicon
rubber mould is then made from the prototype. The metal
tooling is then manufactured using the non-baking ceramic
casting process, which is shown in Fig. 2. The RP pattern is
xed on a mould plate (Fig. 2(a)), and then a clay blanket
about 2 mm thick is applied uniformly to the pattern (Fig.
2(b)). The purpose of the clay is only to produce an oversize
cavity in the backing mould. The backing sand mould (Fig.
2(c)) is fabricated and then the pattern is removed (Fig. 2(d)).
The mould is then positioned over the RP pattern (Fig. 2(e)).
If the pattern is not easy to remove, a silicon RTV mould will
be required. The gap between the pattern and the mould is
lled with the ceramic slurry (Fig. 2(f)). After the ceramic
slurry gels (about 1520 min), the pattern must be separated
from the mould (Fig. 2(g)). The mould is immediately heated
by a gasoline torch (Fig. 2(h)). The mould may then be cast
while still hot (Fig. 2(i)). Finally, the metal tooling (Fig. 2(j))
is fabricated from the rapid prototypes.
The advantages of moulds manufactured by this processes
include the following:
Good dimensional stability and low surface roughness.
Good pattern stripping characteristics and mould strength.
Good resistance to thermal shock and spalling and washing.
Low cost and quick.
Fig. 2. The unbaked ceramic mould casting process. (a) RP pattern. (b) Sticky layer. (c) Backing sand mould. (d) Remove the pattern. (e) Put in
RP pattern. (f) Pouring slurry. (g) Remove RP pattern. (h) Torch ceramic mould. (i) Close mould and cast. (j) Finishing.
Non-baking of the ceramic mould.
3. Key Technologies for Rapid Metal
Mould
3.1 Rapid Prototyping Surface Treatment
Prototypes were made using LOM (SSM) and FDM machines.
The prototypes must be polished before they are used as master
patterns in the non-baking ceramic process. Figure 3 shows
the surface roughness relationship between the LOM pattern
and the ceramic mould.
After surface treatment, the prototypes have high surface
roughness and can meet the requirement of tools or parts. On
the other hand, the prototypes can be protected from dampness
and do not deform, split, or curl. The prototypes can usually
be stored for a long time in good condition.
Fig. 3. The surface roughness relationship between the LOM pattern
and the ceramic mould. , before treatment; , after treatment.
472 Z. Shan et al.
3.2 Choice of Mould Materials
Materials for unbaked ceramic moulds must be selected with
care if optimum mould properties are to be obtained, since the
mould materials must be able to withstand the pouring tempera-
ture of the metal alloy used for the tools. The following factors
must be considered:
Proper linear expansion.
Suitable melting point and refractory properties.
Consistent chemical and physical characteristics.
Small gas output and moisture absorption characteristics.
Good particle distribution and size.
Many kinds of refractory materials can be used for the
mould. Table 3 shows the melting points, densities, and linear
expansion coefcients for a selection of mould materials.
Although all the refractory materials (Table 3) can be used
for mould forming, it is very important to choose materials
with a small linear expansion coefcient to increase dimension
accuracy. Cost is another important factor in the materials
selection. The principle materials used in the non-baking
moulding process are mullite and zircon.
3.3 Binders and Mixture Ratio of Hydrolytic
Solution
The most commonly used binders are ethyl silicate [8]. They
are produced by the reaction between silicon tetrachloride and
ethanol at a temperature of 340C. The chemical equation is:
SiCl
4
4C
2
H
5
OH (C
2
H
5
O)
4
Si 4HCl
The molecular structural formulae are
This material has a theoretical silica content of 28.8% wt.
Commercial ethyl silicate binders include silica 32 and silica
40. The main characteristics of silica 32 and silica 40 are
Table 3. Refractory materials and their physical characteristics.
Refractory Chemical Melting Density Linear expansion
materials notation point (C) (g cm
3
) coefcient
(C
1
)
Sillimanite Al
2
O
3
.SiO
2
1800 3.25 3.14.3 10
6
Mullite 3Al
2
O
3
.2SiO
2
1810 3.083.15 5.3 10
6
Corundum Al
2
O
3
2045 3.954.02 8.4 10
6
Fused silica SiO
2
1713 2.65 12.5 10
6
Quartz glass 1710 2.12.2 0.5 10
6
Mullite MgO.Al
2
O
3
2135 3.56 7.6 10
6
Zirconia ZrO
2
2690 5.73 7.210 10
6
Zircon ZrSiO
4
2430 4.74.9 5.1 10
6
Magnesia MgO 2800 3.58 14.17 10
6
given in Table 4. Silica 40 is strongly recommended as the
binder in the non-baking mould process.
