Rapid tooling approaches for small lot production of sheet-metal parts

Using Rapid Prototyping Techniques (RPTs) like Stereolithography or Selecti ve Laser Sintering, the automotive industry produces plastic parts for prot otypes faster and cheaper compared to the techniques used up to now. As a c onsequence of this process, the automotive industry increasingly demands to have sheet-metal parts also earlier than now at their disposal. This paper deals with rapid prototyping (RP) process chains to manufacture large shee t-metal forming tools. It gives an overview of technically possible solutio ns. After that, the paper deals more in detail with two of the approaches, namely layer milling and resin casting. It describes these manufacturing me thods and presents the result of a case study which compares the approaches with the actually used production method. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. A ll rights reserved.