TY - JOUR

T1 - Potential of Rapid Tooling in Rapid Heat Cycle Molding

T2 - A Review

AU - Huzaim, Nurul Hidayah Mohamad

AU - Rahim, Shayfull

AU - Musa, Luqman

AU - Abdellah, Abdellah El-hadj

AU - Abdullah, Mohd Mustafa Al Bakri

AU - Rennie, Allan

AU - Rahman, Rozyanti

AU - Garus, Sebastian

AU - Błoch, Katarzyna

AU - Sandu, Andrei Victor

AU - Vizureanu, Petrica

AU - Nabiałek, Marcin

PY - 2022/5/23

Y1 - 2022/5/23

N2 - Rapid tooling (RT) and additive manufacturing (AM) are currently being used in several parts of industry, particularly in the development of new products. The demand for timely deliveries of low-cost products in a variety of geometrical patterns is continuing to increase year by year. Increased demand for low-cost materials and tooling, including RT, is driving the demand for plastic and rubber products, along with engineering and product manufacturers. The development of AM and RT technologies has led to significant improvements in the technologies, especially in testing performance for newly developed products prior to the fabrication of hard tooling and low-volume production. On the other hand, the rapid heating cycle molding (RHCM) injection method can be implemented to overcome product surface defects generated by conventional injection molding (CIM), since the surface gloss of the parts is significantly improved, and surface marks such as flow marks and weld marks are eliminated. The most important RHCM technique is rapid heating and cooling of the cavity surface, which somewhat improves part quality while also maximizing production efficiencies. RT is not just about making molds quickly; it also improves molding productivity. Therefore, as RT can also be used to produce products with low-volume production, there is a good potential to explore RHCM in RT. This paper reviews the implementation of RHCM in the molding industry, which has been well established and undergone improvement on the basis of different heating technologies. Lastly, this review also introduces future research opportunities regarding the potential of RT in the RHCM technique.

AB - Rapid tooling (RT) and additive manufacturing (AM) are currently being used in several parts of industry, particularly in the development of new products. The demand for timely deliveries of low-cost products in a variety of geometrical patterns is continuing to increase year by year. Increased demand for low-cost materials and tooling, including RT, is driving the demand for plastic and rubber products, along with engineering and product manufacturers. The development of AM and RT technologies has led to significant improvements in the technologies, especially in testing performance for newly developed products prior to the fabrication of hard tooling and low-volume production. On the other hand, the rapid heating cycle molding (RHCM) injection method can be implemented to overcome product surface defects generated by conventional injection molding (CIM), since the surface gloss of the parts is significantly improved, and surface marks such as flow marks and weld marks are eliminated. The most important RHCM technique is rapid heating and cooling of the cavity surface, which somewhat improves part quality while also maximizing production efficiencies. RT is not just about making molds quickly; it also improves molding productivity. Therefore, as RT can also be used to produce products with low-volume production, there is a good potential to explore RHCM in RT. This paper reviews the implementation of RHCM in the molding industry, which has been well established and undergone improvement on the basis of different heating technologies. Lastly, this review also introduces future research opportunities regarding the potential of RT in the RHCM technique.

KW - rapid tooling

KW - rapid heat cycle molding

KW - additive manufacturing

KW - injection molding process

U2 - 10.3390/ma15103725

DO - 10.3390/ma15103725

M3 - Journal article

VL - 15

JO - Materials

JF - Materials

SN - 1996-1944

IS - 10

M1 - 3725

ER -