The ethyl silicate itself has no bonding properties unless it
is hydrolysed. The reaction is commonly carried out in water
and ethanol using an acid catalyst such as hydrochloric acid
(HCl). The reaction is fairly rapid and highly exothermic and
it forms complex silicic acids that are capable of condensing
to form coherent gels having good bonding properties. The
main chemical reactions are
(C
2
H
5
O)
4
Si 2HCl (C
2
H
5
O)
2
SiCl
2
2C
2
H
5
OH
(C
2
H
5
O)
2
SiCl
2
2H
2
O
(C
2
H
5
O)
2
Si(OH)
2
2HCl
(C
2
H
5
O)
2
Si(OH)
2
2H
2
O SiO
2
2H
2
O 2C
2
H
5
OH
(C
2
H
5
O)
4
Si 2H
2
O SiO
2
4C
2
H
5
OH
Water, ethanol, HCl, and ethyl silicate were mixed in various
proportions and in the proper process sequence as follows.
First, HCl solution is mixed with the proper volume of
distilled water. The sequence is that HCl is decanted into water.
Secondly, the solution of HCl and distilled water is then
decanted into ethyl alcohol and mixed.
Thirdly, silica 40 is slowly put into the solution made from
water, HCL, and ethyl alcohol and the mixture is stirred for
at least 30 min.
The hydrolysed solution must be aged for some time in a
sealed container before it is used, for the hydrolytic decompo-
sition is not sufcient. After storage in a sealed package for
at least 24 h, it may be used to fabricate a ceramic mould.
The variation of the ceramic mould strength with ageing time
of the hydrolysed solution is shown in Fig. 4. With the increase
of the hydrolysed solution ageing time, the hydrolysation reac-
Table 4. Main physical characteristics of silica 32 and silica 40.
Characters SiO
2
Acidity Dynamic Density
Ethyl silicate (%) (HCl%) viscosity (20C g
(20C cm
3
)
mm
2
s
1
)
Silica 40 40.81 0.05 4.0 1.047
Silica 32 30.57 0.05 0.97 0.944
Rapid Manufacture of Metal Tooling 473
Fig. 4. Mould strength variation with ageing time. , normal tempera-
ture strength; , retained strength; , high-temperature strength.
tion will continue until the hydrolysed solution reaches a
uniform state. If the ageing time is short, coarse cracking could
be produced easily on the ceramic mould surface, but if the
ageing time is too long, the viscosity of the hydrolysed solution
will increase and its uidity will be insufcient. A long ageing
time will result in the hydrolysed solution nally becoming
gelatinous, and it will be useless. The variation of the shelf
life of the hydrolysed solution with the storage temperature is
illustrated in Fig. 5. The shelf life of the hydrolysed solution
is about 10 days at room temperature. At high ambient tempera-
tures, the hydrolysed solution should be stored in a refrigerator.
The main composition of the hydrolysed solution is as
follows: if the weight of silica 40 is 100 g, the hydrolysed
solution will require 13 g distilled water, 125 g alcohol and
1.8 ml HCl.
3.4 Acceleration Gelling Process
The gelling rate of silica binders mixed with ceramic powder
is a function of many factors, such as temperature, the compo-
nents of the hydrolytic solution, the pH of the slurry, etc. The
pH of the slurry is particularly signicant. Gelling is most
rapid between pH 5 and 6 or at pH below 1.0. The pH can
be adjusted by adding acid solutions including H
2
SO
4
and HCl
or alkaline solutions such as NaOH, Ca(OH)
2
, MgO, CaO,
Mg(OH)
2
, Na
2
CO
3
, etc. After consideration of various factors,
a mixture of Ca(OH)
2
and MgO is recommended for the non-
baking ceramic mould process.
3.5 Pattern Drawing Process
The separation of the pattern from the mould can be a source
of dimensional inaccuracies in most casting processes, so it
Fig. 5. Shelf-life variation for different storage temperatures.
requires particular care and attention in the rapid precision
mould process. A hydraulic pattern drawing machine is rec-
ommended for the process.
