Manufacturing production tooling using metal laminations

Lastform, a three year EPSRC (IMI) programme, has investigated metallic lam inating techniques to produce large-scale production capable tooling. This work is intended as an overview of the research and development performed a t the University of Warwick's Warwick manufacturing Group. The programme wa s a collaboration between seven industrial partners and three universities with each university having a discreet area of research. The focus at Warwi ck was to establish robust methods of joining metal sheets to form tools fo r different production processes. Bonding mediums, test parts for process e valuation, sample tools and production tools are described. The advantages of metal laminating for different processes are evaluated. Results include reduced lead-time and cost savings and enhanced processing capability by th e use of conformable heating or cooling channels.