In this process, RP can be used directly as a pattern if the
parts are not too complex to remove from the sand mould,
but, soft tooling will be required if the pattern cannot be
removed from the mould. One of the most popular tooling
applications for RP is the production of room temperature
vulcanising (RTV) silicone rubber moulds. Silicone is a versa-
tile material that can be moulded around a master pattern to
produce a cavity. Silicone rubber tooling provides fast, inexpen-
sive moulds, excellent part cosmetics, and the option of using
multiple materials.
The silicone materials have excellent natural release charac-
teristics, provide good resistance to most chemicals, reproduce
intricate details, resist tearing with repeated use, are exible
enough to reduce demoulding and stress problems, work in a
wide range of service temperatures, and create good quality
reproductions. Using silicone mould making materials, tough-
but-exible moulds can be created to reproduce intricate details
and deliver high-quality replicas with high dimensional accu-
racy.
The optimum drawing pattern time is when the coating has
enough strength and hardness and is also in the elastic con-
dition. The pattern should be extracted from the sand mould
in 3040 min.
3.6 Torching Process
After the RP pattern has been separated from the mould,
different torching processes can signicantly inuence the qual-
ity of the nished mould. The inuences of the torching
process on the dimensional accuracy are shown in Fig. 6. The
inuence of the torching process on the mould strength is
illustrated in Fig. 7. Torching immediately following pattern
stripping provides the best dimensional accuracy and mould
strength, which can be seen from Figs 6 and 7, so torching
immediately is strongly recommended for the rapid metal
tooling process.
The main reason why the best dimensional accuracy and
mould strength can be obtained is that it is impossible for
some organic solvents in the surface coating to vapourise
quickly at large scale if the coating is torched immediately
Fig. 6. Variation of the mould dimensions for various torching pro-
cesses.
474 Z. Shan et al.
Fig. 7. Variation of the mould strength for various torching processes.
after the separation of the pattern from the mould. A great
deal of organic solvent burns off quickly, so the strength of
surface coating can rapidly rise by removing organic solvent
and by the heat effect. Although any residual organic
materials in the mould will continue to be given off, the
exterior surface will reach high strength and rigidity. It is
advantageous to increase the dimensional precision and the
mould strength.
The torching time need only be about 2035 min after
drawing the pattern from the mould, so if a rapid prototype
has been fabricated, the metal tool can be manufactured
in 10 h.
4. Example: Rapid Tooling of Alloy Iron
for Automotive Cover Parts
The SSM (layered object manufacturing) process involves the
manufacturing of 3D physical models by laminating layers of
paper material coated with polyethylene. This project used a
SSM-800 system which can be used to fabricate patterns up
to a volume of 800 550 500 mm
3
. Figure 8(a) shows
the RP punch pattern with dimensions 575 50 80 mm
3
(LWH), and Fig. 8(c) shows the RP die pattern with
dimensions 575 220 115 mm
3
(L W H) as a master
pattern. Figs 8(b) and 8(d) show the corresponding metal
Fig. 8. Rapid metal tooling of automative sheet metal parts. (a) SSM punch pattern. (b) Metal punch. (c) SSM die pattern. (d) Metal die.
tools made from iron alloy to fabricate the automotive sheet
metal parts.
5. Conclusions
Our goal was to develop a rapid metal tooling method from
an RP pattern for use in the die and mould industry. The
metal tools were fabricated using RP combining the ceramic
mould casting processes, the mechanical properties and
dimensional accuracy of which can meet the technical
requirements.
A wide range of metal alloy tools can be fabricated quickly
using the process. The alloys range from carbon and low alloy
steels, stainless steels, and tool steels to aluminium-based
alloys and copper-based alloys. Although small parts can be
manufactured, the main objective is middle-sized parts and
large parts. The lead times and tooling costs are reduced. Metal
tools can be produced in several days, e.g. one to two days
after the RP patterns are prepared.
The surface nish of the metal tools fabricated by this
process is inuenced by several factors such as the RP pattern
surface roughness, refractory grading, and metal and mould
temperatures. Finer refractory grades give better RP pattern
surfaces, which results in improved metal tool surface rough-
ness. Generally, the metal die and punch can be manufactured
with surface roughness of better than 3.2 m. The attainable
dimensional accuracy can reach CT46.
The continued development of CAD systems, RP systems,
FEM systems, RT systems, and quality checking and feedback
systems will produce signicant improvements in the quality
of dies and moulds in the future, leading many more success-
ful applications.
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